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Blue Spruce

trc65

trc65

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Tim
Anybody ever tried turning any? I've got a couple dead ones I'm taking down and about another 10 that are dying. I hate just throwing it in a pile to burn, but know what a pain it probably is to work. I may throw a piece on the lathe just to say I tried, but if the tear out and need for very coarse sanding are what I expect, won't spend much time with it.

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This has been floated around among builders as a sound board and the logs usually aren’t that big enough to be sized for a standard top. There are challenges with the branches. Probably a parlor size or uke. If you have a sound room or a guitar room- spruce in general (or cedar) makes a great ship lap cladding for walls and makes for a great sounding environment (depends what you do with the floors and the ceiling as they are mutual).
 
Looks like standing dead. The dead usually does not have a sap issue. The branch whorl densities are a massive increase from the common wood. The clean wood turns very easy, just like Norway and White spruce. We've milled several 30" DBH by 40' logs. One had 'bear claw' figure, somebody in Nazareth PA ended up with it.

So ya, go for it. Oh, like Norway, Blue does sometimes have pitch pockets in the wood.
 
I would give it a spin I have turned several types of pine, not spruce though, they were all worth while. the ones that have been dead for a while might have some nice spalt or blue stain
 
I got a spruce burl. Some one gave it to me. I put it on floor of old kiln. Kiln was not running. A 20" burl. It was in there for a week before the person that i got for came to get it. He finally came to look at it. WOWWW. I have no idea how that much pitch could be in it. We figured that pitch had stiffened up and most had drain. About 3 hours later of him. He was covered head to toe. With one word. A$$hole! We had a great laugh but it went everywhere. This was before WB.
Now I bought some 20-30 spruce slabs 20-30" wide 3 " thick. Not one knot. That is where the pitch will be. No knots blemish or. Not that pitchy.
I have port orford cedar that reminds of spruce. Both strong light weight wood. I think the cedar is 400 Janka. Wood of choice for Japanese post and beam.
 
Mr. Peet said:
Looks like standing dead. The dead usually does not have a sap issue. The branch whorl densities are a massive increase from the common wood. The clean wood turns very easy, just like Norway and White spruce. We've milled several 30" DBH by 40' logs. One had 'bear claw' figure, somebody in Nazareth PA ended up with it.

So ya, go for it. Oh, like Norway, Blue does sometimes have pitch pockets in the wood.
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Blue and Engleman are very pitchy in west , semi arid west. But they do not usually get that big, they blow over. Now I think sitka ? Are the huge ones on coast. I think there are still 10' diameter. Maybe 75-100 feet to first limb. Much bigger stumps. WwII used a lot of spruce in planes
 
Soundboards are generally assessed based on stiffness to weight ratio- but that is useless information for you folks.
 
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  • #11
Rhizosphaera has hit these hard. They are 50 years old, and have been a great north windbreak for the house, but really are not suited for our climate.

Two are standing dead and need to get them out before summer storms potentially snap them and cause damage. Good to know that being dead, the sap issue shouldn't be a problem.

The smaller of the two split trunks has a little blue stain, as seen from end cuts. Probably won't save anything small, but the main trunk up to about waist high is 20"+, so will definitely save some of that for turning. Not expecting any spectacular grain, but should be a good opportunity for playing with embellishments.
 
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  • #12
And we have pitch pockets for the loss. It's all going to the burn pile. This was off the smaller side trunk.

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I have top sets that has pitch pockets- outside of the pattern though. This is prevalent in spruce species and redwood in my experience.
 
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  • #16
Mr. Peet said:
I think he is scared....just think, if them pockets were in a hardwood, it would be an accent, or get filled with turquoise or something....
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You are correct! I'd be saving every little piece, if it was a hardwood!:sarcastic:

I don't mind a little stickiness, but when it started running out with the lathe off, that's a little too much for me. I did "mop up" a couple other pockets by rubbing with hand fulls of sawdust, but this was the third before I even got it round.

If it had some figure/color/or anything worthwhile I'd turn it, and deal with the mess. However, pitch/sap wasn't the only problem. End grain tear out was horrible despite my best efforts with several tools.

I tried, I learned, I cut my losses before I needed to go get another gallon of solvent to clean up! :wink:
 
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