Another question about suitable wood for turning.

I can get a hold of a quantity of Silver Birch newly cut. I have been told
that it gets softer as it dries and is unsuitable for turning. Any comments
please.

Tom.

On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:11:36 GMT, "Tom Dougall"
wrote:

Another question about suitable wood for turning.

I can get a hold of a quantity of Silver Birch newly cut. I have been told
that it gets softer as it dries and is unsuitable for turning. Any comments
please.

I'm not positive which of them is "silver" birch, but I have turned a
bit of yellow birch, and I think it's great stuff. There's a lot of
nice figure even in the boring parts of the log, with a subtle bluish
tint in a lot of it. It's well worth turning- but keep the logs in a
dry, cool place. If you don't, you're likely to end up with a whole
lot of nothing.

One thing I can warn you about it is that it rots fast. Especially
paper birch (might be the silver birch you're talking about). Maybe
it's drying, and that is what I've seen, but it does turn into mush
fast. But, if you've got sound wood, turn it and get a finish on it,
that has never happened to me.

A lot of times, birch will be standing dead, and rot so thuroughly
that you can knock a large tree over with hand pressure. (and hope
the top doesn't fall on you when it breaks into 3 or 4 big pieces,
DAMHIKT) Obviously, this stuff is no good for anything at that point,
unless you want to strip the bark off and use it for something.

On 4 jul, 12:11, "Tom Dougall" wrote:
Another question about suitable wood for turning.

I can get a hold of a quantity of Silver Birch newly cut. I have been told
that it gets softer as it dries and is unsuitable for turning. Any comments
please.

Tom.

Two of my turnings of the birch you're probably talking about:
http://www.woodarts4u.com/products/29L.jpg
http://www.woodarts4u.com/products/27L.jpg

I find no wood unsuitable for turning. Someone told me that the softer
kinds of pine are unsuitable for turning, for me it becomes a
challenge which can lead to:
http://www.woodarts4u.com/products/21L.jpg

One example of very tortured beech, more than half of it is very
spalted, parts of the spalted part had become spongy, but CA came in
helpful:
http://www.woodarts4u.com/products/31L.jpg

Just keep the tools sharp.

Gerard

Tom,
I have turned several different species of birch but not silver. The
quality of the wood from birch trees differs significantly from species to
species. White and yellow birch are fast growing trees with wide growth
rings and tend to deteriorate quickly. On the other hand, black and river
birch are slow growing trees with very tight growth rings. These are
excellent to turn and will store indefinitely if kept in a dry place. I
love the look of the slower growing birches. With an oil finish the wood
has some great depth and can have chatoyance. Hope this helps.
Tony Manella
ndd1"at"prolog.net (remove "at")
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners
www.lehighvalleywoodturners.com

"Tom Dougall" wrote in message
...
Another question about suitable wood for turning.

I can get a hold of a quantity of Silver Birch newly cut. I have been
told that it gets softer as it dries and is unsuitable for turning. Any
comments please.

Tom.

"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote in message
. ..
White and yellow birch are fast growing trees with wide growth
rings and tend to deteriorate quickly.

No, not really. Yellow birch is a shade-tolerant tree which contributes a
good portion of our local climax forest. White birch, as in Betula
papyfera, is a shade-intolerant tree capable of good growth in
burned/cutover areas. It will even grow on poor quality soil, though much
slower.

On the other hand, black and river birch are slow growing trees with very
tight growth rings. These are excellent to turn and will store
indefinitely if kept in a dry place.

Black (Betula lenta) is also called sweet birch, river birch, or cherry
birch, and has a wonderful pink color which reminds of cherry, as well as
bark which is broken into lenticels rather than paper layers. Smells
strongly of wintergreen when it's fresh, which makes it a fragrant joy to
turn.

All the birches I know have waterproof bark, an attribute taken advantage of
by the aboriginals, which means that it spalts fast in its "container."
Best to take it to clean wood quickly to avoid the spalt. Waterproof bark
is also the reason why you don't want to try and use a birch log fallen
across a stream for a bridge. Odds on it's a shell full of trash, and will
pitch you into the water.

"George" wrote in message
et...

"TonyM" tonym.le"at"comcast.net wrote in message
. ..
White and yellow birch are fast growing trees with wide growth
rings and tend to deteriorate quickly.

No, not really. Yellow birch is a shade-tolerant tree which contributes a
good portion of our local climax forest. White birch, as in Betula
papyfera, is a shade-intolerant tree capable of good growth in
burned/cutover areas. It will even grow on poor quality soil, though much
slower.

On the other hand, black and river birch are slow growing trees with very
tight growth rings. These are excellent to turn and will store
indefinitely if kept in a dry place.

Black (Betula lenta) is also called sweet birch, river birch, or cherry
birch, and has a wonderful pink color which reminds of cherry, as well as
bark which is broken into lenticels rather than paper layers. Smells
strongly of wintergreen when it's fresh, which makes it a fragrant joy to
turn.

All the birches I know have waterproof bark, an attribute taken advantage
of by the aboriginals, which means that it spalts fast in its "container."
Best to take it to clean wood quickly to avoid the spalt. Waterproof bark
is also the reason why you don't want to try and use a birch log fallen
across a stream for a bridge. Odds on it's a shell full of trash, and
will pitch you into the water.
I heard that Baltic Birch plywood is made out of Silver Birch from Russia.
They say that their forests are loaded with silver Birch.

"Dave" wrote in message
...
I heard that Baltic Birch plywood is made out of Silver Birch from Russia.
They say that their forests are loaded with silver Birch.



Theirs have the white bark, though not as papery - almost an alder look to
it, and they are abundant, growing on the "podzol" soils which are really
poor quality. Russians make neat baskets and boxes out of it, as well as
the traditional buckets.

The "weeping" birch is sort of neat looking. Think it's called a silver by
the folks who grow ornamentals in nurseries. Russians are fond of planting
it as an ornamental.

"Baltic" can be Finnish, Russian, Estonian, etc. First encountered the
stuff in some 5x5 metric thickness floor underlayment. Saw the Cyrillic F-A
in that cheap purple color stamp they use everywhere on it. "Fabrika," or
"factory" and a number.

Hi Tom

Are you in Europe ??

The silver birch is the normal NW European Birch, very similar to the
Paper Birch her in N.America, and if you have fresh cut Birch, you
have good turning wood, it's just plain light colored wood, as I
remember from cutting it for firewood as a boy in Holland, the wood
does not get soft from drying, but you do have to keep it out of the
wet, as it will rot in short order if left on the wet ground.

As I never worked with large size Silver Birch, I don't know it it has
more color than the thinner stuff, I do know that one of the best if
not the best tool making company that made shovels, pitch and
hayforks, in that time, used birch for handles, and they did stand up
well, light and strong, the co. name was Wedevag, don't know if they
are still around or not.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo


On Jul 4, 6:11 am, "Tom Dougall" wrote:
Another question about suitable wood for turning.

I can get a hold of a quantity of Silver Birch newly cut. I have been told
that it gets softer as it dries and is unsuitable for turning. Any comments
please.

Tom.