# milling in a walnut orchard



## BlueRider (Jan 30, 2009)

here are some pics of my first day out at a walnut orchard that is being removed. Actualy this is the second phase of the project. the trees are english (juglans regia) grafted onto claro (juglans hindsii) root stock. this orchard was planted in the late 40's and the multiple branches were grafted at the top of the bole. There are about 90 trees that have been removed. Its hard to capture what its like to see all the trees laying on their sides, the scale gets lost in a picture. the first two pics are partial shots of the orchard.











here is a pic of one of the trees laying as it fell after being pushed over by a D3. I didn't measure it but it is probably close to 30" in diameter. 





this is the log I tackled today. It takes a bit of time to clear out enough of the braches to make enough room to mill the trunk. I bucked a bunch of the larger libs for firewood but the bulk of the prep time was spent on the root ball. I used a trenching spade to dig as much dirt away from the roots as I could so I could see where to cut to maximize being able to mill as much of the root ball as possible. Almost 1/3 of the length of the log you see in the pic was below ground. I put my mill on the log for scale. The saw is an 051 with a 42" bar and the mill has 48" rails.





The log is a hair over 8' long and just under 36" at the widest point. I think you can see why I like to mill these with the root ball atached to the bole, it has some of the most spectacular figure in the whole tree. 





here is a shot of the top part of the bole and the graft lines. the graft line is that dark wavy line in the upper right hand part of the slab. there are several other graft lines in this slab but that is the one that is easiest to see in the pic. As it dries the browns will get a bit darker and richer and that black graft line will fade just enough to make it a bit more refined.





for those that have not clicked away in disgust at my good fortune I would just like to add that the high today was 72* with clear and sunny skies. sorry guys but that is the cross we bear for living in California.


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## AndyR (Jan 30, 2009)

Nice work,
Good to see at least some of it is being salvaged. My GF and I want to move back to CA pretty bad. She's from Humboldt Co. on the coast and I spent a year in the Santa Cruz area (and loved it). This winter has been REALLY bad for the cold here. Would love to see more pics as you mill more of these. With those rootballs still attached you could probably get some really nice gunstock blanks from those trees....

Keep at it.
Andy


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## Gumnuts (Jan 30, 2009)

beautiful - thanks for taking and posting pics for us all.


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## BobL (Jan 30, 2009)

That is some gorgeous wood you got there Bluerider! Thanks for sharing.

Under that log photo that looks like a lot of sawdust, what sort of chain are you running?


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## BlueRider (Jan 30, 2009)

I'm using .404 baileys ripping chain. The saw has enough grunt, so much so that I file my rakers down to .035". The .404 makes plenty of saw dust but its only 15% more than .375 woud make and I get a faster chain speed. If my saw didn't have the grunt I would be more inclined to switch. I started milling before I learned about diferent chain and have since thought about changeing but then a friend had a 3/8 chain break on his 090 and it made me rethink the .375 vs .404 thing. I am interested in how that 3/8 holds up long term in wide aussie hard wood.


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## BobL (Jan 30, 2009)

BlueRider said:


> I'm using .404 baileys ripping chain. The saw has enough grunt, so much so that I file my rakers down to .035". The .404 makes plenty of saw dust but its only 15% more than .375 woud make and I get a faster chain speed. If my saw didn't have the grunt I would be more inclined to switch. I started milling before I learned about diferent chain and have since thought about changeing but then a friend had a 3/8 chain break on his 090 and it made me rethink the .375 vs .404 thing. I am interested in how that 3/8 holds up long term in wide aussie hard wood.



I have one 404 chain but rarely use it and all my other chains are 3/8 and they work fine even in the hardest woods I have milled (Rock Oak, Janka hardness 3500 lbs-force) and even on the 60" bar. The disadvantages for hard wood is a 3/8 cutter cannot be filed as short as a 404 cutter, and it stretches more in the first couple of slabs needing more adjustment. It probably makes little difference in something like walnut but I have found 404 is definitely slower than the 3/8 for just about all the stuff I mill. 

I think Aggie has even used .325 for bars up to 42"?


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## woodshop (Jan 31, 2009)

Beautiful... wish I wasn't 3000 miles away. A shame that in many cases most of that would just be burned.


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## excess650 (Jan 31, 2009)

That is just fabulous wood!


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## BlueRider (Feb 1, 2009)

woodshop said:


> Beautiful... wish I wasn't 3000 miles away. A shame that in many cases most of that would just be burned.



Phase one of the project involved removing 200 trees. I milled 15 a friend got 20 and another friend got 5. The rest were in a pile that smoldered for two months. it was during the summer and we were hampered a bit by hot weather and my schedule didn't allow me to get out as much as I had hoped.

This time my schedule is a bit more open and the weather is better. on the down side is that this time the trees were pushed over when the ground was wet so they have more dirt attached to the roots. last time I could get 5-6 slabs before having to touch up the chain this time I hit a dirt inclusion on the third cut but even without hitting a dirt clod I would have needed to touch up after 3-4 slabs. when I got home I ordered another loop of chain and a box of files.


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## bowtechmadman (Feb 1, 2009)

Absolutely gorgoues slabs! Keep up the good work thanks for the pics.


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## Dan_IN_MN (Feb 1, 2009)

*Would a pressure washer help to clean the dirt off?*



BlueRider said:


> Phase one of the project involved removing 200 trees. I milled 15 a friend got 20 and another friend got 5. The rest were in a pile that smoldered for two months. it was during the summer and we were hampered a bit by hot weather and my schedule didn't allow me to get out as much as I had hoped.
> 
> This time my schedule is a bit more open and the weather is better. on the down side is that this time the trees were pushed over when the ground was wet so they have more dirt attached to the roots. last time I could get 5-6 slabs before having to touch up the chain this time I hit a dirt inclusion on the third cut but even without hitting a dirt clod I would have needed to touch up after 3-4 slabs. when I got home I ordered another loop of chain and a box of files.



Very nice! It's cool that you can get some of those!

Would a pressure washer help to clean the dirt off?

Dan


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## BlueRider (Feb 1, 2009)

manyhobies said:


> Very nice! It's cool that you can get some of those!
> 
> Would a pressure washer help to clean the dirt off?
> 
> Dan



A pressure washer would probably work, This a dry farmed orchard and there is no water or electricity and I don't have a large water tank on a trailer with a gas powered pressure washer.


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## BobL (Feb 1, 2009)

manyhobies said:


> Very nice! It's cool that you can get some of those!
> Would a pressure washer help to clean the dirt off?
> Dan



I use a regular hose in the milling yard which is good on surface dirt. I've also used a pressure washer on a root ball covered in gravel. The pressure washer was very effective on the outside but I still hit a couple of embedded rocks - I was using an old skip chain - One stone knocked the cutting edge off one of the cutters. I resharpened the remaining teeth and proceeded to slab the rest of the ball throwing the chain away after that. One good reason to keep some old chains around. 

A number of Aussie gum trees drop their bark as they commence to dry out. This turns out to be an optimum time to mill as the resulting lumber moves less during the later drying process and they are not so hard as to be unmillable. I usually buck 2/3" off the starting end which has by then case hardened to a light rock like hardness and murders a newly sharpened chain. The added benefit is the dirt embedded in the bark falls off with it.

When I have no power or water I usually take along and use a wire brush, a dust pan brush, a broom, axe and even a sharpened mattock.


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## BlueRider (Mar 2, 2009)

With all the rain we have been having I have not gotten out to the walnut orchard to mill as much as I would like. It takes 2-3 days after a rain before the ground is firm enough to drive out into the orchard. On the plus side I have had plenty of time to get the 075 back up and running along with fixing the starter on my 038. Here is a pic of the first two logs, some milled on my first trip and the rest milled a week ago.






Here are pics of 2 of the six slabs I milled this past Saturday. You can see a fair amount of occluded dirt near the root end of each slab. As bad as this sounds it really wasn't as hard on the chain as you would think. The small bit of limestone on the left side of the bottom pic however was a bit more of a problem. I milled 3 slabs before I had to resharpen and then it only required 4 file strokes on each tooth. 










It rained yesterday and it's raining today with rain forcast through Friday so I'm not sure when I will get back out to get more wood.


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## dallasm1 (Mar 2, 2009)

ABSOlutely incredible wood. Thanks for sharing that. One day you will have to post how the wood was ultimately used. I would love to see some finished furniture with that fantastic wood.


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## Backwoods (Mar 3, 2009)

It looks you have had a chance to select some nice pieces for milling.
I got a call today about a pear orchard that is coming out now. Last year I got 15 tons of cherry wood out of the same orchard. I hate to see these pear trees come out as they had good fruit on them. The whole 40 acres will be cleared and turned under this week so I got to strike while the iron is still hot.


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## BobL (Mar 3, 2009)

That Wood is looking purdier the more I look at it!

BTW the inclusion looks too regular to be limestone?






It looks like a bandaid?


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## BlueRider (Mar 3, 2009)

Backwoods said:


> It looks you have had a chance to select some nice pieces for milling.
> I got a call today about a pear orchard that is coming out now. Last year I got 15 tons of cherry wood out of the same orchard. I hate to see these pear trees come out as they had good fruit on them. The whole 40 acres will be cleared and turned under this week so I got to strike while the iron is still hot.



I still kick myself over not geting more pear when had a chance. There was 5 acres of pears removed to put in houses near where I used to live and I stoped and grabed a small trunk. It sat for a week before I got to it and found out that it was quilted. by the time I got back up to the orchard the trees had been burned. nothing in the orchard was of significant size but I would have still liked to get more. If any of your pear is significant in size and/or is figured let me know, I have a friend that likes to work with it.


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## BlueRider (Mar 3, 2009)

BobL said:


> That Wood is looking purdier the more I look at it!
> 
> BTW the inclusion looks too regular to be limestone?
> 
> ...



one thing I enjoy about miling is that I always meet new people and learn new things. With this project I have had the chance to learn how to graft trees as well as a fair bit about dry farming. the local lime stone is low quality as far as building is concerned. it is riddled with fisures and crumbles easily. but these properties make it perfect for dry farming. That and the fact that the rock is only a few feet below the surface. the roots extend down into the fisures of the limestone and the stone acts lke a sponge to feed the plants with water during our hot arid summer. 

The limestone dosen't destroy a chain like one would imagine but it is still stone and is abrasive, probably only slightly softer and less abrasive than some Aussie hardwoods.


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## Backwoods (Mar 4, 2009)

The local walnut orchards are all in the flood plains around here. They seem to like the loose gravel for sending there roods down to water. Stock up while you can there is some nice wood in your stacks.

The pears are all small, around 5”. About half the orchard is already in wind rows. They are driving down the rows with a big excavator and plucking them out with a chain. There was a section of young trees so I had them pluck a couple out and set them aside. I pruned them up and planted them in my orchard. I will just get a truck load of this pear wood for the bowl turners and for smoking wood. There is no milling stock in the bunch.


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## Dai Sensei (Mar 4, 2009)

Beautiful wood with especially good grain. thanks for sharing.


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## BobL (Mar 4, 2009)

Dai Sensei said:


> Beautiful wood with especially good grain. thanks for sharing.



Hey Neil, when are we gonna see that blue beast of yours in action again?


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## chainsawboy1996 (Mar 4, 2009)

man i wish i could drive (only 12) but yer only a drive away for me (live in sf area) man i wish i could get a chance to go milling this (darn rain) :bang:


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## BlueRider (Mar 4, 2009)

chainsawboy1996 said:


> man i wish i could drive (only 12) but yer only a drive away for me (live in sf area) man i wish i could get a chance to go milling this (darn rain) :bang:



You get a a parent to bring you down and I'll take you out to mill in the orchard. If you are interested PM me for more info.


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## BlueRider (Mar 4, 2009)

Backwoods said:


> The local walnut orchards are all in the flood plains around here. They seem to like the loose gravel for sending there roods down to water. Stock up while you can there is some nice wood in your stacks.



You are up where black line disease is common. one of the things that many growers do to combat it is to use paradox walnut for the root stock. around here that became common in the early 1950's. pardox walnut is lesser known but to many it is more highly valued that even claro walnut. This dates the orchad Iv'e been milling in to pre-1950. Aropund here not long after the introduction of paradox root stock the grafting techniqe changed from multiple branch grafts at the top of the bole to a single graft in the middle of the trunk.

Paradox walnut is sometimes called bastagone walnut and is a natural cross between an english grafted onto claro root stock which is open pollentated with a natural claro, and not all nuts pollenated this way will become paradox. In color it is between english and claro which is whant you would expect, the paradox is that it is harder than either parent.

I never thought to use pear for smoking meat, Ill have to give it a try. lately Ive been hooked on using olive.


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## Dai Sensei (Mar 7, 2009)

BobL said:


> Hey Neil, when are we gonna see that blue beast of yours in action again?



 Too busy having holidays, diving and collecting more timber. I have some big Blackwoods that are too big for my bandsaw, so not too long


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## BlueRider (Mar 25, 2009)

I hope you guys aren't getting bored seeing so much walnut. With yesterdays haul the total is now 109 slabs, most 2" with a few 4". I have mentioned how these trees are claro with english grafted at the top of the bole. Here is a great shot showing two graft lines.






This log was one of the only ones that had a crotch in the claro so I milled it for the crotch figure. What showed up even more spectaculerly was this burl at the base.





Here is a shot of the crotch figure. Looks like there might be a rifle stock in there for the Rossi M92 puma I just picked up. At the widest point of the crotch I had to trim it to 36" wide to fit my bar/mill.





This is that same log as I got to the last slab. normaly I might leave something like this or take a 1" board off to use as stickers. I liked the stricking pattern created by the heartwood/sapwood contrast, plus there was another burl at the base so I took one more 2" slab. With all the sap wood this one will be unlikely to dry as a usable slab but it only cost me a half a tank of gas for the saw.


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## SilverBox (Mar 25, 2009)

Nice!!


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## excess650 (Mar 25, 2009)

AWESOME! Bastogne reputedly grows faster than other species of walnut, and is often used in high grade gunstocks. I have a blank or two with graft lines in them.

I just love fiddleback, so have several Claro blanks. I might also have an English or two, Oregon black, and ?? I had a rifle made for my father a few years back. He's left handed, so the basis(his choice) was a Reminton 700, and the roughest finished one that I had ever seen, but was a raffle prize. I hand polished the barreled action(after shooting to make sure it was worthwhile), sourced a steel magazine and floorplate, scope bases and rings, etc. It was engraved by a former Colt Custom Shop engraver(Ken Hurst), most blued, but the floorplate and grip cap were coin finished. The stockwork was done by a local guy here in Pa from a Turkish walnut blank, with ebony forend, and flush sling swivels. Checkering was 26 lpi in a ribbon pattern. I don't have pictures of it at the moment, but it is a gorgeous piece. I had a singleshot rifle stocked to my own specs (LOP, drop, and castoff)from fiddleback Claro. The forend has an ebony cap in Ballard style, and the buttplare is horn. This was one of the stockmaker's examples to get into the gunmaker's guild.

Enough off topic(sort of)....I wish I had a grove of walnut like that to mill.


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## BobL (Mar 25, 2009)

BlueRider said:


> I hope you guys aren't getting bored seeing so much walnut.



No way - that's gorgeous stuff - keep posting !


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## Backwood (Mar 25, 2009)

BlueRider said:


> I hope you guys aren't getting bored seeing so much walnut. [/IMG]



NO WAY , If Hef was a woodworker he would be proud. Does make me jealous though.


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## AndyR (Mar 25, 2009)

Really nice slabs.
I like the contrast of the dark lines in the wood. I think thats way prettier stuff than my American black walnut that I've been milling.

Don't be shy with the pics-we all love 'em.

Andy


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## arbadacarba (Mar 28, 2009)

That stuff is fantastic! I met a guy at a woodshow from southern Oregon a while back and he told me about the walnut groves coming down. Hes been chainsaw milling for years but simply didn't have the equipment set up to take advantage of all that he was being offered. ( All free, - going to slash otherwise. )

If I was an unemployed logger from the Northwest right now I'd be there in a heartbeat. Fire up the biggest saw I could find and start stockpiling. 

I have a lot of great wood here, but you certainly made me jealous!


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## duffontap (Mar 29, 2009)

Beautiful wood BlueRider! What a sweet deal. It's good to see that you're able to take advantage of that resource so well. I'm lucky to find 4 hours a month for milling--an opportunity like that and I'd die.





BobL said:


> Under that log photo that looks like a lot of sawdust, what sort of chain are you running?



Bob, I got a huge grin on my face when I read this. You know this CSM stuff almost too well--almost! 

J. D.


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## 820wards (Nov 18, 2011)

BlueRider said:


> I hope you guys aren't getting bored seeing so much walnut. With yesterdays haul the total is now 109 slabs, most 2" with a few 4". I have mentioned how these trees are claro with english grafted at the top of the bole. Here is a great shot showing two graft lines.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Robin, this walnut is way cool looking. I'm jealous!!!!

jerry-


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## Old Blue (Nov 18, 2011)

Thanks for posting the great pics BlueRider. It's good to see that a bunch of the wood will get milled. That some really great looking stuff. We're all just drooling and wishing we could get our hands on some logs like that. (pssst buddy, I might be able to get some chinese elm if you find yourself with any extra material or cants)

Please keep the pics coming they're great ! About how long is it taking to cut one of those slabls? Hope your weather holds up and that you continue to get access to those.

Old Blue
Over regulated and under represented in
Kali-bone-ya


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## StevenBiars (Nov 19, 2011)

Beautiful wood. It would be a shame if you didn't use some of it for a gun stock. I'd certainly love to come across some for pistol grips and such. I also have an old rifle (Mauser) that is needing restocked. Nice find. Claro and Bastogne tend to make the prettiest stocks.


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## Can8ianTimber (Nov 21, 2011)

BlueRider said:


> With all the rain we have been having I have not gotten out to the walnut orchard to mill as much as I would like. It takes 2-3 days after a rain before the ground is firm enough to drive out into the orchard. On the plus side I have had plenty of time to get the 075 back up and running along with fixing the starter on my 038. Here is a pic of the first two logs, some milled on my first trip and the rest milled a week ago.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



That is some really nice looking wood but I would really recomend using more than 3 stickers per stack. Wild grained wood likes to be wild. I like to space the stickers about 18" apart. It is a pain in the *** but it is even worse when you finaly go to work with the wood that you have been waiting for 2 years to dry and it is twisted like a potato chip. That is just what I have learned through my own mistakes.


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## BlueRider (Nov 26, 2011)

I just noticed that a few people posted on this thead lately and I thought I would point out that I originaly posted the thread back in the spring of 2009. Part of my agreement with the manager of the property was that some of the wood be given to the land owner. Last week a guy that will be making a table for the land owner came over to pick up a few slabs. The wood is dry and ready to use and as flat and beautiful as when it was stickered, f course it takes a practices eye to see the color and figure before the wood is surfaced. I will be bringing some slabs into the shop for some projects in the early spring and I will post a follow up here with pics. 

Some one expressed concern about how far apart my stickers are, In general I agree with what was suggested. but over the last 15 years I have gotten good resuts with 24" spacing between stickers and 6-12" from the ends on slabs 2" or more in thickness. If I were milling 1" thick boards I would likely space my stickers tighter.

Blue: I might take you up on a swap for some chinese elm, let me know if you ever get north of LA.


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## BlueRider (Jul 31, 2012)

*Pictures of a chair using the orchard walnut wood*

Well I finaly got around to using some of this walnut. Here are a few pictures of a chair I made with a welded steel base. The wood is from two different slabs, the seat is from a slab that had a larger root ball with a bit of burl in it and the back is from one of the smaller slabs. 

The finish is a hybred I have been using for about 4 years. I apply a coat of Jasco tung oil and then clean up. I thn imidiately follow with a coat of General's HP Poly. The General's is a water based finish and I usually end up applying 3-4 thin coats with a brush. The key to good adhesion is to apply the Generals before the tung oil dries, yes I wrote that correctly BEFORE the tung oil dries. If you wait till after it dries it needs to be sanded to get good adhesion and you will need to do campatability tests for any other brands than the two I listed. I should also add that Jasco brand tung oil is no longer being made and I am almost out of my stash so I will be doing a search and some testing to come up with a replacement.

I will be taking This chair along with a bunch of other furniture to the American Craft Council Show in San Francisco this comming weekend, August 3,4,5. among the 300 exhibiters there will be about 8-10 furniture makers and a half dozen wood turners, if anyone is in the area it makes for a good afternoon. the show is at Fort Mason and there is free parking at the marina green lot with a free shuttle, both a rarity in SF, but the show does charge $10 admission.


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## Jim Timber (Aug 1, 2012)

That wood is incredible! Thanks for posting this thread.


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## Aminator (Aug 1, 2012)

beautiful.


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## 820wards (Aug 5, 2012)

> I will be taking This chair along with a bunch of other furniture to the American Craft Council Show in San Francisco this comming weekend, August 3,4,5. among the 300 exhibiters there will be about 8-10 furniture makers and a half dozen wood turners, if anyone is in the area it makes for a good afternoon. the show is at Fort Mason and there is free parking at the marina green lot with a free shuttle, both a rarity in SF, but the show does charge $10 admission.



Bluerider I will see you there Sunday.

jerry-


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## discounthunter (Aug 5, 2012)

awesome work. how did you cut the seat? jig/router?


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## 820wards (Aug 6, 2012)

820wards said:


> Bluerider I will see you there Sunday.
> 
> jerry-



Went to see this chair from Bluerider at the show, it is really beautiful and comfortable to sit in. The day in SF was really nice.

jerry-


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## BlueRider (Aug 7, 2012)

The seat was shaped with a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a 36 grit sanding disc, then finished by block sanding starting with 50 grit on up to 600 grit. I use a straight edge laid across the top to guage the side to side symetry.

Jerry, Always nice seeing you and thanks for coming to the show.


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## ncpete (Oct 5, 2014)

Beautiful wood!


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## Yellowbeard (Oct 5, 2014)

Envious! Absolutely gorgeous wood!


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## IanB22 (Oct 5, 2014)

Great chair...how's the 'comfortable-ness' factor?


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## Dave Boyt (Oct 7, 2014)

Always sad to see orchards destroyed (I assume for development). There are opportunities to salvage just about anywhere. Thanks for posting. The only thing I would suggest is to haul as many of the logs as possible to a safe place for later milling, and maybe look into using a band mill for faster milling and better recovery rate. You've come across some amazing wood, especially with the root balls!


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