Windfall opportunity

[Dan Sheehan]

With the early Nor'easter that hit a couple of weeks ago, I see a lot of tree work going on. Much of the windfall is free for the taking, if you can stay ahead of the FEMA teams doing the removal.

I have become intrigued with riving and carving green material and think this might be a good opportunity to get started with little effort.

Besides oak, what other species would be eligible for this sort of work? I just saw some major surgery going on with a stately old chestnut that may not survive. Is chestnut a good candidate for green woodworking? Any others?

[Jim Koepke]

I am not sure what is in your area. Around here we have a lot of what one of my neighbors calls bitter cherry.

I have riven that and made a few different things from it like a baby's rattle, small spoons and tool handles.

It has a nice look to it.

jtk

[David Weaver]

Presumably this is a european chestnut.

I would think if you're riving, that you want to chose the straightest wood you can find, and one that is a stable drying wood (beech can even a squirrel it dries and is nearly dead quartered).

Obviously, it should also be a wood that is attractive when quartered, too. And not too many knots.

The two that I can think of that will be straight would be red and white oak. You could use the white oak for nice stuff and the red oak for utility work, it's pretty hard on the eyes.

If you can find wet beech or cherry, you could save that to carve.

[Jim Matthews]

The catch (there's always a catch) is that recently fallen trees are not easy to split.

They're easy to crosscut when they're wet, splitting requires some "down time".
A nearby Beech has my heart aching - it's 4.5 feet in diameter and straight for a thirty foot run.

It's too big to move and the homeowner wants it gone immediately after the Thanksgiving holiday.

[Simon Frez-Albrecht]

You can carve almost anything into a spoon, I've seen tons of Maple and Oak down, a little Birch. I use Maple all the time for spoons, because it's what I have the most access to. I always keep my eye out for Birch. As far as boards and things, the Maple I've tried doesn't really like to rive nicely, though I've quarter-sawn some small stumps and got decent little boards out of them.

[Mark Baldwin III]

The catch (there's always a catch) is that recently fallen trees are not easy to split.

They're easy to crosscut when they're wet, splitting requires some "down time".
A nearby Beech has my heart aching - it's 4.5 feet in diameter and straight for a thirty foot run.

It's too big to move and the homeowner wants it gone immediately after the Thanksgiving holiday.

It'll be a shame if a tree like that doesn't find itself at a mill and instead ends up going to firewood (or worse). Beech can be hard enough to get as it is.

[Dan Sheehan]

The catch (there's always a catch) is that recently fallen trees are not easy to split.

They're easy to crosscut when they're wet, splitting requires some "down time".
A nearby Beech has my heart aching - it's 4.5 feet in diameter and straight for a thirty foot run.

It's too big to move and the homeowner wants it gone immediately after the Thanksgiving holiday.

You have a little time to get creative. Find a sawmill or even guy with a woodmizer and someone with a big enough truck and make some kind of deal. There's plenty of wood there to go around.

[Jim Matthews]

Here's the Beech in question;
IMG_1329.jpg

No local sawyer with sufficient hardware will take the job. The guys with the Alaskan (chainsaw mill) rigs can't move it.
Given the unknown condition of the interior, I can't take the risk on poor yield versus high setup cost.

I've taken three limbs off this thing, already. Each bucked down small enough nearly split my seat covers, wrecked my chassis and bottomed out my suspension...
...and you should see what it did to my van!

It's an embarrassment of riches...

[Mark Baldwin III]

Wow! I'm just wondering how many plane blanks are waiting to be carved out of that tree! Too bad that it's going to waste.

[Jeff Bartley]

Umm, where did you say you live Jim?? May be with sufficient help you could move that beech!

[Joshua Clark]

Besides the oaks, hickory and ash are very easy to split and rive, assuming the logs are straight and free of knots. Birch, beech, maple, and other ring-diffuse woods are a lot harder to split and rive predictably.

Josh

[David Keller NC]

Here's the Beech in question;
IMG_1329.jpg

No local sawyer with sufficient hardware will take the job. The guys with the Alaskan (chainsaw mill) rigs can't move it.
Given the unknown condition of the interior, I can't take the risk on poor yield versus high setup cost.

I've taken three limbs off this thing, already. Each bucked down small enough nearly split my seat covers, wrecked my chassis and bottomed out my suspension...
...and you should see what it did to my van!

It's an embarrassment of riches...

Actually, that beech will split & rive pretty easily if you're willing to put your back into it (but it's extremely hard work). You'll need several wedges, several gluts and a 10 lb. sledge, but riven beech is pretty much ideal for plane blanks, other tool making, and chair parts. And riving it into pieces is a heck of a lot cheaper than paying someone to come in with a Woodmizer.

[Bob Glenn]

Try to pick out wood from only the trunks. Branches can have a lot of stress with in the wood making its use limited.

[Mike Olson]

I would say quarter it using wedges and sledges. Split it right down the center and then split each half again. You could even continue to split until they are almost board width. hmm.... i think i saw a video on it once when they were doing this to make boards to reproduce a viking ship.

[James Carmichael]

Try here. IIRC, they have a way to locate owners/sawyers near you. A hobbyist with a portable mill may saw it for a share of the wood:

http://www.logosol.com/