Bradford Pear Tree

[Prashun Patel]

My parents had a bradford pear tree felled last week.

Has anyone had any experience working with this kind of wood? Is it worth salvaging and milling?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Shawn, I don't know about using it for flatwork but it sure turns beautifully.

[J. Z. Guest]

You've got nothing to lose Shawn.

[Prashun Patel]

...except a lot of time and $$ to have it rough milled.

[Scott Vigder]

Be glad it felled. I have three surrounding my sunken patio. The fight to keep the flowers, leaves, fruits and seeds out of my drains is never-ending. Last week I took out 9 count 'em NINE snow-shove-fulls of seedlings. About two weeks before, I had between 16-18 shovel-fulls of flower petals, and those are just the ones that fell straight down as many more blew away.

And who can forget that lovely, pungent odor the flowers emit?

[Leo Zick]

ive got tons around my house.
first they look really nice with the flowers. then the fish smell hits you for 3 weeks.
then the flowers fall, blow into my garage so i have to sweep every day.
then the seeds all fall off.
then the pollen pollutes my car
then the winds and rains come and the branches that arent strong enough to hold themselves up crack.

but they look nice in the fall :)

[Prashun Patel]

I don't mind the flower/smell/seeds.
The problem is they're structurally poorly designed. The branches grow too massy to be able to support themselves and too dense to allow wind to penetrate. The tree didn't fall by itself. A huge branch fell by itself leaving the whole tree looking mangled and awkward. This was the 3rd time that happened. So we had to have Ol' Barbero put down.

Is there a 'cheap' way to mill these on site?

[David Epperson]

We dropped one a bit over 2 years ago - 32" dia at the base. Milled 200 to 250 bf of 5/4 lumber from the 14' od nearly straight trunk. It twists a bit while drying, which means I will probably end up using a bridge routing set up rather than a jointer and planer to bring the pieces to thickness because of the short pieces I'll be working with. It is absolutely beautiful wood. For the growth rings to be so far apart due to the fast growing nature of these trees, the grain is surprisingly tight. Not a lot of pore filling to do. The color tends to change on you though. Raw and fresh cut ours was the color of a fresh pork chop - sort of a very pale pink. After drying in the sun for a day or two it will go orange. After a few years of drying and "finished" with a BLO beeswax finish it looks sort of like Cherry.

[David Epperson]

...except a lot of time and $$ to have it rough milled.
I had a portable sawmill cut our up for $0.15 per board foot. So I paid $30 or so for the 200 board foot I got. Took 2 days to do this tree and 750 board foot of Tulip Poplar that my BIL had.

[Prashun Patel]

Thanks all.

[Peter Quadarella]

I have 5 huge ones around the house. I love them, they are amazing when all the flowers bloom at once. I went so far as to have a tree surgeon screw one back together when it was struck by lightning. They also look great for kids to climb in once mine get old enough :).

From what I've heard the wood is nice; I think it's well worth cutting up to make some unique furniture.

[Prashun Patel]

I can't find a portable mill to do it, and my parents won't give me more than a week or so to do the deed.

I also hate not being able to recycle it!!!

[Jim Becker]

Shawn, if you can't get a mill, then at least chunk it up and make it available to turners...that way, it will get used for useful things rather than hit the landfil or go up in smoke in someone's fireplace.

[Dick Strauss]

Shawn,
Try this guy I found on HarvestingUrbanTimber.com. I have no connection to this guy...just trying to help.

Charles Minter
2198 Newark Rd, New London Twp
West Grove, Pa 19390
USA Telephone:610-869-9292 E-mail:cmuntzer@closecall.com

Description
TimberKing B-20 diesel/hydraulic portable mill.
Logs milled to your specs at your site or mine.
Resawing welcome. No job too small or too large.
Service areas are: Southeastern Pa, Maryland, Delaware, Southern New Jersey.

Cell #302-981-0595

[Prashun Patel]

Jim/Dick - THANKS.

Dick, I'll try him.

Jim, how can I make it available to turners? I'd be happy to do that if milling is too costly.

[Dick Strauss]

Shawn
Ring the dinner bell here with a note about free wood and we'll come a-runnin'!

[Paul Johnstone]

Jim/Dick - THANKS.

Dick, I'll try him.

Jim, how can I make it available to turners? I'd be happy to do that if milling is too costly.

Also, I've been told you can call Woodmizer, and they'll give you a list of everyone in your area that has one of their mills..

[Prashun Patel]

Shoot, wish I'da known people were so a-hungered for free wood. I had a 30" diameter beautiful white oak fall in my yard last year that I had no idea what to do with. It's now mulch for about 40 trees in my back yard. Musta been 100 years old.

[Peter Quadarella]

:eek::eek::eek:

Mulch?!? Egads! There's a lot of people that look at a tree like that and see a bunch of chairs and tables. There's also an awful lot of people that look at trees like that and see a big pile of dollar bills ;).

Don't feel bad though, I remember my dad doing similar stuff when I was young and wasn't into woodworking.

[Gary Herrmann]

Pear trees - the aristocrat pear looks a lot like the bradford, but doesn't have the structural weaknesses.

I've worked bradford pear in flatwork (only have two boards left:() and turned it. It does twist when it dries but it is very nice to work - dry or wet.