use some branch cut off disks as knobs
What did you do in your shop today?
- Thread starter woodtickgreg
- Start date
Excellent! You are really getting organized!
That would have been cool. But I went to Lowes just now and got handles that only cost a dollar each. They're two screws, but don't stick out far, have no edges or ledges to hang up cords or bang my knee on.
Make em.
Thursday I worked up a few reference wood samples. @Jonkou sent me a 1/4 sawn piece of Paper birch, Betula papyrifera. It was already at 1/2" thick but had some tare-out in the sapwood so I sanded to 7/16ths thick. Then I cut it to width and length. I was amazed as my brother's shop filled with the sweet smell I so often put with Black birch (B. lenta). Wondering if this was cut in the spring during sap run. Thank you John.
The next piece was Mgurue, Combretum schumannii, from @Big Ry that he got from Wisewoods UK. This wood had a musky smell that was familiar, but I never placed to what other woods. It often looked like walnut and ebony as I worked the wood. I know others on here got some of this wood from Ry, so hope they post pictures of what they make since my camera is still not working. Thanks Ry.
The last species was Sweet crab, Malus coronaria. This tree was growing in a recently made industrial park. I tracked it for a few years to confirm ID. This species is very rare in our neck of the woods. I have never seen it in any of the 13 states I worked research, but know it is listed being in many of them. In May, 2025 PENN-Dot got a new mowing machine and decided to mow way back from the road edge and pushed this tree over. Within a week I had salvaged the small short stem. I milled it in late June into 3/4" slabs. Followed the drying and recorded. The wood stabalized in July this year. I finished milled them Thursday into samples and see this morning, there has been movement. One sample has boxed pith so did not expect any movement. The other sample is over pith. It moved about the same. Each are a touch thick, so will wait a few months and maybe re-sand for milling.
Other shop stuff was mower related. Friday, made gaskets to OHV covers for Cub Cadet. Installed muffler gaskets and repaired muffler and muffler sheild. Saturday, started replacing choke cable on JD 316 and headlight switch when called away.
The next piece was Mgurue, Combretum schumannii, from @Big Ry that he got from Wisewoods UK. This wood had a musky smell that was familiar, but I never placed to what other woods. It often looked like walnut and ebony as I worked the wood. I know others on here got some of this wood from Ry, so hope they post pictures of what they make since my camera is still not working. Thanks Ry.
The last species was Sweet crab, Malus coronaria. This tree was growing in a recently made industrial park. I tracked it for a few years to confirm ID. This species is very rare in our neck of the woods. I have never seen it in any of the 13 states I worked research, but know it is listed being in many of them. In May, 2025 PENN-Dot got a new mowing machine and decided to mow way back from the road edge and pushed this tree over. Within a week I had salvaged the small short stem. I milled it in late June into 3/4" slabs. Followed the drying and recorded. The wood stabalized in July this year. I finished milled them Thursday into samples and see this morning, there has been movement. One sample has boxed pith so did not expect any movement. The other sample is over pith. It moved about the same. Each are a touch thick, so will wait a few months and maybe re-sand for milling.
Other shop stuff was mower related. Friday, made gaskets to OHV covers for Cub Cadet. Installed muffler gaskets and repaired muffler and muffler sheild. Saturday, started replacing choke cable on JD 316 and headlight switch when called away.
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Hey Mark, great to hear the history of some of your samples. Sounds like you’ve been busy doing a lot of stuff, having some fun with it! Thanks for sharing.
The tree came down in the big storm we had in Apr 2024. Cut to lengths and stacked on pallets, cut into blanks this spring.
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Definitely would like to see pictures of the Mgurure. I still haven't worked it myself! FYI it came from Woodwise, not Wisewoods (in case anyone tries to source it in the future, and they restock).
I've never heard the name sweet crab before. Is it an edible apple? Wood grain similar to other more common apple species?
Ho Mark, I’m curious about the sweet crab apple too, and how it compares to common crab apple. We had a crab apple tree growing up. There’s a crab apple tree growing over by where my mother lives now. Next time I’m over there, I will take a closer look at and see if one of the apps can identify it.
That makes sense. Spring time would for sure have more sugars. That smell was great, however, I have a weakness for birch syrup and birch beer and birch everything.
I'll ask the wife if she could take some phone pictures. Had Woodwise written down, guess that lesdixia kicked in while typing. Spelling corrected. Thanks.
Sweet crab, well, these were super tart until a few frosts. The little green apples (crabapples) get a blush late August here, then change to shades of yellow as they age on the tree. They hung on the tree for months. I had a few in October, better tasting but looking brown on the outside and had a few in early November. By then they were mealy and brown on the inside and out. Not appealing. These small trees have spurs that sometimes are thorns. The tree my samples came from was about 30 years old and 12-13 feet tall.
The wood looks just like common apple, however has smaller growth rings being a slower growing plant.
There are many species of crabapple. Most that we see in the landscape are planted for flowering beauty and many of these are Asian natives. The sweet crab is a US native with pomes about 2" in diameter. Jams and jellies and cider later in the fall for this native are its uses. The Asian crabs often have pinks and purples in the wood when freshly cut that often fades to an almond or rich deep brown.
The American crab apple. Sure there are many stories from that phrase.
Birch beer is the absolute best
Don't ya' hate it when one job leads to another which leads to another? I moved the bird feeder out from under the big juniper in back because the squirrels had figured out how to jump onto the feeders from the juniper. Unfortunately, where I moved the feeder to was close to a "dry creek" rock lined drain we put in when we first moved here. The quails and a few other birds are like chickens and scratch around in the mulch. So they were flinging all the mulch and juniper detritus onto my rock bed. So I decided to move the feeders back away from the rock bed. But them that put it too close to the juniper again so I decided the one big limb above the feeder had to go. Using one of those long yellow lopper things with a curved saw blade on the end, I cut down the branch, which took switching sides a couple times, etc. Then I had to get rid of the branch so I used loppers to cut off all the inch and half minus branches. But them I had to get rid of those so I brought down the dumpster and cut up all the branches so they'd fit in the dumpster. But them I still had a 7 foot long 4 - 6 inch diameter juniper branch. Cutting that with the saw was going to be a chore so I got my axe out and chopped it into three pieces. But while doing that the axe head slid out almost off the handle. So I had to make a new wedge and resecured my axe head. What I thought was a 15 minute job to move the feeder turned into an hour long chore. And on top of that I whacked the back of my hand on the juniper branches and lost a little red stuff. Now it's MIller time and time to waste with youse yoots..