A Nice Load of Plum

[ogato]

It’s been a good week for new wood. I was closing up at my local ‘woodies’ and a guy called in and asked if anyone would be interested in some plum which he’d just cut down. Very nice timing and definitely; very interested!! Never had the opportunity to turn plum before but thought it could be quite promising. So, I followed him home and loaded up a bootload, including the main trunk (with the graft line very evident) several of the larger branches and the rootball. Over the next few days I roughed it into bowls and gave a couple of pieces my mates. The rootball remains – despite copious waterblasting, I’ve killed 3 chains and it’s still not ready for the lathe. It might very well end up being attractive firewood. All the ‘roughs’ have been sealed with endcheck and put away to dry. Hopefully they won’t split or warp too much, because they look like they could be pretty good. Just finished roughing the plum and found a guy advertising on Gumtree giving away a leopard wood tree, which I'm trying to get to. Life is good . . . . . . Jeff https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeff-Fraser-Wood-Turner/611974235558503

[mick59wests]

some nice turnings there and some beautiful wood
cheers
Mick

[artme]

Good load of freebies!! Looks delicious too!!!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

[dr4g0nfly]

Plum, lovely stuff but 3 chains, that's not so cheap!

[hughie]

Watch out most fruit timber splits real bad get it sealed up and out of the sun asap

[ogato]

Thanks for the heads-up Hughie - all sealed with endcheck, bagged and put away in a cool spot with minimal air movement. Also put some CA around any pith sections. Hopefully done enough to give it a reasonable chance of being usable later on. I'll re-check them every 3-4 weeks and CA if any cracks appear.

Had another little 'fruit salad' opportunity today too - one of my neighbours had a peach tree fall over after a storm a few months back - couldn't be retrieved so out it came and over to the shed. Not very big but able to make a 7 or 8 small bowls, mainly taking advantage of the crotchy bits.

Jeff

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeff-Fraser-Wood-Turner/611974235558503?ref=bookmarks

[Ticky]

The things i know about turning fruit, I could paint on my thumbnail with a 4 inch brush.

However, I have worked (not turned) with some peach, & found that while it does split easily, I believe this is more due to the brittle nature of the timber rather than temp & humidity.

That Plumb looks wonderful & your bowls look great. The bulk of my turning experiance boils down to me buying my first lathe this morning, so my opinions could be quite worthless. Ah well, we all gotta start somewhere.


Steve

[Christos]

Great score on the wood. Good to see some people thinking of getting timber to people who can use them.

[ogato]

Tks Christos, I'll be finishing one of the nicer pieces for the guy who donated the wood - he's one of many thoughtful people round this area, who would much prefer something useful to come from trees they lose for whatever reason rather than having them burned, chipped or go to landfill. He has a large mango which needs some radical reshaping in the not too distant future so there is a prospect of some more 'donations'.

Life is good! (as is the wood supply)

Jeff

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeff-Fraser-Wood-Turner/611974235558503?