Spalted Pecan

[woodshop]

Funny, in half an afternoon I can mill enough wood to keep me busy in the shop for months. Ain't complaining!:biggrinbounce2:

True... I'm not comlaining either. I generally come home with between 250 and 350 bd ft of rough lumber in one days milling, depending on how far I have to drive to the log, and how much prep the log needs before I can actually start slicing it up. After stickering and drying, and culling out the pieces that didn't make it, split, twisted up like a pretzel, I still have couple hundred feet of wood. Enough for 20+ shaker side tables like this one below. That's more tables than I currently make in a year. But just because I have more wood already than I will need in the next 10 years, doesn't mean I'm gonna stop. Most of what I mill would be firewood or landfill otherwise. Therefore, as long as I have space (which I am running out of fast) I will keep milling and stocking wood for future use. I just hate seeing a 16 inch diameter beautiful cherry log cut up into 12 inch firewood chunks like I did on the way to work the other day. What a waste of valuable cherry. Hey I'm only 53, when I retire I plan on doing this woodworking gig full time. For now I can still physically mill logs with the Ripsaw and csm, lots of work. 15 years from now (68????) I might not be pushing them logs around the woods as quickly. The more wood I stock up now, as long as I can keep it from degrading, the better off I figure I am later on.

This Shaker table I make below would also be a good candidate for that spalted pecan.

 

[flht01]

...
This Shaker table I make below would also be a good candidate for that spalted pecan.

I've got a feeling that your shaker table would look good with the spalted pecan, I'm not so sure it would even be considered furniture if I built it. I do plan on giving it a try.

Nice work, I'm envious.

Kevin

 

[dustytools]

Very nice piece woodshop.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

This Shaker table I make below would also be a good candidate for that spalted pecan.

Nice table. What do you use to cut your 1/2 blind dovetails.

 

[woodshop]

Nice table. What do you use to cut your 1/2 blind dovetails.

I use an old Stanley dovetail jig I got at a yardsale, with a 7 degree dovetail bit. It's not a fancy jig, not easy to set up, so once I got it dialed in for this particular drawer, I keep it that way, don't use it for anything else. I do have a larger Delta dovetail jig I use for other projects, but the little Stanley has just the right spacing for this one. No I don't do dovetails by hand... too labor intensive, and the jig does a much better job anyway.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

I use an old Stanley dovetail jig I got at a yardsale, with a 7 degree dovetail bit. It's not a fancy jig, not easy to set up, so once I got it dialed in for this particular drawer, I keep it that way, don't use it for anything else. I do have a larger Delta dovetail jig I use for other projects, but the little Stanley has just the right spacing for this one. No I don't do dovetails by hand... too labor intensive, and the jig does a much better job anyway.

I just finished a trunk with hand cut through dove tails. You're right about labor intensive but the satisfaction makes up for it (usually). I'd love to have one of those Incra jigs but $$$:jawdrop: . They sure make some beautiful joints easy though.

 

[woodshop]

I just finished a trunk with hand cut through dove tails. You're right about labor intensive but the satisfaction makes up for it (usually). I'd love to have one of those Incra jigs but $$$:jawdrop: . They sure make some beautiful joints easy though.

Aggie cutting good precise dovetails by hand is the mark of a true woodworker (or at least one with some time on his hands ) I agree there would be pure satisfaction in doing a good job. I freely admit, I have never tried it in my shop yet. Yes the Incra jig is a nice toy, and an expensive one too. Personally though, some of the REAL fancy stuff it does, is almost too fancy for me. The multiple layers are so intricate, that they almost start to look artificial, and its very obvious that the joint was done on a fancy machine. Not knocking it, just personal taste, the real fancy ones don't turn me on much.

 

[flht01]

Spalted Pecan - cut up and stacked

I finally got around to cutting up the pecan, not as much spalting as I'd hoped but there was less punky wood than there could have been. I ended up with about 120bf, 7" and 10" 5/4 boards. I'm still playing with pictures, tried to keep the file size small for us lowly dialup users


bug holes and little spalting

Overall view before spraying with bleach to attempt to kill the larve.

 

[dustytools]

Great looking stuff. It almost looks as though its already been through the planer. Nice job indeed.

 

[flht01]

Great looking stuff. It almost looks as though its already been through the planer. Nice job indeed.

Thanks, with some help from woodshop and scottr I've about got the ripsaw tweaked and tuned. Most of these boards will clean up quick, assuming they dry reasonably straight. I'm going to unstack about 400bf of redoak and stack these on the bottom, then restack the redoak in reverse order keeping the dryest on top.

 

[woodshop]

Beautiful boards Kevin, you have lots of things going on in those. Looks like a little figure, some spalting, different colors. I predict that after those are all dry, and you cull out the split and punky stuff that didn't make it, you will have a good 90-100 bd ft.of 3/4 S4S.

Keep us informed as to how fast it dries. Today I'm un-stickering about 400ft of 5/4 oak that I milled only this past January, but its all dry. Moisture meter doesn't lie, I was surprised, usually takes a little longer for oak. This stuff is all less than 15% already. It's red oak, the tree was cut and milled in bitter cold January weather, temp down in the teens. Wonder if that has something to do with it drying in only 9 months.

 

[flht01]

Beautiful boards Kevin, you have lots of things going on in those. Looks like a little figure, some spalting, different colors. I predict that after those are all dry, and you cull out the split and punky stuff that didn't make it, you will have a good 90-100 bd ft.of 3/4 S4S.

I found 8 more 10" 5/4 pecan boards that I'd forgotten about, cut them about 6 weeks ago and stacked them in the same stack with the pine. All together, I'll have about 200bf with some spalting creating a few unique colors and patterns. Should be interesting.

Keep us informed as to how fast it dries. Today I'm un-stickering about 400ft of 5/4 oak that I milled only this past January, but its all dry. Moisture meter doesn't lie, I was surprised, usually takes a little longer for oak. This stuff is all less than 15% already. It's red oak, the tree was cut and milled in bitter cold January weather, temp down in the teens. Wonder if that has something to do with it drying in only 9 months.

I've often wondered if cutting in the winter when the sap is down would speed up the drying process. Maybe someone that's experimented with this will chime in. How do you handle the wood that's air dryed? Sounds like your pulling it out of the stickered stack and moving it. Just curious, I'd like to be able to create a few sticker stacks outside to air dry with and (after it's dry) move it inside without the stickers if it wouldn't have any negative effect on quality.

Thanks for the tip on the pecan, aggie. I've got it stacked under about 400bf of oak, that should help keep it straight.

Kevin

 

[woodshop]

How do you handle the wood that's air dryed? Sounds like your pulling it out of the stickered stack and moving it. Just curious, I'd like to be able to create a few sticker stacks outside to air dry with and (after it's dry) move it inside without the stickers if it wouldn't have any negative effect on quality.
Kevin

I have limited space, in fact I can only sticker about 1800 bd ft at one time, ( 8, 12-14 inch wide stacks, about 6 ft tall). So I often get backed up to where stuff is still drying and I am scrounging for a place to sticker and dry something I just milled. SO... as soon as that wood gets down to around 15% MC according to my moisture meter, I pull the stack apart, and restack it without stickers under roof, currently my garage and shed. I have 10 ft cielings, and thus can stack several thousand ft of lumber that way in very little space. As long as it was indeed dry before you pulled it from the stickered pile, then it won't degrade any stacked up w/o stickers. The main thing is to keep the weather and bugs away from your stacks.

I just got turned on to a white oak log, 36inch dia, and a good 35 ft strait bole till the first branch. It blew down in a windstorm. Quick and dirty estimates are a good 2000 bd ft of white oak in that monster just in those first 4 clear 8 ft logs. This one will take a while, and I need to stock up on milling chains and Ripsaw bandsaw blades. Hope the homeowner doesn't change his mind for whatever reason, I have tons of red oak, but very little white. I'll be posting pics of the operation when I get to it.

 

[flht01]

I just got turned on to a white oak log, 36inch dia, and a good 35 ft strait bole till the first branch. It blew down in a windstorm. Quick and dirty estimates are a good 2000 bd ft of white oak in that monster just in those first 4 clear 8 ft logs. This one will take a while, and I need to stock up on milling chains and Ripsaw bandsaw blades. Hope the homeowner doesn't change his mind for whatever reason, I have tons of red oak, but very little white. I'll be posting pics of the operation when I get to it.

Can't wait to see pictures on this one. Are you going to have access to any equipment to get it set up on bunks :help: ? With logs that big, are you going to quartersaw it? So far I haven't run across any white oak. What kind of projects do you have in mind for it?

Sorry for all the questions, just got carried away.

Kevin

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Great looking lumber, Kevin. Now comes the hard part... waiting for it to dry.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Thanks for the tip on the pecan, aggie. I've got it stacked under about 400bf of oak, that should help keep it straight.

Kevin

That should do it!

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

I just got turned on to a white oak log, 36inch dia, and a good 35 ft strait bole till the first branch.

Looks like you got your work cut out for you (get it, har har). Just think of all the Shaker furniture that will make. I'm drooling.

 

[woodshop]

Can't wait to see pictures on this one. Are you going to have access to any equipment to get it set up on bunks :help: ? With logs that big, are you going to quartersaw it? So far I haven't run across any white oak. What kind of projects do you have in mind for it? Kevin

Well, don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, it will be several weeks before I get to this and a lot can happen between now and then. IF and when it happens, yes I plan to quartersaw at least one of those 36 in dia 8 footers. White oak has huge rays that result in killer quartersawn figure. Quartersawing is very time consuming if you do it right, and time is one thing I don't have tons of this fall, so that will dictate how much gets milled that way. No access to equipment, just me, my csm, my Ripsaw, tools, floor jack and cant hook. I can get the van within 50 ft of the tree, so not far to carry the mills in and boards out. I plan on eventually making furniture out of this oak.