Someone's trash... / Gloat application

I don't know if it qualifies as a gloat but I found a little treasure this morning.

On my way to Home Depot, I drove by the neighborhood... Someone just prune his maple and they cut some fairly large branches. As I pass by, I happen to look at the end of the branches and see those characteritic black stripes. I stopped, looked again and sure enough,

3 branches among the biggest are spalted. they're about 8" diameter and about 4' long. Wow!

I brought them back home, splice them into 4/4 on my band saw. Yup, spalted maple like you cannot believe! I'll let them dry for a few months and will turn them into veneer when it's ready.

Once again, someone's trash is someone else's treasure!

Does this qualifies as a gloat?

Greg D.

Reply to
Greg D.
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| enough, 3 branches among the biggest are spalted. they're about 8" | diameter and about 4' long. Wow! | | I brought them back home, splice them into 4/4 on my band saw. Yup, | spalted maple like you cannot believe! I'll let them dry for a few | months and will turn them into veneer when it's ready. | | Does this qualifies as a gloat?

Probably (mumble, mumble)... You suck.

Nice find!

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

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Reply to
Morris Dovey

Free is heavily weighted in all gloat calculations, so yes, absolutely.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Absolutely, you suck. Hopefully spalted wood doesn't show the bad traits branches are know for.

Reply to
Toller

Is the compression wood warping in branches still a problem if you use them for veneer?

Reply to
Gordon Airporte

If you have a lathe - and some room to store wood - every pile of what might be wood MUST be examined and ANY wood that MIGHT be turnable HAS to be saved - for some future use. Having a bandsaw is also a MUST and a chainsaw, left in your vehicle, is handy as hell. Larger wet logettes can be damn heavy.

Acquiring spalted maple is a neener.

The drive by reference to your bandsaw is a neener. If you'd prefaced it with Aggazzini - a big drivebt neener. Mentioning a WoodMizer or the like would make it a super drive by neener.

Getting the wood for free - that makes it a gloat.

Post some pics of the stuff once you've sliced and diced it.

charlie b

Reply to
charlie b

AMEN, brother Charlie, AMEN. You and I both frequent here and the woodturning NG, and if that was posted over there he would have to change every traceable route to his house. I turned some vases out of that stuff a few years ago and stupidly sold them or gave them away as gifts. I have not seen anything with that kind of dimension that was worthwhile in some time.

Although I am not as bad as I used to be, my significant other cringes when she hears the sound of chainsaws in the neighborhood. She knows I will have to investigate. And sadly, I already have enough turning material for several years.

Yet, somehow.... that doesn't mean anything. Too much may not be enough!

Fall weather, a mug of coffee, and it is lathe season for me!

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Now if you'd just explain that to my wife... she's been starting to make faces when I bring home new and interesting aquisitions. Not realizing, of course, that man must turn more than just Maple and Willow, no matter how much of those two woods he may have.

So, is it an anti-gloat that I have an electric chainsaw, and leave a bowsaw and axe in the car instead? :)

Depending on the area, it's not even quite that, but if it's rare, then it could be a full-blown gloat, like Mesquite or Redwood is around my neck of the woods.

But does it? Free lumber is definately a gloat. Turning stock.... I don't know. Though it's always nice to get some more, I don't recall ever paying a cent for the stuff I have. Have to be a rare aquisition for me to call it a gloat- even the blown-over wild cherry tree I found didn't quite qualify, considering the sweat equity I put in dragging that sucker out of the woods.

Seems like the gloat (probably more of a neener) part of free turning stock comes more from the fact that most of mine comes as a result of a day walking in the woods and getting a little enjoyable exercise. Probably a different story if you live smack in the middle of a large city, though.

Reply to
Prometheus

Sadly? That seems suffic...oh. Sorry. I see your point. There is more free wood out there. Is that a chainsaw I hear in the background? ;)

R
Reply to
RicodJour

I was thinking the same thing. I bet if he cuts them into veneers, he would negate the effects of reaction wood. Does spalting hold up as a veneer or does it come apart at the black lines?

Definitly.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

EGGGGGSACKLY!

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

I sure wouldn't worry about spalt on a board, even it was branch wood. I bought a lot of spalted maple (sold as ambrosia maple - the stuff created as a by product of boring beetles) as boards and it didnt' work or act any differntly until I went to finish it. When I put a wash coat (1# shellac, sprayed) on the wood, it blurred the spalt lines and made the clear black lining fuzzy.

I would think that you would have the same problem with your veneers. But in my opinion, cutting it into veneers might ruin it. Branch wood is so unstable in some pieces that it almost isn't worth boarding in some species, even if you have a large piece. But veneers..... if you do this I think "you pays your money and you takes your chances". Veneer wood must be as stable as possible, and remember it will b exposed to a lot of moisture in the application process.

Just my thoughts. Now that EBAY and affordable 18" bandsaws have provided affordable veneers, (including by those that want to pay for the 18" bandsaws!) I am just now looking into getting into veneering for fun.

But I say again, you have a treasure trove for some woodturners. As a turner, I wouldn't think twice about letting this stuff get a little dry then mounting it up and spinning away.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Nah. I've got spalted maple cabinets in my kitchen- they're veneered plywood, and they look really good. The guy that made them many years before I ever saw the place left a can of the stain under the stairs, and it's just regular old golden oak stain with a coat of clear varnish over it. The spalting stayed very sharp.

And I've made a thing or ten with spalted maple, myself- I'd guess that the problem with the blurring was the alcohol in the shellac. It doesn't happen with oil or water based finishes.

Reply to
Prometheus

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