THE rope swing tree

[H-Ranch]

The neighbors on our small private road had THE rope swing tree come down about a year ago on a calm night. It was close enough to the one lane road that the kids would swing out over the road on a long rope attached to it. The large limb was probably 50' long and every bit as big as the trunk of the tree. It's no wonder that it didn't come down many years ago with all the massive weight on the one side. His kids grew up with it and have since all moved out on to their own careers. My kids used it too and always wanted to stop and swing on it when we drove by. Anyway, that's the back story.

When it fell someone sent out a group text and since I happen to be home at the time I went immediately to clear the road. I got to keep most of the white oak wood and have kept a couple of pieces to make projects from. The first one is a carved depiction of the rope swing in use to give to the neighbor. I have it roughed in but it still needs some fine tuning and detail added. Since I can't run the chainsaw yet after knee surgery I thought I'd tackle this to see if I could do it.

 

[ShipWreckDiver]

That's a very cool thing to do with that special wood. Can't be easy carving(?) end grain of white oak that way though.. Did you ever finish this?

I do hand carving (Axe, Adze, drawknife etc) of green wood, making wood bowls of various traditional styles, scoops, spoons etc. Trees with history are a great thing to turn into a large bowl that will sit on the table for decades to come. The lopsided grain from the compression of that branch would make a great bowl.

 

[gerrywoodsy482]

Wonderful and sentimental project. It's great that you're turning this piece into a meaningful carving. Consider adding personal touches, like maybe carve initials or names on the tree trunk. Did you finish the project? I'd love to see.