Sorry to post two in a row, but I am looking for suggestions for finding
inexpensive wood to turn.

I have an uncle who lives in a rural area and would probably share fire wood
with me. Would green, roughly chopped wood, work?

How about softwood throw aways from my local big box lumber store?

Any other ideas?

Joseph

In article , Joseph Handy
wrote:

I have an uncle who lives in a rural area and would probably share fire wood
with me. Would green, roughly chopped wood, work?

It's your best wood to learn on.

I periodically post a message on my local newsgroups offering to take
down small hardwood trees, which has netted me some nice fruitwood.

Walking the dog and bicycling with eyes open has got me some beautiful
box elder burl and elm by just ringing a doorbell. Especially after a
windstorm...

And noting the tree service trucks in the neighborhood and not being
shy to ask has netted crabapple, willow, elm and ash.

Joseph
Firewood is great stuff. Check out my website under roughing a bowl.

--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS Canada
www.aroundthewoods.com

Throwaway wood from lumber stores and furniture makers is how I
started, a great resource for seasoned! wood to be used on small or
even large (depending on your luck) turnings.
Also everyone else above me is also correct... I now get a lot of my
wood from neighbors cutting down or fallen trees.

Joseph, once you get the hang of looking for it, wood is everywhere. I
have guys that work with me bring me stuff all the time. A piece of
this, a piece of that, and pretty soon you have more than you can turn.

In addition to the sources mentioned above, I have also had great luck
with the 4X4 skids that wind up under all sorts of heavy things that
need to be moved with a forklift. I look it over carefully to make
sure there are no fasteners or anything that has been ground into the
wood, but have never had a big problem with anything I have picked up
over the years. I have found maple, poplar, white oak, red oak,
sycamore, and many kinds of wood I can't identify that make great tool
handles, Christmas ornaments, small bowls and vases, etc. A local tool
importer here in town regularly throws away pallets that have mahogany,
and some other kinds of unknown exotic looking stuff used as skids.

Wood is wood. The source doesn't matter as long as you are careful
when using it to make sure it is not one of those super allergen trees,
or something that has been treated with rot or bug resistant materials.

Robert

"Joseph Handy" wrote in message
...
Sorry to post two in a row, but I am looking for suggestions for finding
inexpensive wood to turn.

I have an uncle who lives in a rural area and would probably share fire
wood with me. Would green, roughly chopped wood, work?

How about softwood throw aways from my local big box lumber store?


Look at your firewood before burning. Sometimes you get lucky.

http://photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...-The-Stove.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...nt=Linseed.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...rofile-Oil.jpg


Gratitude is important. As you gain a reputation for wanting oddball pieces
of wood, you must remember to repay in the appropriate coin. Can be a piece
of work from "their" wood, a six-pack of the favorite beverage, or taking
the farmer who skids for me and his wife out to Red Lobster for dinner and
not flinching when he ordered chicken.

Then you can come home as I did one snowy day, to discover a 16 inch 8 foot
cherry log beside the drive. Remained a mystery for four months until I got
a Short Of Breath - love the dispatcher shorthand "old, SOB" comes over the
pager - call to an acquaintance's house. Between vitals, we chatted in the
back of the rig. It was he who delivered the log.

Great ideas. Thanks!

So green wood remains stable after turning? It won't shrink and crack?

One last question, what's a skid?

Joseph

"George" George@least wrote in message
...

"Joseph Handy" wrote in message
...
Sorry to post two in a row, but I am looking for suggestions for finding
inexpensive wood to turn.

I have an uncle who lives in a rural area and would probably share fire
wood with me. Would green, roughly chopped wood, work?

How about softwood throw aways from my local big box lumber store?


Look at your firewood before burning. Sometimes you get lucky.

http://photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...-The-Stove.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...nt=Linseed.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...rofile-Oil.jpg


Gratitude is important. As you gain a reputation for wanting oddball
pieces of wood, you must remember to repay in the appropriate coin. Can
be a piece of work from "their" wood, a six-pack of the favorite
beverage, or taking the farmer who skids for me and his wife out to Red
Lobster for dinner and not flinching when he ordered chicken.

Then you can come home as I did one snowy day, to discover a 16 inch 8
foot cherry log beside the drive. Remained a mystery for four months
until I got a Short Of Breath - love the dispatcher shorthand "old, SOB"
comes over the pager - call to an acquaintance's house. Between vitals,
we chatted in the back of the rig. It was he who delivered the log.

"Joseph Handy" wrote in message
...
Great ideas. Thanks!

So green wood remains stable after turning? It won't shrink and crack?

One last question, what's a skid?


If you cut it thin, it will distort, but it'll seldom crack, unless you're
_really_ dry. Tent with some newsprint to bring it down slower. Keeps
things damper underneath.

This piece, as you can see by the initial picture, was a chunk of firewood
split a year ago, so it was pretty dry to begin with.

Skidding is the process of getting the cut logs out of the woods. Nowadays
they no longer skid them along the ground, which I suppose was the origin of
the term, rather lift them with beasts like this, or larger.
http://www.transport.qld.gov.au/qt/LTASinfo.nsf/ReferenceLookup/Log_timber_skidder.pdf/$file/Log_timber_skidder.pdf

On 21 Mar 2006 21:22:26 -0800, wrote:

Joseph, once you get the hang of looking for it, wood is everywhere. I
have guys that work with me bring me stuff all the time. A piece of
this, a piece of that, and pretty soon you have more than you can turn.

In addition to the sources mentioned above, I have also had great luck
with the 4X4 skids that wind up under all sorts of heavy things that
need to be moved with a forklift. I look it over carefully to make
sure there are no fasteners or anything that has been ground into the
wood, but have never had a big problem with anything I have picked up
over the years. I have found maple, poplar, white oak, red oak,
sycamore, and many kinds of wood I can't identify that make great tool
handles, Christmas ornaments, small bowls and vases, etc. A local tool
importer here in town regularly throws away pallets that have mahogany,
and some other kinds of unknown exotic looking stuff used as skids.

Wood is wood. The source doesn't matter as long as you are careful
when using it to make sure it is not one of those super allergen trees,
or something that has been treated with rot or bug resistant materials.

Robert

Sort of adding to Robert's comments... as people find out that you're a turner,
wood opportunities appear magically...
Other people's dead trees or fallen wood are our treasures.... *g*

Mac

https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis
https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis/wood_stuff.htm

Yes, I'm getting to the point where I have to turn down offerings from
neighbors, friends, and family because I've got so much. This is the
beauty of turning verses other types of woodworking - just about any
part of the tree can be used.

One suggestion if you haven't already - buy a good chainsaw and proper
horse ot hold logs while cutting. Borrowing a chainsaw got to be a bit
tiresome, when I had so much wood to cut.

Also, your better half would appreciate if you kept logs in a somewhat
systematic piling. Having wood just 'thrown' around in the backyard
has yielded several complaints.

Hi Joseph,
I'm known by this ng as a COC (crotchety ole coot) so I'll mention an
occasional problem about 'gift wood': the super nice person who brings
and keeps on bringing in ever increasing quantity, trash wood.

You accept the well meant gift graciously, although later you are forced
to think up excuses why you haven't turned any of it yet.This results in
even more 'gifts' while the donor basks in the pleasures of giving.
What to do? The growing stack requires guilty stealth trips to the
bonfire, but eventually, you'll get caught and your friend's feelings
are hurt.

Some turners will argue that no tree grows that is useless for
woodturning and with enough time spent and talent used up that is
probably true. I know that "only God can make a tree", but some "fools
like me" have come to believe that there _are some timbers that just
aren't worth the effort of preparing and turning.

For those who have come to agree, I suggest that it's best to explain
this to your kind and generous friends up front. Of course, we thank
them profusely for their kind and generous gifts of firewood.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 20:39:48 -0500, "Joseph Handy"
wrote:

Sorry to post two in a row, but I am looking for suggestions for finding
inexpensive wood to turn.

The first green wood I turned, I got from walking in the county forest
and cutting up trees that had fallen over trails with a bow saw and an
axe. Not all of it was good to turn, but a lot of it was- and it
helped clean up the roadway for others. I'm sure any local parks or
other similar things in your area would be more than happy to have you
help them clean off the paths if you talk to the right people about
it.

I have an uncle who lives in a rural area and would probably share fire wood
with me. Would green, roughly chopped wood, work?

Sure it will, I've turned a bunch of that too- though I still have a
hard time turning oak. That stuff cracks like crazy and likes to
throw splinters at me when I use it. I only mention it because it's
such a common firewood where I live.

How about softwood throw aways from my local big box lumber store?

That'd work fine too- there's no rule against gluing scraps together
to make a blank. You can even use plywood, and it gives you an
interesting striped effect. Do a search for segemented turning, and
you'll see that there is a lot of really nice stuff made out of glued
up odds and ends.

Any other ideas?

My best stuff has come from asking tree removal people if I can take a
couple of chunks from trees they're cutting down. Half the time,
they're hauling pieces out of a backyard with a wheelbarrow, and are
only too happy to let you have some of it because it's that much less
they have to cart over to the truck. If you ask nice, and have the
equipment to take care of it, they'll even let you have the whole tree
for nothing. A lot of that wood just goes in a chipper. The second
best is going around the neighborhood and looking for downed trees
after storms- the city will pick them up, but homeowners are usually
perfectly happy to let you chop them up, take some of the wood and
move the rest onto the curb for them.

Joseph

"George" George@least wrote:


"Joseph Handy" wrote in message
...
Great ideas. Thanks!

So green wood remains stable after turning? It won't shrink and
crack?

One last question, what's a skid?


If you cut it thin, it will distort, but it'll seldom crack, unless
you're _really_ dry. Tent with some newsprint to bring it down
slower. Keeps things damper underneath.

This piece, as you can see by the initial picture, was a chunk of
firewood split a year ago, so it was pretty dry to begin with.

Skidding is the process of getting the cut logs out of the woods.
Nowadays they no longer skid them along the ground, which I suppose
was the origin of the term, rather lift them with beasts like this, or
larger.
http://www.transport.qld.gov.au/qt/L...Lookup/Log_tim
ber_skidder.pdf/$file/Log_timber_skidder.pdf




They often put poles in/on the road to stabilize it as he

http://www.historicphotoarchive.com/caps7/00630.htm

And the current lifting equipment is called a Log Skidder.

Skidding was done when they couldn't get the rails close enough for
highline loading, or pre-railroads.

Hi Joe,

I turned a piece for a friend at work and others loved the piece. I put
the word out that if I get logs of good wood, I will turn a bowl, box pens,
etc. for them for the effort. I have netted ash, maple, walnut box elder,
cedar, and some cherry so far. Not bad for free! I had enough last year to
turn bowls for my entire Christmas list and still have left overs. :-) Gotta
luv good freinds and fallen trees!

Dan

"Prometheus" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 20:39:48 -0500, "Joseph Handy"
wrote:

Sorry to post two in a row, but I am looking for suggestions for finding
inexpensive wood to turn.

The first green wood I turned, I got from walking in the county forest
and cutting up trees that had fallen over trails with a bow saw and an
axe. Not all of it was good to turn, but a lot of it was- and it
helped clean up the roadway for others. I'm sure any local parks or
other similar things in your area would be more than happy to have you
help them clean off the paths if you talk to the right people about
it.

I have an uncle who lives in a rural area and would probably share fire
wood
with me. Would green, roughly chopped wood, work?

Sure it will, I've turned a bunch of that too- though I still have a
hard time turning oak. That stuff cracks like crazy and likes to
throw splinters at me when I use it. I only mention it because it's
such a common firewood where I live.

How about softwood throw aways from my local big box lumber store?

That'd work fine too- there's no rule against gluing scraps together
to make a blank. You can even use plywood, and it gives you an
interesting striped effect. Do a search for segemented turning, and
you'll see that there is a lot of really nice stuff made out of glued
up odds and ends.

Any other ideas?

My best stuff has come from asking tree removal people if I can take a
couple of chunks from trees they're cutting down. Half the time,
they're hauling pieces out of a backyard with a wheelbarrow, and are
only too happy to let you have some of it because it's that much less
they have to cart over to the truck. If you ask nice, and have the
equipment to take care of it, they'll even let you have the whole tree
for nothing. A lot of that wood just goes in a chipper. The second
best is going around the neighborhood and looking for downed trees
after storms- the city will pick them up, but homeowners are usually
perfectly happy to let you chop them up, take some of the wood and
move the rest onto the curb for them.

Joseph

"Lobby Dosser" wrote in message
news:GIoUf.4978$hC.2314@trnddc08...
They often put poles in/on the road to stabilize it as he

http://www.historicphotoarchive.com/caps7/00630.htm

And the current lifting equipment is called a Log Skidder.

Skidding was done when they couldn't get the rails close enough for
highline loading, or pre-railroads.

There are still more than a few "roads" around here that show their corduroy
origin during spring breakup.

Classic method here was wheels in the summer, sledge in winter.
http://www.sos.state.mi.us/history/m.../bigwheel.html

Now it's single machines that grip, cut, limb, cut to stick lengths and
deck. Think Earl gave half a million for his last one.

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:27:13 -0500, (Arch) wrote:

Hi Joseph,
I'm known by this ng as a COC (crotchety ole coot) so I'll mention an
occasional problem about 'gift wood': the super nice person who brings
and keeps on bringing in ever increasing quantity, trash wood.

Arch.. having had this problem a few times, I've found that honesty is the best
solution... and if I'm in a good mood, maybe a little tact... (you don't KNOW
crotchety until you've been to my neighborhood)

They usually ask something like "can you use this?"

My usual reply is that I can always use wood either for turning or burning...
and since most of the folks that I know enjoy stopping by the shop and enjoying
the fire, it works well..

A lot of them SAY they have wood and then flake out... one guy is supposed to
take out an olive tree for a friend next month and I really, really hope that
he's serious..
Mac

https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis
https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis/wood_stuff.htm

skids, like was mentioned before, if people move large objects with a
fork lift they put wood under it so they can back out the forklift.
Next time they need to move it they slide the forks under the load as it
is prop ed up by the wood. some truckers use it for the same thing.
Some cheap pallets are the same, two timbers with boards nailed across
the top, your material can be stacked on top and moved around with a
forklift. you just need to watch for hidden metal or rocks.

Bruce

Joseph Handy wrote:
Great ideas. Thanks!

So green wood remains stable after turning? It won't shrink and crack?

One last question, what's a skid?

Joseph

"George" George@least wrote in message
...
"Joseph Handy" wrote in message
...
Sorry to post two in a row, but I am looking for suggestions for finding
inexpensive wood to turn.

I have an uncle who lives in a rural area and would probably share fire
wood with me. Would green, roughly chopped wood, work?

How about softwood throw aways from my local big box lumber store?

Look at your firewood before burning. Sometimes you get lucky.

http://photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...-The-Stove.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...nt=Linseed.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...rofile-Oil.jpg


Gratitude is important. As you gain a reputation for wanting oddball
pieces of wood, you must remember to repay in the appropriate coin. Can
be a piece of work from "their" wood, a six-pack of the favorite
beverage, or taking the farmer who skids for me and his wife out to Red
Lobster for dinner and not flinching when he ordered chicken.

Then you can come home as I did one snowy day, to discover a 16 inch 8
foot cherry log beside the drive. Remained a mystery for four months
until I got a Short Of Breath - love the dispatcher shorthand "old, SOB"
comes over the pager - call to an acquaintance's house. Between vitals,
we chatted in the back of the rig. It was he who delivered the log.

Arch wrote:
Hi Joseph,
I'm known by this ng as a COC (crotchety ole coot) so I'll mention an
occasional problem about 'gift wood': the super nice person who brings
and keeps on bringing in ever increasing quantity, trash wood.

You accept the well meant gift graciously, although later you are forced
to think up excuses why you haven't turned any of it yet.This results in
even more 'gifts' while the donor basks in the pleasures of giving.
What to do? The growing stack requires guilty stealth trips to the
bonfire, but eventually, you'll get caught and your friend's feelings
are hurt.

Some turners will argue that no tree grows that is useless for
woodturning and with enough time spent and talent used up that is
probably true. I know that "only God can make a tree", but some "fools
like me" have come to believe that there _are some timbers that just
aren't worth the effort of preparing and turning.

For those who have come to agree, I suggest that it's best to explain
this to your kind and generous friends up front. Of course, we thank
them profusely for their kind and generous gifts of firewood.

Yeah, I agree. It's like Lane Philips said at the '97 Utah Woodturners
Symposium, 'Life's too short to turn ugly wood'.

....Kevin
--
Kevin Miller
http://www.alaska.net/~atftb
Juneau, Alaska
Registered Linux User No: 307357