# Maple



## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Well it has been a long day and I am still not done. We had a tree trimmer take down a maple tree today that belonged to a friend of ours. She told us we could have it all if we wanted. With the coring on some blanks I think I have around 30 bowls and 8 vase blanks. We still aren't done. As you can see there is a big piece on the ground and the bigger trunk is still standing. It will be cut down tomorrow. I am figuring about 20 more bowl blanks and at least 12 or more vase blanks as that trunk is about 38" in diameter and measured 6 1/2 ft tall. The one on the ground is 7 ft long and around 33" in diameter. The tree trimmer told me if I would make him a big popcorn bowl I could come to his place to pick from walnut, maple, oak, hackberry, cottonwood, elm and cedar. Wooohoooo. I think I will throw in a really nice pen. Anyway it was a good, long day and this old man is sore and tired.


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## wbh1963 (Oct 11, 2011)

One of the maple tree's on my cousins lot lost about a third of it's mass in a fight with a storm recently. The tree branched out into dual trunks about two feet from the ground. The smaller one broke off where it was about 18-24 inches or so in diameter. The darn thing has to be 30 to 40 feet long and is just laying out on the side of a hill where it isn't so easy to get to, and isn't in the way of anything.

When he mentioned cutting it up and hauling up the hill to use it as firewood being a low priority plan for it, the 'wanna-be-saw-mill-operator' inside my head was all about dragging up the hill, but with different intended uses...

How long can maple stay out in Seattle style rain before it starts rotting? Know a good website to go to that can tell me how to turn that thing into lumber instead of firewood?


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Bill don't know much about the lumber side. We have a old boy that I take some trunks to that has a sawmill. He cut me up a walnut trunk into 4/4 boards. It was about 14" across. I can't remember for sure but I think it figured out less than $2 a board ft. For walnut that is cheap around here anyway. You might check and see if there are any in your area. As far as the laying out part if you are going to do anything I would do iit sooner than later. I found a maple tree laid down in the wind here and had been laying for less than a year and it was already punky/soft throughout a lot of it. After a about a 1 yr of laying I could poke a screwdriver 3 to 4 inches into it.


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

What? You didn't get any pen blanks!


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Yes Mike there are even some pen blanks. Here is the last half load. I ran out of steam after two full days of cutting. I ran that Stihl saw hard. My wife told her friend he is sitting there with this hugh grin on his face. Now a cold brew and some pizza. I am a happy camper.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Bernie... DUDE.... were 120 years old, were supposed to be sore and tired *L*...

Fantastic haul. This is one of the big selling features of turning.. the wood can be green..

Any figure in that pile???


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Bill it does have some curl and some ambrosia. Some of it is a plain white color and I am hoping to use some dyes on it. Some of those bowl blanks are 16" X 16" X 10". So they should core nicely and hoping to get 4 bowls from one blank.


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