Mini Wood Haul

Vaughn McMillan

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
36,056
Location
ABQ NM
This is not on the scale of the logs Dave harvests, but I got a chance to cut up some free urban salvage wood this afternoon. My nephew had some trees cut down earlier this week, and I picked up a few chunks a couple of days ago. He had fresh ash and choke cherry that I'm looking forward to turning soon. While I had the chainsaw out, I also cut up one chunk of maple I picked up a few months ago, as well as some ash I've had for a few years. The maple was still somewhat moist, but the old ash was pretty hard and dry. I have quite a bit more of the maple and old ash (plus some old sycamore) stashed in a shady spot in the side yard.

In this photo there are four half-rounds of choke cherry on the left, a stack of old and new ash in the back on the right, and a couple block of relatively fresh maple in front.
Paul's Wood 1024.jpg

Here are a few more pieces...in addition to some new and very old offcuts, there's another half round and two full rounds of fresh ash. The dark face on the half round is some type of disease. You can see the same dark face on the middle chunk of ash in the previous photo.
Offcuts 1024.jpg

I got some shower curtains hung in the lathe area of my shop yesterday, so now when I start flinging curlies on the lathe my benches will stay cleaner, and the cleanup will be a lot easier. Here's a pano shot showing the lathe zone. On the left (behind me as I'm turning) is the sharpening station and turning tool storage. The curtains should help keep the chips from covering those benches but they move out of the way easily to access the grinders and tools.
Lathe Area Pano 1024.jpg
 
I'm amazed at how big the Choke Cherry is!! 😲

We had quite a lot growing around where I was a kid up in BC, but it must have been a very different variety as something 4" across was a super big piece. What you have is closer to the size of black cherry
 
Last edited:
That cherry looks good! Nice haul, Vaughn! In cases like this, size is not what matters. All is good looking wood. Though I admit, my only experience with ash was not good at all. Hope yours does a lot better.
 
@Ryan Mooney it could very well be something other than choke cherry. I'm going off what my brother-in-law guessed it was. I always thought choke cherry was a lot smaller diameter, too. If this stuff looks like black cherry once I get it on the lathe, I'll probably hurry up and grab some more of it from my nephew. :thumb:

@Dave Hoskins I've had pretty good luck with ash in the past. The stuff I've turned stayed real stable and finished nicely. The open grain also makes it a good candidate for coloring and liming wax. Here's an example of what I mean:

VM 1035 01 - 1024.jpg

@Bill Satko that's a ridiculous shower curtain. Anyone who has been in my bathroom would know that mine has a dog riding the unicorn, not a cat. :rofl:
 
That is a nice piece. I agree with the open grain. Only problem I had was you might say the grain was way too open. Just came apart where you didn't think there were parts. AAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!
 
That is a nice piece. I agree with the open grain. Only problem I had was you might say the grain was way too open. Just came apart where you didn't think there were parts. AAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!
This one had some real open grain, lol. It was so open it made blowing the chips out of the interior easier than usual. To give a sense of scale for that void, this piece is a bit over 12" in diameter and 9" tall.

HF059 - 14  800.jpg

HF059 - 16  800.jpg

The hollowing process was a bit exciting, to say the least. :D
 
Top