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tea lady
26th October 2008, 11:21 PM
I am no longer a roadside harvest virgin.:cool: Driving home from Mum and Dad's this afternoon, my finely honed peripheral vision spotted some turning blanks......I mean logs :rolleyes:....on the nature strip. Screech to a halt, reverse slowly . ......Nonshalontly get out of car and inspect said blank......I mean logs. Birch.:2tsup: about 14 - 15 inches diameter.:cool: 15 inches long. Real turning blanks x 3. :cool::cool::cool:With my name written on. :wave: rearrange back of car. Squeeze one in. where to put the others? :hmm: In front seat with seatbelt around them. :whistling: :sleigh: :U

Honorary Bloke
26th October 2008, 11:33 PM
I am no longer a roadside harvest virgin.

One can only mourn for the loss of innocence. :rolleyes::D

Noice score! :)

NCArcher
26th October 2008, 11:34 PM
Nice pick up TL. :2tsup:
Any thoughts on what they may become? Some more saucers perhaps?

DavidG
26th October 2008, 11:35 PM
The woody definition of road kill. :roll:

Ad de Crom
26th October 2008, 11:35 PM
Hey tea lady, for sure fasten these logs with the seatbelts, guess what happens when you hit to hard the breaks. Or more simply drop these logs in the trunk of your car.
Or doing like me with making every week a long distance walk and find nice birch logs somewhere in the woods, that's nice too.
What are you going to do with this birch, lucky girl?
Ad :2tsup:

TTIT
26th October 2008, 11:41 PM
The beginning of the end! :roll: So how much storage space have you got TL :; you're gonna need it :C

tea lady
26th October 2008, 11:42 PM
Hey tea lady, for sure fasten these logs with the seatbelts, guess what happens when you hit to hard the breaks. Or more simply drop these logs in the trunk of your car. Yes! I didn't want to damage the wood.:rolleyes:
Or doing like me with making every week a long distance walk and find nice birch logs somewhere in the woods, that's nice too.
What are you going to do with this birch, lucky girl?
Ad :2tsup:Have been wanting to turn larger bowl and platter shapes, so these will be some.:cool: Maybe rough turn them green. Such big logs might take too long to dry.

Burnsy
26th October 2008, 11:49 PM
I am no longer a roadside harvest virgin.:cool:

Well done, waste not want not.

I picked up a lovely length of flame shoak this evening opposite Woolworths, someone had hit the tree and snapped off a bow at grouund level. 2 metres long and 300mm diameter. Had to go home and get the chainsaw to lop the top off, saved the shire doing it tomorrow - I deserve a rate reduction:p

Ad de Crom
26th October 2008, 11:55 PM
Have been wanting to turn larger bowl and platter shapes, so these will be some.:cool: Maybe rough turn them green. Such big logs might take too long to dry.

Tea lady, turn them rougly with some oversize, put them in a paper bag for a week of four and store it in a nice dry and warm place like your attic, birch dry faster than you think. Than surprise us with a very nice turning, okay :)
Good luck.
Ad

tea lady
27th October 2008, 12:04 AM
Tea lady, turn them rougly with some oversize, put them in a paper bag for a week of four and store it in a nice dry and warm place like your attic, birch dry faster than you think. Than surprise us with a very nice turning, okay :)
Good luck.
Ad

OK! :cool:

Ed Reiss
27th October 2008, 05:40 AM
I am no longer a roadside harvest virgin.:cool: ....on the nature strip

Shame on you TL....you know what "Ern says 'bout "nature strips"!:2tsup:(was anyone watching????)

hughie
27th October 2008, 08:30 AM
The beginning of the end! :roll: So how much storage space have you got TL :; you gonna need it :C[



Yep, as surely as the sun rises every mornning. :U

I rough mine out and put them in cardboard boxes, have yet to find a decent source of paper bags.

wheelinround
27th October 2008, 08:33 AM
:photo2::photo2:

Sawdust Maker
27th October 2008, 09:25 AM
Well done TL now you're on the slippery slope of not enough storage space. Friends will spot the wood pile and ask whether you have an open fire :o
Buy a chainsaw - keep it in the boot - be prepared
I liberated this from inside a roadside find. I showed it to my 11yo son and said I turned it from the timber we got from the nature strip around the corner and did he remember. He said which time, I'm always getting wood from the side of the road!

rsser
27th October 2008, 12:16 PM
Good find TL.

If it's mature Silver Birch you may find some remarkable figure like the marbled end paper on old books.

And it's easy to turn.

tea lady
27th October 2008, 12:55 PM
Well done TL now you're on the slippery slope of not enough storage space. Friends will spot the wood pile and ask whether you have an open fire :o
Buy a chainsaw - keep it in the boot - be prepared
I liberated this from inside a roadside find. I showed it to my 11yo son and said I turned it from the timber we got from the nature strip around the corner and did he remember. He said which time, I'm always getting wood from the side of the road!

My small boy was in the car too. He is getting use to woodwork stuff being in the car.:rolleyes: "cause I do most (Well all.:doh: ) my woodwork at other places, to back of my car looks like a shed.:C

Alastair
27th October 2008, 01:19 PM
Good find TL.

If it's mature Silver Birch you may find some remarkable figure like the marbled end paper on old books.

And it's easy to turn.

Yep,

Had some spectacular results from one taken down in our garden.

Perhaps confirm for our Northern Hemisphere friends that this is not the same as the birch they know??

regards

Frank&Earnest
27th October 2008, 06:57 PM
Yep,

Had some spectacular results from one taken down in our garden.

Perhaps confirm for our Northern Hemisphere friends that this is not the same as the birch they know??

regards

Agree with the first sentence (well, ok, not spectacular but nice, here is the picture).

Don't know what you mean with the second: it has been introduced from there (betula pendula) unless you are talking of some other tree known with the same name.

It is also very nice to carve TL, I am saving all I have left for this purpose.

dai sensei
27th October 2008, 08:09 PM
Well done Tea lady :2tsup:

As the obsession of looking takes over though, you will need to develop your preripheral vission, otherwise you tend to look more to the side than directly in front :roll:

tea lady
27th October 2008, 09:02 PM
Was sealing the ends today and noticed a little branch coming out of side. :pi: :o I been had. Norfolk island pine me thinks. There was a birch branch on top of the logs that made me think otherwise. :C Oh well. :shrug: still big logs. And quite interesting because the branches all come off at the same level in rings. David Mitchel was showing me a clock he had made from it, at the turnfest. (Coincidence? :hmm: )
so here are pics this time.:cool:

Burnsy
27th October 2008, 09:07 PM
Don't want to highjack your thread TL but I could not wait to get time to mill the log to see what was inside so I opened up the offcut and cut it down into pen blanks to flog at the markets this weekend. Sealed the ends to try and keep them in one piece.

The figure is amazing and just as I expected. Can't wait to see what is inside the log!

tea lady
27th October 2008, 09:09 PM
Don't want to highjack your thread TL but I could not wait to get time to mill the log to see what was inside so I opened up the offcut and cut it down into pen blanks to flog at the markets this weekend. Sealed the ends to try and keep them in one piece.

The figure is amazing and just as I expected. Can't wait to see what is inside the log!

:C Your log is better than my log. But I don't think I'll cut mine into such small pieces.:p

woodwork wally
27th October 2008, 09:26 PM
Hi T.L. A good score anyway and it does not really matter cos was freeby Treat it the way you were going to and enjoy and good luck to you Cheers Wally

RETIRED
27th October 2008, 10:01 PM
Norfolk pine can be spectacular.

tea lady
27th October 2008, 10:03 PM
Norfolk pine can be spectacular.

:cool: I thought it looked very interesting. :U

Burnsy
27th October 2008, 10:09 PM
:C Your log is better than my log. But I don't think I'll cut mine into such small pieces.:p

Don't worry, there is no way the lump in the barrow is being turned into pen blanks:no:, they were just cut from the broken end that I cut off.

tea lady
27th October 2008, 10:18 PM
Don't worry, there is no way the lump in the barrow is being turned into pen blanks:no:, they were just cut from the broken end that I cut off.

Dat's all right den. :D

Skew ChiDAMN!!
28th October 2008, 12:21 AM
Norfolk Island Pine!? :o

You don't want that stuff. Not suitable for pottery at all...

http://www.hawaiiwoodturning.com/
http://jkellydunn.com/norfolk.asp

Now, I've got some nice Pittosperum I can swap for it!?

TTIT
28th October 2008, 08:47 AM
..........Now, I've got some nice Pittosperum I can swap for it!?Haven't you used that stuff up yet?????:roll: Shame on you for trying to offload it to the newbs:;:U

tea lady
28th October 2008, 08:54 AM
Norfolk Island Pine!? :o

You don't want that stuff. Not suitable for pottery at all...

http://www.hawaiiwoodturning.com/
http://jkellydunn.com/norfolk.asp

Now, I've got some nice Pittosperum I can swap for it!?
Hmm. Those examples look spalted. Do I just leave the logs to rot on the ground a bit? :rolleyes:

Does look pretty good doesn't it.:D

Sorry skew. I don't think I can swap my FIRST ever bowl bla.....I mean logs.:D

OGYT
28th October 2008, 11:50 AM
NIP?? TL, that's a really good find!! An end grain bowl, A side grain bowl... anything looks well dressed in NIP.

rsser
28th October 2008, 12:36 PM
In warm humid climates NIP will spalt all by itself.

In Melb it needs to be aided. There's a squillion recipes out there; I tried one advised by a Hawaiian turner - a little sugar dissolved in water, and spray on the end grain of the log daily. Big flop. Trying another: plonk end grain into damp rotting leaves. (But bit of a prob. keeping leaves damp in the drought though).

Without spalting, oil soaking or careful cutting to get the best figure from the branches it can be boring figure-wise but is easy to turn.

Logs of mine were stable during drying but just beware the branchwood; it can carry rot fairly quickly into the body of the lump. Good idea to seal them.

Good luck.

Gil Jones
28th October 2008, 12:47 PM
Tea Lady, here is an article on spalting. I have not tested it, mainly as my wood spalts easily without all that "stuff", so I would drink both beers (grin). The spores you need to start wood spalting are generally found in dirt, and decomposing matter in the ground. I have dipped the ends of a short log in water, pushed the wet ends into dirt (so the dirt sticks to the log), put the whole thing into a plastic bag for a month or two, and it starts to spalt. Check it regularly to catch it before it starts to rot.
Good luck with your Norfolk Island Pine.
Cheers,

tea lady
28th October 2008, 04:09 PM
So I might leave them sitting in a damp corner of the garden. that solves the "where the hell am I gonna store them " question.

Gil Jones
28th October 2008, 04:26 PM
I reckon you could, but they will prolly rot if directly on the dirt. Maybe sitting on end, in the dirt for a week, then laying on a bed of leaves or stone for drainage. Check regularly for rot, or punky soft, cause you do not want that.
A friend in Tallahassee Florida just lays his NIP (18" long by 8" dia [46cm x 20cm]) on a bed of grass and leaves for 6 to 8 months, and they spalt very well, with no rot.
Please let us know how yours turns out.

TTIT
28th October 2008, 04:31 PM
I reckon you could, but they will prolly rot if directly on the dirt. Maybe sitting on end, in the dirt for a week, then laying on a bed of leaves or stone for drainage. Check regularly for rot, or punky soft, cause you do not want that.
A friend in Tallahassee Florida just lays his NIP (18" long by 8" dia [46cm x 20cm]) on a bed of grass and leaves for 6 to 8 months, and they spalt very well, with no rot.
Please let us know how yours turns out.Florida climate = ? = ? = Melbourne climate - believe me Gil, it ain't gonna work!:U

Gil Jones
28th October 2008, 04:41 PM
Florida is semi-tropical, to tropical in climate. We live about 45 air miles north of Tallahassee, FL (6-miles across Lake Seminole to the NW Florida boarder), and the chunks I want to spalt do so with out much cajoling. I do not know about Melbourne, though I would like to.

Skew ChiDAMN!!
28th October 2008, 04:57 PM
In Melb it needs to be aided. There's a squillion recipes out there; I tried one advised by a Hawaiian turner - a little sugar dissolved in water, and spray on the end grain of the log daily. Big flop. Trying another: plonk end grain into damp rotting leaves. (But bit of a prob. keeping leaves damp in the drought though).

I've had little success with home-spalting too. :C

However, I vaguely recall reading some article somewhere a while back (a looong time ago) and although most of it was just "more of the same" it mentioned that the most reliable way to initiate spalting was to put an already spalted log nearby, preferably as green as possible.

I gather that the idea is to increase the odds that spores from a spalting fungus (as distinct from a "break down the lot" type one.) would gain a foothold on the blank.


Good luck.

Seconded!

tea lady
28th October 2008, 06:34 PM
Maybe I should just use ONE for a spalting experiment. :hmm; We are coming up to summer here, so I was thinking if it was in a sheltered bit of the garden, but had the hot weather I could trick it into thinking it was the tropics. Maybe the fernery? Or have a plastic tent over it. Will have to take pot luck on the mould type I guess. :shrug:

Ed Reiss
28th October 2008, 11:44 PM
See me at the Federaton Square Pottery Expo. 9th Nov

Just checked out your work on the expo site....nice touch having the wood handles:2tsup:..hmmmmm, spalted wood handles for future work?

joe greiner
29th October 2008, 12:34 AM
I haven't had the good fortune of adopting any NIP (except a tiny tree that came with my house), so I'm not the bloke Gil refers to. NIP has the unique (+/-) feature of more or less uniformly spaced branches ( 4, 5, or 6) at a single horizon, so it's especially suited to pieces turned end-grain, with the "eyes" at the fattest part, such as goblets and hollow forms. I've found (re-discovered?) that exploitation of knots in any timber can be awkward because branches don't grow perpendicular to the axis of the trunk; it helps to identify which end of the log was originally "up." Probably preaching to the choir, I know, but might be useful info for others.

For some reason (probably partially rehabbed OS or Firefox browser), I can't download or open doc files, so it might be covered there. At a previous house, I set a log or two in a bed of leaves and mushrooms (read about it somewhere) with grain vertical. Spalting was quite rapid, to the extent the timber was unusable before I got around to checking it. IIRC, it was over a warm and wet summer. Even without trying deliberate spalting, I've lost several potentially spectacular rootballs in a simple stack to rot. I'm not saying it takes split-second timing, but you DO need to examine the stockpile frequently. When "fins" show up on the outside, it's probably too late.

Tallahassee is about 30 degrees North latitude; Melbourne is about 38 degrees South, more comparable to Washington DC, so YMMV for sure. Brisbane might be a better equivalent to Tallahassee; or not of course. A BLACK plastic bag or tent could simulate a warmer climate anywhere.

Joe the Windbag (Hey! Maybe that could be my new email address.)

Gil Jones
29th October 2008, 02:59 AM
I was wondering where that Southern breeze was coming from...:rolleyes:

John Penrod is who I was referring to as the NIP spalter in Tally.

joe greiner
29th October 2008, 07:05 AM
Ah so. I didn't know John was a DIY spalter.

A Google search for [joe windbag] brought up the usual rants about Joe Biden, but also found a couple British movie reviews:

Windbag the Sailor (1936)
Windbag the Sailor is a pleasant comedy which passes the time easily enough, ... too leisurely to really hit the comic heights, but it points the way to future glories.

The Woman for Joe (1955)
The guilty person is Neil Paterson on whose short story the script is based. Let's hope the actors beat him up at the wrap party. ... Poetic realism in the movies is a tough trick to pull off. Few films have tried and failed so totally as The Woman for Joe.

Still working on a new email address.
Joe

tea lady
29th October 2008, 08:54 AM
Will put my log not to far out of the way then, so I can look at it often.:2tsup:

echnidna
29th October 2008, 04:54 PM
Well seems it's now time to trade-in your car for a ute so you can seriously scrounge TL :wink: