You can make bows from wood with knots. They are just hard to tiller and usually have less poundage unless backed with something like sinew, rawhide or fibreglass. I have also seen some experimental carbon fibre backing which would work well too but I haven’t tried it. My bowyer days are quite long gone.
What free wood did you find today?
- Thread starter woodtickgreg
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Which one? The calicotome is way to small for anything except a pen blank (if you are lucky). The r. alaternus is reasonably stable, so once it's dry it can be used. This is a small pencil holder:
You can see just a tiny stripe between the yellow and the brown where the wood takes the orange/pinkish colour of the r. cathartica samples @daniscool sent me.
This is a 6-8" wide board waiting to be dry:
In fact I think the yellow is not actually sapwood but rather heartwood, but there is some discussion about naming on this.
This doesn't have knots, but rather proper cavities.
Hmm. You are right about that. As long as the back is not violated you can still make a bow from this. I would not try it as my skill as a bowyer is rather limited but Byron will probably be able to assess the situation better.
Yesterday I went into the desert again for Versecolor Cholla only. Where I started looking, it was all smaller than 2" trunks. I went south on the road, found another BLM land parcel, and found a bunch more just a tad larger than the first stop. Grabbed a few, and went further south past a fire station, pretty much the last real building there. It's all private land 20-30 acres each plot, but covers at least a whole section then turns into State Trust Land. That's the land you don't want to get caught on taking a leak on as then you are littering it instead of just admiring it. Just kidding on that, but you can only take pictures and only leave footprints on it. A hunting license allows me to go onto it, but the only thing I can get off the land is an animal, and it had better be dead.
Back to the Cholla. Here is a picture or two. Most of it is from pen blank size to one piece being over 4", I hope. I'm going to start pressure washing it in the next 30 minutes. Tomorrow, I'll start cutting it to sizes that have been asked for.
I have a Flintknapping friend in Georgia that wants a box valued at 200 bucks for knife handles.
Since he's not a member of this sight, it's not a backroom deal. ................ Nubs
Back to the Cholla. Here is a picture or two. Most of it is from pen blank size to one piece being over 4", I hope. I'm going to start pressure washing it in the next 30 minutes. Tomorrow, I'll start cutting it to sizes that have been asked for.
I have a Flintknapping friend in Georgia that wants a box valued at 200 bucks for knife handles.
Since he's not a member of this sight, it's not a backroom deal. ................ Nubs
This is my best and largest Versecolor trunk I've found so far. It is 4 1/2" OD and 12" from the round void and up to where the branches start. It's very solid which is amazing as after they die standing up, bugs attack them and then rot starts in. But, this had the live color on the trunk indicating it was fresh deceased.
These other 3 are all large trunks, but not al long or as straight as the first one. It took almost 3 hours to clean them to the stage they are. The bark does not want to come off, but when it does, the wood is purdy.
When I finish cleaning and cutting them up, I'll post it all in the "wood for sale" thread. It's gonna be a couple days as the bark just does not want to come off. ............ Nubs
These other 3 are all large trunks, but not al long or as straight as the first one. It took almost 3 hours to clean them to the stage they are. The bark does not want to come off, but when it does, the wood is purdy.
When I finish cleaning and cutting them up, I'll post it all in the "wood for sale" thread. It's gonna be a couple days as the bark just does not want to come off. ............ Nubs
A few days ago. Milled some more mulberry and sassafras on the Short/Cut then removed it and milled an 8’ elm and sassafras.
Wife sent me on a mission of mercy, she had baked some sourdough bread and cinnamon rolls. Her best friend had total knee replacement a week ago and she was up to the 45 minute drive to the friends house so I did it for her. Taking a back road home I found a big Beech tree that had fallen across the road and had been cut enough to allow traffic. I helped my self to the only pieces that I could pick up. The cookie, more the size of a large cake than a cookie is 30" X 27” X 8"+. Had it been any thicker I doubt I could have gotten it in the back of the minivan.
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Wife sent me on a mission of mercy, she had baked some sourdough bread and cinnamon rolls. Her best friend had total knee replacement a week ago and she was up to the 45 minute drive to the friends house so I did it for her. Taking a back road home I found a big Beech tree that had fallen across the road and had been cut enough to allow traffic. I helped my self to the only pieces that I could pick up. The cookie, more the size of a large cake than a cookie is 30" X 27” X 8"+. Had it been any thicker I doubt I could have gotten it in the back of the minivan.
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Great find! And really nice lumber! Congrats!
I managed to get a 1/2 sheet of 1/4" plywood yesterday from the house next door. That makes a 1/2 sheet of the most common sizes.
So far I've got a 1/2 sheet of 3/4", one of 1/2", and now a 1/4". I say, let it keep coming. I can always find a use for a 1/2 sheet of decent plywood.
What say the collective?
So far I've got a 1/2 sheet of 3/4", one of 1/2", and now a 1/4". I say, let it keep coming. I can always find a use for a 1/2 sheet of decent plywood.
What say the collective?
Always useful. In any case you can use it for jigs.
They have lots of glue in them, so don't use them for camp fires. When heating the house, be sure they are completely consumed before opening the stove. If you lack a smoke recycler on your stove, mix them in with regular wood for cleaner emissions. Hope you find good use for the sheets.
Sounds good to me. I have 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 5/8, and 3/4 in partials that get thrown away at work. I also have 7/16 and 23/32 osb/ advantech sheet goods from the same source. Plywood is always useful. For something.
Plywood is always good to have around. I have a bunch of reasonable size scraps I keep around. Chuck
I get 1/2" and thinner "finished" plywood scraps from a cabinet maker friend of mine. He calls them scrap. I call them gold. When he gets a load that needs to go to the dump he calls me and I load them up to take to the dump. Of course I pick through them first
I'm doing this Hickory job that has some odd sizes, and that creates a lot of 10-12" wide scrap of 3/4" Pro Core Hickory. Just 2 days ago I got a price of 3/4 at $142.27 per sheet. That's $4.57 per square foot. Somehow, I just can't toss anything unless it less than 3" wide and certainly can not toss a 1 square foot or larger piece. I just can't do it.
Ask @Crocy in Aus. about my stash. He'll verify it. ............ Nubs
Ask @Crocy in Aus. about my stash. He'll verify it. ............ Nubs
It's a common issue :p
Today I was helping my friend do some purging and organizing in his pole barn. His dad passed last year, they do a lot of work on old cars. Probably 25 years ago, his dad had a bunch of trees taken down to build the new barn. He had the wood mill into lumber, and he used a lot of it in the barn. But there are still odds and ends stacks all over the place. Today we were working on consolidating it all in one place. Now, he’s more of a wrench turner and a mechanic, not a woodworker. He said, feel free to load up and take whatever you want. This truckload of cherry followed me home.
Congrats! You sure have nice friends! Gorgeous lumber!