Mike Turner
Member
- Messages
- 361
- Location
- Laurinburg NC
How do you cut crotches to get the best turning ??
...BTW, depending on where you live, getting the bark off quickly can be important to discourage the buggies and wormies.
I'll pretty much echo Ryan...I try to cut the piece in such a way as to remove the pith from both the trunk and the two branches simultaneously. It's not an exact science, because the pith isn't always consistent. For example, it was impossible to know exactly where the pith was in this piece of elm:
So I made my best guess and cut a slab about 1 1/2" to 2" wide out of the middle, leaving these tow halves:
Here's a similar crotch half, showing where the bowl is hiding:
Here's a random forum post I found elsewhere showing a few pics to illustrate the "cutting a slab out of the middle" part. Now personally, I don't go to nearly the same trouble this guy did, with all the rulers and straight edges and whatnot. I tend to just take a lumber crayon and roughly sketch a few cut lines on the wood, then get after it with the saw.
http://www.worldofwoodforum.com/vb/...h-cherry-wood-and-how-I-cut-this-crotch-piece