Off-center pith

[David Utterback]

My brother's downed cherry tree is 22" diameter maximum with the pith decidedly off center. There is a lot of wood in the tree since it is 60 feet to the first major branch. I am concerned about reaction wood for flat lumber that could be harvested. Is there a preferred way to harvest the wood for turning bowls and platters, etc? Thanks!

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Rotate the wood so the pith will be in the center of the pieces you cut, a quick draw here, so you do not cut like the orange line shows, as you would get both compression and tension wood in the piece and it will twist and destorts the turned piece badly, probably splitting because of it.

You can cut like the black lines and you should be OK with that wood as it has equal tension on both sides.

cutting off center pith wood.jpg

[Brice Rogers]

Excellent advice Leo !

[David Utterback]

Thanks, Leo. The offset in your drawing is quite similar to what is in the logs.