gonna mill a few logs

Messages
1,939
Location
Oliver Springs, TN
I can blame Larry and Tom for this.:D After their milling adventure and 65 degrees for the high, got the milling itch going. I've got a couple of small cherry logs to get out of the way first. IMAG0652.jpg

I've got a spalt pile going with some sugar and soft maple in it. It's some gnarly stuff that wouldn't be very good for just boards so I shoved it over in the woods about a year ago. I decided it was about time to check it so I cut the end off of a sugar log and this is what I found!:eek: IMAG0650.jpgIMAG0651.jpg I think I've caught this one at the perfect time. It was still solid all the way through. I'm going to drag it out and open her up hopefully later today or tomorrow.
 
i may need to ride to tennesee again this spring after seeing that end grain shot.. would soft maple spalt if its already cut into boards john, i know its the cart before the horse thing but just curious on your thoughts on that..
 
i may need to ride to tennesee again this spring after seeing that end grain shot.. would soft maple spalt if its already cut into boards john, i know its the cart before the horse thing but just curious on your thoughts on that..

It probably would if you had it in the right environment. I had some small pieces of maple, chunks from offcuts/slabs that had some curl. I took them and put them in one of those heavy plastic black garbage bags. I had a small piece of spalted wood that I ran through the planer and caught the shavings. I dumped that and enough water to keep it damp in the bag. I tied up the garbage bag and left it alone in the garage for 3 months. Here's some pictures of what I pulled out. There's a guy down the road that sales steel drums that had apple juice inside. I'm thinking about getting one and using it to try and spalt smaller pieces.
spalted maple (1).jpgspalted maple (2).JPGspalted maple (3).JPGspalted maple (4).JPG

I got the cherry cut. I got mostly 6" wide stuff. IMAG0653.jpg I also cut an oak crotch that I've been rolling all over the yard. It seemed to always be in the way. Here's a few pics of that.
IMAG0655.jpgIMAG0656.jpgIMAG0657.jpgIMAG0658.jpgIMAG0659.jpg

Tom, that would be funny!:D That log is about 28" diameter and 8 feet long. With a decent looking crotch on the end. My FIL helps me cut. When I see him and show him the log I think I'll tell him that I'm gonna cut it into pen blanks just to see his face.:eek:

I'm gonna have to hold off on the maple. I thought I had 2 new bands, but I'm out. I'll have to send some off to be resharpened.
 
Larry,

That maple I cut a couple of weeks ago on one side of the short log had some fairly bad ring shake. The guy didn't want that chunk so I cut it into some smaller shorts, about 1x7x4ish and a couple of full slabs that I knew would come apart. I had it flat stacked and it got a nice healthy start of fungus started. I've put the shorts in a bag to see how well it spalts. I didn't put any shavings in this time.

bagged pre (2).jpgbagged pre (1).jpgbagged.jpg
 
it will be intersting to see how it turns out john,, could you tell it had ring shake before you cut it? i have seen it after the cut but not before

He indicated that a guy had a "log" with ring shake, so I assumed he just took a look at the log's butt cut or cross cut. I don't think he was talking about an uncut tree.

ring_shake1.jpg
 
now if i got it right that can occur from cutting the tree and having fall wrong and being cut wrong as well.. i have ran into it while cutting lumber john and the butt cut only showed alittle bit nothing as bad as bills pic shows.. and yet when the boards were coming off they would open up and some even separated..
 
blanks sugar maple (2).jpgblanks sugar maple (3).jpg

The chunk I cut off the butt to check for spalting, I cut up with the bandsaw. This is what was inside. I hope the rest of the log looks this good. I'm gonna try and get'er cut this weekend. These pics were taken with my cell phone. They don't do the colors justice! I'm going to be letting some of this go. Anybody interested just PM me and we'll talk about it. It has a nice crotch section at the top. The log is right at 24" diam. by 9' long.

That big maple crotch that you say Larry is still laying in the same spot. I'm going to try and open her up too! I figure some nice 3" slabs should do it.
 
Udate to my spalting experiment

Here ya go Larry. It's been a little over three months since I bagged these boards. I cut the bag open this morning to check and see if anything had happened. The first picture is how they looked coming out of the bag.IMAG1085.jpg

The other two are after I ran one of the boards over the jointer..IMAG1083.jpgIMAG1084.jpg There is spalting starting in the boards. There is more black line than the picture shows.

If you look back up in this thread you can see what they looked like when I started. I'm going to do one of two things. I'm either going to but them back in the plastic bags, or a guy down the road sales 55 gallon drums that are lined. I'm thinking about getting one of those to put them inside. I can keep it outside and get them out of the garage now that it's warming up. I can also add a little water to the drum easier than the bags. The moisture wasn't very even in the boards.
 
Top