obsession or sickness?

Frank Fusco

Member
Messages
12,782
Location
Mountain Home, Arkansas
The TV news last night showed a gigantic old tree that had been toppled by the recent windstorms in England. The tree had crushed a small car.
My first thought on seeing that picture was: "I wonder what kind of wood that is." :huh:
 
That's usally my first thought when I see downed limbs/trees. After the ice storm earlier this week I drove through the neighborhood to see what goodies made it to the ground.
 
Not a sickness at all. It's merely thinking of what usefulness can be gleaned from an otherwise unfortunate situation. If a tree crashes in a storm, why not make use of it? Now that I have started getting into woodturning, I look at wind-fallen trees in a whole new light.:D

Cheers,

Kevin
 
Not a sickness at all. It's merely thinking of what usefulness can be gleaned from an otherwise unfortunate situation. If a tree crashes in a storm, why not make use of it? Now that I have started getting into woodturning, I look at wind-fallen trees in a whole new light.:D

Cheers,

Kevin
You can sugarcoat it all you want Kevin, but it really is a disease. :D A GOOD disease, but that "whole new light" thing is just a manifestation of the disease. :rofl:

I drove by a firewood lot in Pasadena today and noticed they had a couple piles of unsplit rounds of what looked like maple, which, at 40 mph, looked to be about 18" to 24" in diameter. I also saw some other burly looking stuff piled in a corner of the lot. I'm going to stop by there one of these days to see if they really are saving turning wood off to the side for guys like me, or if it's just the disease thing again and I just thought I saw turning wood behind the fence. :rolleyes:
 
Vaughn said:
I'm going to stop by there one of these days to see if they really are saving turning wood off to the side for guys like me, or if it's just the disease thing again and I just thought I saw turning wood behind the fence.

Now you know you have it bad when you start hallucinating about turning wood. :D

Believe me, I've viewed a few neighbors' firewood piles in much the same way. Especially if the wood is local - we have lots of gnarly old oak trees in this area. Who knows what's lurking in those stacks of cordwood. I wonder if there's a support group out there, like Wood Scavengers Anonymous.;)

Cheers,

Kevin
 
This'll probably wound some wood salvagers - it wounded me :(

I burn about 3 cord of hardwood a year - mostly maple and birch. I keep my eye open for interesting stuff for butchering on the lathe.

I don't buy kindling for my woodstove, I prefer to split up pieces of "not quite dry" wood from the back of the pile in my basement. I split a small piece of maple a couple of days ago and I was surprised to see that it had beautiful curl figure :eek:

So, now I know that an entire (small) log of curly maple is in my woodpile. Small pieces, but enough to make a spokeshave body or crossbanding veneer. I don't know how much I've already burned :(

I'll be keeping an eagle eye on any maple I chuck into the firebox, but it's kinda like looking for a needle in a haystack.

C'est la vie ...
 
There's money to be made selling figured maple.
But firewood piles can contain hidden treasures.
A friend once gave me a couple hunks of Blackjack oak and said to turn and I would be surprised at the result. Now, blackjack is pretty much a srub nusiance tree. Ugly and very hard to split for firewood. Most folks just cut and leave laying to rot. But when I turned it, the grain was very unusual and attractive. Not spectacular but definately something different. I made two pens from it and gave to him and his wife.
 
Top