Turning club wood gloat

I had a whole bunch of cherry (in tree form) come my way - way, way, way way to much cherry for me to ever use....

Last Weds night, I got a phone call from my son - telling me about a farmer he knows having cleaned out a fence line over the winter, and that there were a couple of trees for the taking. I got farmers name and number, and then called the president of the turning club I joined about a about a year ago.I offered the lumber to the club - as a plain give away or as fund raiser for the club - ie $1 a chunk. Duff, our president agreed.


So I contacted the farmer, and obtained the location of the trees. Thursday morning I eyeballed the site, and on Sat, looked at the trees - looked like cherry to me. I took pics, sent them on to Duff - and he agreed - it's cherry. So now came the logistics of the chore....complicated by the weather.We had a mild winter, little snow and lots of warm spells during the winter - on top of a dry late summer/fall - hence there was little frost in the ground. Last Tues, it started raining - thru Friday morning - over a inch of rain. This took what frost was in the ground out, and due to the warm temps, had turned the soil in the field to mud. We had to get the trees out of the field and soon, as spring planting is right around the corner.

Luckily, the temp dropped all day Friday, and the overnight hours, in to Sat morning. Sat morning, the temp was 23F, and we had a strong NW wind - it was cold - the ground was froze again to a depth of about 3". We had to get those trees out of the field while it was cold, so that we could use "heavy equipment" (my tractor & loader) to help w/ the work.


So on Sat afternoon, we went for it. Duff made some strategic cuts on the trees, and did the hook ups for me, while I did the dragging to a grassy patch near the road. It was cold, but we got the job done. The tree's are out of the field, and we got the brush cleaned up - at least that which we were able to break out of the frozen ground.

Yesterday (Sunday) - it warmed up enough (31F), that the frost started to thaw, and the field got muddy - we couldn't have done it. The balance of this week, it's forecast to get progessively warmer - and more rain is in the forecast.

The "couple" of trees turned out to be 3 of them - big, bigger and bigger still

Tree 1 - 46" circumfrence, 14" dia

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Tree 2 - 61" circumfrence, 19" dia

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Tree 3 - 65" circumfrence, 20" dia

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I don't know if all 3 of these will be come turning blocks - there is a chance that some will get taken to mill - as we have some nice logs....The log we got from tree 1 is 13' long, tree 2's is 21' long. Tree 3 was so big, it required multiple cuts - out of it, we got logs of 12, 9 and 8'. This does not count any of the crown wood - lots of blanks in them.

Jim

Now that is going to be some nice turning wood. Crotches should make some pretty turnings.

Wow! What a haul! Which part of the country are you located in? Maybe a visit is in order! :D

Great haul Jim......doesn't get much better than cherry...........and free!!!

DROOL!! What a great haul, should keep the members of your club in shavings for a long time.

Great score. I might suggest cutting some of the 20" D about 18 to 20" long sections (length based on 20" swing on my Powermatic and yes I would take a chunk) and then cutting the sections lengthwise into thirds or quarter wedges that you then cut off the pith. That makes for some nice natural edge "bowls" or trays even with the bark removed as opposed to the normal bowl blanks. I have made several out of Bradford Pear and Sycamore that end up nice looking for fruit displays, chips, etc. You have to cut out a large pith slab in any case, and this way you end up with 3 or 4 long pith wedges and have a flat bottom started for the tenon and place for live center to back up the blank.

Nice gloat, Jim, but the weather sounds like it sucked. .. I have a question. Does this cherry produce edible cherries, or it it just a family member of the producing trees... It seem like there are a lot of turners using cherry wood, so just asking..... Jerry (in Tucson)

Jerry- these are not the cherry fruit producing trees you may be thinking of, and sometimes called black or wild cherry. I'm curious about how these sizeable trees were pulled out of the ground with root balls still attached? From the trunk scars it appears a dozer might have knocked them down?

Jerry

Jamie is correct - these (to the best of my knowledge) are the lumber variety trees - and they were taken out via 'dozer (according to what the farmer told me).

I have a couple of cherry trees on my acreage - called "pin" cherries. They get small white flowers in the spring (late April / early May), and then produce a small berry that birds feed on. These (pin cherries) are no where near the size of the trees we got. Both Duff and I were expecting pin cherries.
I turned some ornaments at Christmas time out of some firewood blocks from the pin cherries - wifelet was quite pleased w/ them.

Thomas

I know nothing about the process of cutting out the blanks - yet - but I expect I will be learning. I will keep this in mind when the cutting detail is organized.

Kevin

Road Trip!! - am located in SE MN.



Jim

Remember that cherry starts to crack before it even hits the ground, as with most fruit woods, so cut the trunk sections in half to remove the unstable pith ASAP and seal with green wood sealer. The trunk is probably already being attacked under the bark by a variety of wood eating critters, and it will degrade rapidly, especially the sapwood. Cut into sizes you're able to move and seal, then store outside under cover until warmer weather arrives, and further processing can be comfortably accomplished.

That's quite the gloat! Cherry is a beautiful wood to turn! Have fun cutting up all those blanks!

Also - like Jamie says... seal that wood ASAP or it will start cracking on you before you get everything cut up into blanks!