Finally getting of my duff and doing some work

Chuck Ellis

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Tellico Plains, Tennessee
I got really ambitious Thursday... I actually worked the wood pile and cut some of the longs into blanks... I have such a pile out back and because my back will last only for a couple of hours on a chain saw cutting the blanks, I usually go quite a while between cuttings... need to get in gear and really work on the pile before I lose most of it... had a couple of cherry logs... the center of them had been eaten by ants or something, but they were pretty far gone... think I may have a couple of pieces workable... the thing I wanted to work up was the hackberry... I had about 8 or 10 feet of a tree that I picked up at a friends house... it's very nicely spalted now after laying in the wood pile for over a year.

First three pictures shows the wood blanks I've roughed out... a couple pieces of the oak was already roughed and stacked on the table saw.. it's showing some checks but was already checked when I roughed it out... I usually just fill the cracks as best I can and finish... doesn't seem to affect the sales much. The antler stacked on the table saw is from a stash I picked up in Texas before we moved up... it's all fallow deer antler and my wife planned to paint on it... hasn't happened and not like to... I'm going to take the rounds for pens and leave her the flats to paint "someday".

The last 4 pictures are from a neighbor that I met about a year ago at another neighbor's barbecue. In our conversation I mentioned using antler to make pens and she remembered this past week when at a local garage sale... she said she paid $40 for the box... I'll take her word... it's definitely worth $40 to me. I'll likely recover that on the first pen.
 

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here i thought they were the waste product of the hunt:) maybe i should start sellun them got a few dozen on the wall:) looks like alot of neat looking bowls and such chuck..
 
Great stash. Hackberry turns nicely and it takes a a nice finish. The finish often has great depth and chatoyancy.
Super collection of antler. What kind of marrow center does it have? Is it like whitetail or more like Axis? Actually......if it is like Axis, I really don't want to know.......might make me envious. :eek:
 
Great stash. Hackberry turns nicely and it takes a a nice finish. The finish often has great depth and chatoyancy.
Super collection of antler. What kind of marrow center does it have? Is it like whitetail or more like Axis? Actually......if it is like Axis, I really don't want to know.......might make me envious. :eek:

I've turned a couple pieces of the Hackberry.. really pretty stuff with all the spalting.. there's been a lot of worm activity in it though.

I haven't gone through all of the antler totally yet, just a quick look and suspect most is white tale.. didn't see anything that looked like axis. I did pull out one spike skull and took one of the spikes for a pen I was working on tonight... it actually looked more like a pronghorn skull than deer, have to look them up to be sure... From what I've looked at so far, it's pretty good looking stuff.
 
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