Not in the shop, but the desert instead.
@DWasson contacted me a few days ago and asked for some Cholla. I could not give him any info on the Cholla because the sizes(OD) were borderline of The Fulgida and the Versecolor.
That in turn prompted me to start a thread of the two varieties noting the differences of each Cactus.
He in turn contacted me again and noted what size and what species he wanted, so, today I went into the desert to specifically collect the Versecolor. I went to an area that uncaring people use as a dump dumping anything that that they want, including plenty of both varieties of Cholla. I got there, and found a lot of extremely clean Versecolor trunks, branches all from 1" to 4" OD. The bark is still on them and I'll do my best to clean it off.
Therer also a Fulgida trunk about 5-6" x 7' feet long that looked to be a future piece of lumber. I pulled it out and dragged it about 4-5 feet from the pile, dropped onto the ground so I could get my debarker tool, but when it hit the ground, it cracked. Clean crack, but it went from 7' long to 1 pc at 3' and the other at 4'. Disappointed to say the least, but that's the way it goes. here is my haul today.
Then I drove to another pile of junk, and could see some burls on the edges of the wood. I thought of Olive right away for some reason I can't come up with, but was correct on the species. The whole tree was there and looked like it hadn't been there more than a few months. It's probably over 16" OD, but I didn't have a blue cigarette lighter for size, so the beer can is for size since it has some blue on it. It looked to be about a 20 oz can if they make that size. I did not collect any of this tree as it will be there for a long time, and when @Crocy in Aus gets here, I'll take him out there and then collect it. You can observe, Croc. I'm not gonna put you to work.
I then decided I had enough Cholla, but wanted to find a live Versecolor about 3-4" OD and possibly 3-4" long. I'm guessing that I was in the middle of a Fulgida and Christmas Cactus(a very small Cholla) forest because there wasn't a Versecolor anywhere. I drove through the desert on 4WD sandy roads for over a mile before I finally found one. Cut it up and now it's time to head home. The cactus in the center of the picture is it. DWasson is going to get one piece of this. He'll have let it dry, then debark , clean out the center and find out what it's like going from fresh cut green to a dry piece. Don't ask how long it's going to take because I live in a desert, and he lives where the weather is totally different. I did cut up some Fulgida that was green once, mounted onto my lathe, and removed the bark by standing forward of the headstock, and used a bowl gouge that has a 14+" handle. Didn't get stuck, and kept the wet stuff from getting on me. It took about 3 months to dry, but it was put near a south window and I was not concerned about cracks which did not and have not appeared.
When I cut this up tomorrow, I'll post prices then. Look for a post in the "Wood for sale" forum. ........... Nubs
............. Nubs
