Neighbor had a magnolia tree - the one with the huge white
flowers and the big leaves - taken down and there are some
10"-12" diameter x 3' logettes out on the street. I can have
whatever I want but they pick that stuff up Monday morning.

Worth getting out my chainsaw and rescuing some of this
stuff - or not?

charlie b

"charlie b" wrote in message
...
Neighbor had a magnolia tree - the one with the huge white
Yep, should be some very interesting wood.

charlie b wrote:

Neighbor had a magnolia tree - the one with the huge white
flowers and the big leaves - taken down and there are some
10"-12" diameter x 3' logettes out on the street. I can have
whatever I want but they pick that stuff up Monday morning.

Worth getting out my chainsaw and rescuing some of this
stuff - or not?

charlie b

The trunk and limb wood has all the character of a sheet of bond paper.
However, if you can get the root ball, especially of a Japanese Magnolia,
you will be very pleased with the results. Even a good ole American garden
variety magnolia root ball is interesting to turn. Plays havoc with the
chain saw harvesting it though.

Deb

Magnolia can be an interesting looking wood. Especially if it spalts.
At the very worst case it is practice wood :-)
Go for it!!!

Matt

"Dr. Deb" wrote in message
...
charlie b wrote:

Neighbor had a magnolia tree - the one with the huge white
flowers and the big leaves - taken down and there are some
10"-12" diameter x 3' logettes out on the street. I can have
whatever I want but they pick that stuff up Monday morning.

Worth getting out my chainsaw and rescuing some of this
stuff - or not?

charlie b

The trunk and limb wood has all the character of a sheet of bond paper.
However, if you can get the root ball, especially of a Japanese Magnolia,
you will be very pleased with the results. Even a good ole American garden
variety magnolia root ball is interesting to turn. Plays havoc with the
chain saw harvesting it though.

Deb

charlie b wrote:
Neighbor had a magnolia tree - the one with the huge white
flowers and the big leaves - taken down and there are some
10"-12" diameter x 3' logettes out on the street. I can have
whatever I want but they pick that stuff up Monday morning.

Worth getting out my chainsaw and rescuing some of this
stuff - or not?

charlie b

I would get some and keep in a cool place. Southern Magnolia (NOT
Japanese) is fairly common here in S. Texas and I have turned a bunch.
It is fun and easy to turn, but splits like a sonafagun. But I did
find a way to stop it last time...

I turned and sanded the piece really close to the final thickness and
design. It was a Roman looking vase about 8" tall and about 4 1/1"
around at the rim. I cut the wall thickness to a little less than
3/16" or so, and cut the decorative rim down to about 1/4". As soon as
I sanded to about 320, I put a good coat of 3# shellac on it inside and
out and let it sit for about 3-4 months without touching it.

There was no warping, cracking or anything else nasty. But when it
dried, the walls of the vase shrank down to a little less than 1/8"!!
It now appears to be a really fine piece of hollowing/turning with
wonderfully thin and uniform walls. I took it to the club and let them
ooh and ahh over it... and then told them what I did.

The wood is pretty and white, spalts easily and has little grain if you
don't get a knotty piece.

I would get myself a nice bunch of it and cover it up with a tarp or
something like that. Even the logs I get will split every once and a
while, with the bark on and the ends sealed. Lotsa fun to turn,
though.

Robert

On Sat, 30 Sep 2006 19:45:18 -0700, charlie b wrote:

Neighbor had a magnolia tree - the one with the huge white
flowers and the big leaves - taken down and there are some
10"-12" diameter x 3' logettes out on the street. I can have
whatever I want but they pick that stuff up Monday morning.

Worth getting out my chainsaw and rescuing some of this
stuff - or not?

charlie b

Charlie... I asked the same question last year and got this great (for me,
anyway) advice:

if it's yellow and white, turn it..
if it's gray and brown, burn it...

I can't tell you the reasons for this, but mine was white and gold and I loved
turning it..


Mac

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

Thanks to all who responded to my query.

Looks like I'll need to switch bars and chains
on my chainsaw, pick through the pile and
cut some trunk pieces to workable sizes.
Will seal the ends with latex tile underlayment
sealer and create yet another stack of
"candidates for future turnings".

If you listen for the sound of a chainsaw
it's amazing how much free wood is
available. Last week I scored some olive
trunk and deodor cedar. This week it
was peach and magnolia. Now if someone
happened to take down an ebony tree . . .

The problem with having so much wood
available is finding a place to store it.
You can leave turning stuff outside under
a tarp. But milled boards for furniture
require indoor space. Have 200 bf of 4/4
QS S3S english sycamore coming and have
only a vague notion of where I'm going to
be able to put it.

charlie b

magnolia wood as pointed out is very plain - which is good because you can
emphazise form - but also, if you don't turn it immediately, it developes a
very attractive and pretty uniform gray spalting that I like
"Dr. Deb" wrote in message
...
charlie b wrote:

Neighbor had a magnolia tree - the one with the huge white
flowers and the big leaves - taken down and there are some
10"-12" diameter x 3' logettes out on the street. I can have
whatever I want but they pick that stuff up Monday morning.

Worth getting out my chainsaw and rescuing some of this
stuff - or not?

charlie b

The trunk and limb wood has all the character of a sheet of bond paper.
However, if you can get the root ball, especially of a Japanese Magnolia,
you will be very pleased with the results. Even a good ole American
garden
variety magnolia root ball is interesting to turn. Plays havoc with the
chain saw harvesting it though.

Deb



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Charlie
It is free is it not? Hence worth turning or at least piling. Sometimes I
think acquiring wood is as bad an addiction as turning wood. Or at least so
says my wife. Thank heaven her quilting stash is growing :-) Anytime someone
drops by there is some elm, spalted birch, maple, pin cherry, ash and apple
that need a home. Then there is the guy that has a couple of blacj cherry
logs for me. Feed the addiction, feed the addiction....
______
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS, Canada
www.aroundthewoods.com
"charlie b" wrote in message
...
Neighbor had a magnolia tree - the one with the huge white
flowers and the big leaves - taken down and there are some
10"-12" diameter x 3' logettes out on the street. I can have
whatever I want but they pick that stuff up Monday morning.

Worth getting out my chainsaw and rescuing some of this
stuff - or not?

charlie b