Processing a beech tree

[OldWood]

Quarter of mile from my house there's a downed beech tree - big one - that the farmer is quite happy for me to cut up and he's already brought out all the branch wood for my wood stove. We're now down to the 20 ft trunk, some 27" in diameter.

The tree fell I think 4 years ago now - two of us stabilised it and cut it into 6' and 3' sections the other day and found that there is very minor rot and some spalting.

My question is what do I do with it now? What cutting and splitting is suggested to get it into manageable bowl sized pieces ? It will need to dry out further obviously (currently in the mid to upper 20%) and it may well be a rough turn proposition to allow drying of a bowl shape.

Many thanks
Rob

 

[Paul.J]

As you say Rob cut to manageable sizes but bigger the better.
Then just cut up and part turn as you need it would be the best option,and leave to dry out that way.
Otherwise leave it in as long a log as possible until needed.

 

[wabbitpoo]

lucky dog.

Mind you, I found one too and cut it up, filled the van and have been churning out spalted bowls for blimmin' ages - in fact I am getting a bit bored with such lovely wood...

 

[OldWood]

lucky dog.

Mind you, I found one too and cut it up, filled the van and have been churning out spalted bowls for blimmin' ages - in fact I am getting a bit bored with such lovely wood...

Wabbitpoo - I must admit that's a tag that I think I might have difficulty living with !! . and Paul.J (much more ....something!) - many thanks. What I want to know is how to judge what size to cut it to and how to handle things like --"do I cut/split it longitudinally to take out the effects of the pith", etc. Any wood left over that's not got much interest will end up on the stove.

On one hand there's the size you can throw on the lathe, but then are large bowls in demand, or perhaps the broad rimmed bowl is more interesting.

Rob

 

[Paul.J]

For bowls you need to cut the length of the log a few inches longer than the dia of the log.So if its 27" cut them about 30" long.
Then split this along the grain taking the pith out.
For vases and hollow forms where you cut against the grain,the dia is big enough to still cut the pith out and leave you with a decent size to turn,depending where the pith is in the log :?:
If you are going to store the logs for some time before using them,keep em as long in length as possible sealing the end grain.
Hope thats clear :?

 

[mark sanger]

Hi

all that spalted beech. You lucky bloke.

I hear what you are saying about you can get bored of it turning the same old thing.

In relation to processing it the good thing about spalted beech is that due to the spalting process most of the stresses have been released.

by through sawing/taking slices you will be able to rough out the bowls to 10% of the diameter.

One of my favourite bowl profile is the wide rim bowl and platter. I leave the bowl section 1/3 of the diameter of the blank. This then gives a nice wide rim to texture, scorch, colour etc etc.

or if you want a more practical bowl then you can have the bowl 2/3 of the diameter .