Milled a small apple crotch

[peterrum]

A friend of mine has 10 acres in apples and he had to get rid of one of the trees the other day so he called me up after he had cut it down to see if i wanted the tree for firewood. I accepted his offer and came away with a face cord of firewood and a small piece of the trunk, only three feet long, with a triple crotch on it. I kept this piece to mill, more out of curiosity than anything. I have never milled a crotch piece, nor apple, so I kept the piece as one and took it home for milling.

It only took an hour and an half from start to finish to get it done and it was a grand day outside so thouroughly enjoyable. I only ended up with 5 boards out of it, and cut them all at 6/4. I stacked the boards inside my basement garage, its cooler there in the summer time and from what I have read, apple should dry slowly. This will be the perfect spot for a year or so of drying and then I will see if its any good to use on a small chair project.

I might change the weighting of the pile from the concrete blocks to nylon bands with ratchet straps attached to eye bolts in the timbers they are stacked on.

It will also be interesting to see what kind of change there might be in the colour of the wood, if any. Right now the light wood has a yellow tinge to it and i love the dark wood so it would be nice if it got darker. The grain in the dark wood is just alright. There are some minor cracks in it already, not sure what from but probably stress cracks, the tree was only taken down 4 days ago.

Heres the photos, 8 in total in two parts

 

[peterrum]

Part two

3 more photos

 

[huskyhank]

Good job.
I don't think there is much you can do in restraining the wood as it dries as far as weight or strapping. Some people even dry wood standing on end and get good results. I'd paint the ends some more but more weight won't make any difference. I do think drying it slowly will help with both movement and splitting. Green wood moved directly into 25% humidity is gonna move and split.

 

[BobL]

Great looking stuff peterum! Apple is very popular amongst wood work tool makers eg it makes great handsaw handles. If I lived closer I'd contact you for a bit of a trade.

 

[mtngun]

Apple is pretty wood. It's one of the few hardwoods that grow in my area so I'm hoping one day I'll be able to mill an apple from one of the abandoned homesteads that dot the country.

I've always wanted to make a riflestock from apple.

Peterrum, your garage is way too clean.

Thanks for the milling pics.

 

[BobL]

Don't forget it can be used as source of smoking woodchips as well.

 

[Brmorgan]

Nice stuff! I have a couple small chunks of apple somewhere in my heap here that I've been saving for some plane handles and the like. No figured crotch wood though!

 

[peterrum]

Thanks for the info about using the apple for tool handles, i didnt know that. Ialways learn something from this site. And yes BobL, some of the left over will be used for chips for my smoker. I've been using my smoker alot lately.

 

[820wards]

3 more photos

Peter,

That is really nice looking wood. Has it been drying before you cut it? Thanks for the pic's.

jerry-

 

[peterrum]

It was cut down 2 days before I got it, and i had it in the workshop for two days before I milled it. It was quite wet when milling, i checked the moisture content on it this morning and it was anywhere between 35-38 %.

I just got word that i can get some cherry tree logs from an abandoned orchard so thats next on the project list.

 

[Brmorgan]

It was cut down 2 days before I got it, and i had it in the workshop for two days before I milled it. It was quite wet when milling, i checked the moisture content on it this morning and it was anywhere between 35-38 %.

I just got word that i can get some cherry tree logs from an abandoned orchard so thats next on the project list.

Hope you have a metal detector too! Orchard trees can have all manner of wire, nails, pins, etc. in them.

 

[hazard]

Nice looking stuff.

I have milled up like 10 apple logs in the past. Cortland to be exact. We had an apple orchard in the family. My only real concern with using the stuff is the chemicals that my great grandfather and grandfather sprayed the trees with. Some nasty stuff back in the day.

Your wood looks pretty clean. Alot of mine has white streaks in it near the crotches. That would will move alot. Especially near the crotches.

I remember cutting plenty of trees down where there was 3/8" threaded rod with bolts used for holding trees together at the crotches that my great grandfather put in.

Chris