apple wood

It smells good too. I have turned apple but have not done any other woodwork with it. It turns well and some of the stock near the roots and crotches can be quite pretty. I suspect it is a little soft for some woodworking projects other than decorative.

After saying that it is probably blasphemous to suggest that it makes good firewood. It lights easily, burns kind of fast but leaves a great aroma.

I would expect the boards to twist. If I remember my reading right, one way to put it is that the grain lines try to straighten themselves out. That's one reason quartersawn wood is stable; the lines of the grain are pretty straight to begin with.

But I bet you could minimize it by drying it with a lot of weight on it so it didn't have a chance to twist, and by cutting it thick enough that you could flatten it without making it paper thin. And by cutting it into shorter boards.

I'd go for it, just to see what happened. :-)

Think barbecue, smoked ribs or chicken, bacon, etc.

Do be careful to wax or paint the ends, apple tends to check when dried.

scott

Apple starts to check pretty much the moment it's cut, and it twists like a greased squid on glass.

It makes GREAT smoking wood (cf "firewood") too.

And applewood is well known for use as the backs (fronts?) for fiddles.

My counsel:

1. Keep the trunk, dry it out, hope for the best. What you got to lose?

1. Dry out the branches, &tc. Cut them into "chunks" and use them to bbq (check out the barbeque newsgroup, they'll know what to do, eh' Edwin?).

-Zz

If you are in southeastern Michigan I will come and get it for carp smoking wood. I have made chisel handles out of apple many years ago, but I bust up so many now that I just fit manufactured file handles on them now and am able to get to work so much faster

you people read too much and carve too little. It will be a revelation for each of you to see how few tools you need when you actually get down and do this stuff every day. Stay IN your shop and OUT of the magazines

Is that a Dan Ratherism?

Squid - I can visualize that. Greased - also familiar. Everyone knows what glass looks like.

Greased squid on glass?

I have a head ache.

But back to apple wood - makes great carver's mallets and probably nice handles for chisels and turning tools.

Definitely keep it, burn the scraps, but keep it.

charlie b

There are many ways to be a woodworker. Some people focus on the tool collection side of things and are perfectly happy. Others talk about how much money they make, how many hours a day they cut wood, and give advice about the correct way to be a woodworker...

Bite me, you arrogant pedant.

Nicely said. My language would have been more pointed.

Are you promoting illiteracy??