Privet harvesting

[Andy Mac]

Hello,
I had an hour or so spare this morning so I took my pruning saw and secateurs down the road into a lantana infested pocket right on the escarpment. I knew there was privet growing as well, from a previous reccie. Being winter still I thought it time I grabbed a bit for a chair or stools, before a growth spurt.
I thickly painted the ends with acrylic paint, and will season them for 6 months with the bark on. From an experiment I did last year, the winter harvest and leaving bark on stops them from splitting so badly. In 6 months they should be quite dry and a lot lighter. They average about 3.5m long with the thickest 160mm diameter.
The straight timber is easier to carry on the roof rack, but pretty boring to work with, so I mix it up, and some forks allow for fun stuff like hat racks. Note the small piece on top, with two almost 90* branches- could be an arm for a chair?:D
I'll add to this when I start working with it.

Cheers

[tea lady]

Looks like fun. ::cool:

[orraloon]

I cut some a few years back with the intention of making a bow from it. Turned out to be not suited to that so ended up as firewood. I did find it very workable and have always been thinking that there should be some use for it. I'll watch this one as it develops.
Regards
John

[Robson Valley]

Nice sticks.
Cold weather for the first month or two of drying works up here for diamond willow. The shop down my street brings in maybe 200 sticks, 3-15cm diameter and nearly 3m long. They strip the spring bark, comes off very easily and into a shed. Skinny stuff is for 2014, big sticks (bed heads, etc) is for 2016. If spring (late May, early June) is cold and wet, the drying process goes very well. Totally split and lost if hot & dry. Otherwise, split loss in the ends is 10-20cm. Could end up as some of the most expensive firewood in the valley.
That takes 5 cords of split pine & spruce & birch to keep the place habitable in winter.