Chinese cherry tree ( Sakura )

Thanks guys. So Stu is there anything special to take care with in regards to turning this? Is it better to turn wet or let it dry out first? How long does it take to dry out?

The ad was for free fire wood and I unfortunatly missed the first big tree. When I informed the fellow that I was with a turning guild he was excited to hear that it was going to be used to make something instead of burnt and asked if i would sell something I made as his dad had lived with these trees in his yard for 45 yrs. I told him if i could get the entire lot I would be happy to make something for his dad as it was a fair trade. The wood for something for his dad. Any suggestions on what to turn that will best display the grain and colour of the wood? :huh:
 
Drew, the most important thing is to get the pith out of the logs, that is where your splits come from.

Do a search here on how to cut up logs for making bowls, there have been a few threads on the process.

Cover the end grain with some kind of sealer.

I would rough turn as many as you can right away, turn the walls of the bowls to 10% of the bowl's diameter, so a 10" bowl gets 1" thick walls, if that makes sense. Then if you are in a hurry, you can dunk the rough turned bowls into DNA and soak for 24 hours, then wrap them up in brown paper or several layers of newsprint, let sit for a month or so, they should be ready to finish turn. If you have a lot and time is not a big deal, just rough turn them, and then warp in paper, and let sit for six months.

Turn a fairly large bowl, something that is not too deep, say 10" in diameter and 4" deep, would really show the wood nicely, he will love it, make sure you date and sign it too.

Cheers!

PS............ what......... no pictures? :huh: :dunno:
 
Sorry about the pics but i had to go and pic up the rest of the wood today. Here is what I was able to get. It isn't all good but there are some good chunks that I will get some things from. Actually there is lots of small things like garden dibblers and crochet hooks and mushrooms... to make. I have to spend a little time sharpening the old chain saw after lunch. Thanks for the pointers Stu.
 
Yea Yea I am getting older and forgot to post the pics. :doh: Here they are one pile on the ground and one in the trailer.
 

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That is a lot of wood Drew :thumb:

Get that chainsaw going, and get the pith out :D

Those cherry logs will slit like crazy if you just leave them, cut them to length and then cut the pith out, seal the end grain, and stack. Then get busy with the bandsaw and cut them roundish, then get turning on that lathe of yours!

Cheers!
 
Thanks Stu. Wow that is a nice band saw that you have. I am still struggling with a small bandsaw(for the time being). I was able to cut the first pile up today and seal up all the ends with end sealer from LV, unfortunatly there wasn't as much usable wood as I had thought. The inside of the bigger logs were more rotten than I had thought. I was able to cut away some of that rot and salvaged what I could. I took the time to rough turn one of the bowl blanks and i can see why you like this wood Stu. It is stunning with the colours and the grain. It is such a dream to work with. I am hoping to be able to get more of it in the future. I will be spending tomorrow rough turning what i can. Now Stu in your post you show wrapping the bowls and then cutting out the paper inside to expose the inside of the bowl to the air. Now in that post someone mentioned DNA and I was wondering if that is used on top of sealing up the wood of is that instead of putting end grain seal on the wood?
 
Ok here is what I am working on tomorrow. I did get all the end grain sealed up except on the ones sitting up on the oak round. Notice the rot. Those are the ones that I will be able to get something small out of still. They were also the better of the bad ones. As you can see the pile under the lathe has grown a little. I also delt with some arbutus and chestnut and oak. Now I have to find a place to store this load. This is just the start as I can see myself collecting lots more. Darn this is addicting. Oh and Stu this is the band saw that I have. I am actually storing (using it) this for a friend till I get the one I want.
 

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Drew, I've had great success with the DNA, I think I have lost one blank only to a big crack, which I think was actually ring shake more than anything else.

I cut the paper out of the inside of the bowl because I read that if the inside dries a bit faster than the outside, the bowl is much less likely to crack :dunno:

One thing I do know is that this Cherry, even though it does not produce fruit, is still a fruit wood and as such can crack like crazy if you are not careful.

Rot in the middle is just all part of the game, it sucks to see such a nice big log be half rot, for sure, but on the plus side, I often see really wonderful, beautiful grain patterns in sick tree wood, so take it as much as you can and run with it, might be some really nice wood hiding in there :dunno:

Once I rough turn a blank and soak it in DNA, I don't use any sealer at all, just wrap the bowls in paper and let them sit.

Cheers!
 
I just put the chain saw in for a new chain (hard time finding the one that belongs to it) at the local chain saw shop. Seems the person I picked it up from had no idea how to sharpen a saw and some teeth were flat across and others were varying sizes:(. I took the file to it yesterday but there was not much left to sharpen after that. So new chain is needed:thumb:. I just unloaded the next pile off the trailer and it seems there is an ant nest somewhere in the pile.:eek: ( not for much longer ;)) New chain and a good cleaning of the band saw blade as it is full of sticky cherry dust.
 
Ok after all was said and done this is the pile that I was able to salvage. The wood was semi rotten and was full of termites, ants and wood bugs. A large amount was punky as well so I didn't get as much out of it as i had expected. I spent the day cutting everything that I could up ( including some oak and arbutus that i have had sitting in the shop since winter) and sealing the ends till I can get close enough to the lathe to do some rough turning. The colour of the wood and the grain patterns are stunning. I just hope that it all looks as good when finished. The pile left is not worth picking through.
 

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Sucks about the chain on your saw, I'd pick up at least one spare, good to have around, and they have no expiry date so why not?

That is still a substantial amount of wood Drew, lots of potential there!:thumb:

If you are worried about bugs, put the wood you are keeping into large trash bags, and then put some kind of bug spray in there, seal up the bag and let it sit a few days, should kill just about anything :D

Cutting wet wood is hard on the bandsaw blade, if you can, get as low a tooth number blade as you can buy, I like the 3/8" x 3tpi blade that Lee Valley sells.....

>> Here <<

... dunno is they sell your size or not. Another tip on the bandsaw with green wood, get a can of PAM non-stick cooking spray, (get you own can, don't borrow one from the kitchen) with the saw running, spray the blade with PAM, do this often, between blanks, and you will find the blade will not gum up as much, and when it does, a toothbrush will knock the sticky wood off the blade easily.

Cheers!
 
Thanks for the tips Stu. I did cut out all the bug infested spots so i am not worried about the bug issue. Yes it was too bad about how much that i was able to get out of it but this is more than I had a couple of days ago and it was free. I really do love the pink colours and grain of this wood. I swear I am addicted to this type of wood now. I am still looking at what is left to see if there is any chance to get more out of the pile. I might even take up turning pens as there is lots in what is left for a whole tone of pens. Does it hold the colour after it is turned ? I was thinking of checking out the beaches next week to see what the tide has brought in. Maybe something special and i have been curious as to how the salt water effects the wood. First thing now is to find a place to put all this wood that I have. so that I can rough turn as much as i can. We are even thinking about re plumbing the hot water tank to take it out of the garage as well as moving the deep freeze too. That would free up lots of space in the shop for storage of blanks.
 
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