Help dividing wood

[Stigmorgan]

One of my schools dads recently bought a new house with a forest for a back garden, yesterday he brought me some pieces of a cherry tree, (not 100% sure on type of cherry) he cut down the day before, I have to say the colours are amazing, the tree was choked with ivy to the point the roots had pretty much destroyed the heart wood and in some spots there was nothing but ivy roots, he has 3 more pieces ready for me and lots more different trees to be felled over the rest of this year, the 3 piece I have at the minute use are quite interesting but I have no idea of best way to cut them up, I'd love your input/suggestions, at the minute I've painted all the cut surfaces with very thick Hammerite metal paint

I took 3 pics of each, in one pic you can see the mass of roots where the heartwood should be.

 

[gregmcateer]

Nice wood!
I'd try to split along any obvious fault line, then you'll get the strongest bits left intact. Could be tricky, but worth a try. If there is a crotch, try to split along the two parts, so you get two Y shaped pieces - pretty figure, esp if turning a bowl of two

 

[gregmcateer]

And P.S., be quick - cherry is a right b.stard for cracking if you leave pith in place, (in fact, it seems to be in lap of the gods whether any piece cracks or not)

 

[MARK.B.]

Split in two and give half to me is my unbiased opinion

 

[Stigmorgan]

All cut surfaces are sealed so hopefully cracking will be minimal, although most of it will be turned wet with natural edges were possible so a little cracking will add character.

So I decided to try pulling the roots out of the heartwood of the 2nd crotch piece in the pics, the roots came out and exposed an ants nest beneath, the 2 parts also came apart so I guess it wasn't a crotch after all, bothe bits are fully covered in bark, the solid piece has a few little punky spots but I reckon I can get 3 or 4 bowls, the hollow piece I cut in half and then split the "ring" piece in half again, I think I'll get 3 decent bits from it.

 

[Stigmorgan]

So I had a look at the other large piece today, it's the first 3 pics in my original post, that dark strip was so soft I could stick my finger into it, I pulled away everything that was like a sponge in the hope of finding the separation lines between the trunk and branch, there's still a lot of soft stuff to remove before I decide where to cut but I've made some progress with it.

 

[martin.pearson]

Following this post lol, I've got some Yew logs that I need to cut up & looking for the best way to do it same as you.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Following this post lol, I've got some Yew logs that I need to cut up & looking for the best way to do it same as you.

I just don't want to dive in with the saw and end up having a pile of waste that I can't use, def need to remove as much of the sponge like wood and see what I'm left with first.

 

[martin.pearson]

I just don't want to dive in with the saw and end up having a pile of waste that I can't use, def need to remove as much of the sponge like wood and see what I'm left with first.

They were my thoughts lol, not having done anything like this before I'm not sure of the best method, my logs have been sitting in my Mum's garage for 2 years mainly because of not being able to travel during Covid. Can't remember exactly but think the largest diameter is about 12 to 14 inch. When you say dive in with the saw what type of saw are you talking about Bandsaw maybe?
Will you be turning it into bowl/turning blanks or will you be cutting some boards as well

 

[Stigmorgan]

They were my thoughts lol, not having done anything like this before I'm not sure of the best method, my logs have been sitting in my Mum's garage for 2 years mainly because of not being able to travel during Covid. Can't remember exactly but think the largest diameter is about 12 to 14 inch. When you say dive in with the saw what type of saw are you talking about Bandsaw maybe?
Will you be turning it into bowl/turning blanks or will you be cutting some boards as well

No boards, I don't do any carpentry as such and the pieces aren't big enough.
The saw will be either a small electric chainsaw or a handsaw depending on how much and what direction to the grain I have to cut, once I have finished removing the soft junk ill see what I have but it will likely not be enough to bother cutting round blanks, I will probably turn it all while it's green and let it move as it wants to, I like the natural look so don't mind a bit of warping and cracking.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Ok, the more I look at this 2nd piece the harder I'm finding it make a decision on where to cut first, should I cut the fork off (yellow line) and then see what's usually from the 2 pieces I then have or do I cut down the whole thing (red line) and hope I'm left with something usuable, there's still quite a lot of soft rubbish to remove and I'm fairly sure all the bark is going to come off due to the fungus growing between the wood and bark.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Thought I'd add a pic of my other wood

The pile on the left and in the middle is from a beech tree that had to be felled almost 3 years ago, I hit it with the strimmer this morning and the wood is still so hard the strimmer wire didn't leave a mark, ive pulled it all out of the overgrown grass and it looks like there's some spalting going on in there, the pile on the right is mostly Hawthorn with a few bits of Silver Birch. I also have another huge pile of oak, some of the logs are almost 2foot across.

 

[Garno]

Split in two and give half to me is my unbiased opinion

And if you want a second opinion I will happily take the other half

 

[Stigmorgan]

So this morning I was wandering around the ground ds admiri g the trees and checking on a few that will be getting felled soon as a result of an annual survey that gets carried out and noticed a couple of rats running behind a shed, I followed to see if I could see their nest hole and found something beautiful instead, ive not ventured behind this shed before as I've had no reason to, the shed is outside our allotment area and there's a huge oak in the same corner that must be almost 3foot wide, on the allotment side the oak trunk is clean and straight/flat, on the rear side is the biggest burl I've ever seen, must be around 6feet tall. Hope I'm still here if it ever has to be felled.

I also have this huge tripod monolith waiting for some future use

 

[Tris]

It's an Ent!

 

[Stigmorgan]

It's an Ent!

What's an Ent?

 

[Garno]

What's an Ent?

The trees in middle earth in JRR Tolken's Lord of the Rings books

 

[Stigmorgan]

The trees in middle earth in JRR Tolken's Lord of the Rings books

Ahhhh

 

[Stigmorgan]

So, back to the cherry lump, after leaving it for a while I decided today to just take the saw to the branch piece and follow the "seam" line all the way down, it was a little easier to cut with a handsaw than I expected, what was hiding inside can only be described sheer beauty

There are more voids deeper in the wood of the last pic so turning could be interesting/dangerous but those colours are amazing.

 

[martin.pearson]

So, back to the cherry lump, after leaving it for a while I decided today to just take the saw to the branch piece and follow the "seam" line all the way down, it was a little easier to cut with a handsaw than I expected, what was hiding inside can only be described sheer beauty
View attachment 119927View attachment 119928View attachment 119929
There are more voids deeper in the wood of the last pic so turning could be interesting/dangerous but those colours are amazing.

Do you not fill the voids with resin when you have something like this that may not turn if left as is? I am fairly new to woodworking having taken a break after school for about 40 odd years so not sure what people generally do but on bits that had a lot of voids I filled with resin before working on them (not on a wood lathe) but would;d probably do the same thing if turning.
I do also need to get my head round the fact that a lot of people are like me & will see the beauty in this rather than see it as a fault lol