Can I use a tree branch for wood?

'Scuse me. a) Uninformed answers is all some of us have.

My understanding is branches are loaded with "reaction wood." They've been growing against gravity for umpty-ump years, and there is no way you can make straight boards out of them.

Nonetheless, I have a walnut tree in my backyard with a branch that is too low and gets in the way of mowing etc. I'd like to cut off that branch, dry it for a year or two and use it.

The scar on my left hand from a table saw kickback accident with oak plywood makes me pause every time I plug one of my power tools in. Had things gone worse I'd have a much harder time playing piano or guitar. ;-)

Since my walnut branch is reaction wood I've given up on the idea of long boards out of it. However, I do think I could make a number of really neat small boxes (1' or smaller) from it after it is properly dried.

I'm thinking that a maple limb can be made into smaller pieces that are stable enough. If anyone else has better ideas I'm all ears.

-- Mark

The other part must not have posted. "Some will be offended at this. They shouldn't it's just an observation and to be aware that much of the information offered is from the position of opinion, not experience."

III. Some have questions.

I've been dying all day to ask: "Is there any alternative?"

:-)

The wood will be at it's driest after the sap has run at about mid to late summer. Wood cut during the heat of summer and left with the leaves on a few weeks before being worked up (till the leaves wilt and dry) will be ready or almost ready to burn that winter. It's a trick that people who heat exclusively with wood in New Hampshire use.

My new compound miter saw doe not kick back. It is a LN crosscut carcass saw. :-)

I have table saw scars also, but I still possess all my digits.

Once dried Sitka spruce by covering it with sawdust for about 6 months. Kept the sawdust less moist over time with water.

I must admit, I kept my answer simple, but I fail to see how it was innacurate, or much different than yours in conclusion. I also don't see why you would apologize for other people's answers, other than if you are trying to sound patronizing. If not, my apologies as well.

Joe

maple a few years back, in the winter,

thought the tree would bleed to

the sap won't be lost. Thats what I

Actually, you can kill a tree by taking too much sap... but I don't think this is a sugar maple... anyway, at 40/1 I wouldn't get enough for a pankake!!

I got whacked by a piece of thin poplar plywood that got away from my radial arm saw while ripping,,, I saw it coming and shielded myself with my left forearm, which got cut from elbow to wrist, and smashed my right thumb... but I only got one cut on my chest... Hurt for a few months after that... Now I test the grabber very carefully and if it don't grab the work, I don't cut it!! At least the corner of my thumb eventually grew back!

If I hit the lottery I'll do ripping with something like this:

Memories of a time before Chernoble. Don't eat the snow, it'll make you glow...

Incidentally, for the OP, I have a dogwood tree that someone pruned probably several years before we bought the house. Every spring the old wounds drip tons of sap.

I think it's because they were cut long. I've never had this happen for more than a year on a branch that was properly pruned, just ahead of the branch collar.

I reckon it's possible, but I have no idea how you'd peel it. You'd need some kind of wide blade and some way to feed it in a controlled way, I'd expect. Probably not a job you could do on a typical lathe, but I'm only just starting out in turning, and there's a lot I haven't heard of yet.

"piece is too much weight for me to carry!

I've never done this with Maple. Works fine with Black Walnut, Cedar, & Locust. I don't make anything with limb cuttings longer than