Deadliest Crotch - aka Cutting Veneer With A Chainsaw

[Tom Watson]

Had a black walnut (real honest to god juglans nigra, not a butternut, for a change) go down in the woods behind my place last week.

It had been destabilized by some construction work that was being done to "improve" our creek flow.

I figured I'd like to see what kind of figure the crotch had and went to work with my Stihl.

Bucked it up above and below the crotch, leaving about a five foot long piece on the ground for my experiment.

I decided to cleave the crotch at the intersection and went to work.

I've cut reaction wood before but never in this exact way. I would have thought that the tension would not be strong on the cut that I was making but the saw went in to about the depth of the bar and then grabbed solid, knocking me forwards and way too close to the blade.

I was pretty damned surprised by how the wood grabbed that bar and I could have been bad hurt by thinking that I knew what was going to happen.

I guess the lesson is: whatever the worst thing that can happen, will happen.

Turned out OK and the figure is interesting enough to make it worth taking to a guy with a bigger bandsaw than I have.

Like they used to say on one of my favorite TV shows: Let's be careful out there.

Regards,

Tom Watson

[Leon]

Snip

Two weeks ago I cut a 20' limb out of a tree for a neighbor. Before I went over to do the deed I thought to my self, I am going to get hurt today. I ended up getting a pretty nice scrape and bruse on my right arm.

Hill Street Blue's

Let us know how that wood turne out.

[d.williams]

Tom, cherish that Butternut, it's disappearing rapidly in the upper Midwest due to Butternut Blight. I find it to be a really appealing wood, the grain and figure add a lot of interest to a piece. I'm gonna miss it.