Top of Pine Tree

[Paul39]

I have gotten a bunch of pine with many cut off limbs all around. I want to turn this so the bulls eyes from the limbs will be around the vessel. I found the timber at the side of the street and have no idea of how long ago it was cut. It is begining to check. We are in the middle of winter.

Would it be better to rough out now or wait. It is 10 to 15 inches in diameter.

Some opinions, please.

Paul

[Sawdust Maker]

I'd turn some to about 1" or so wall thickness and let it dry out after that

You didn't say what sort of pine?

[powderpost]

I agree with Sawdust Maker.........
Jim

[joe greiner]

Aside from the diameter, what other dimensions do you have? And how many pieces?

For several short pieces, rough turning could be tried on a few: About 1" wall as suggested, then coat the end grain with paraffin wax or AnchorSeal, to retard drying or enable more even drying.

For long pieces, the checking probably isn't very deep. You could cut shorter, and then coat, or just coat as is for later attention.

In any case, if you can, mark which end of the log(s) were toward the top of the tree. The branches generally slope upward from the core, and optimum location of the bull eyes depends on the diameter of the final shape. See pic 4 here: http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=46097 and my remarks about knot locations.

Cheers,
Joe

[Ed Reiss]

Hi Paul...welcome to the forums:2tsup:

In agreement with what the others said about roughing out then sealing, but just be aware that pine has a lot of sap in the wood which will gum up the cutting tool quickly. Be sure to clean the tool's cutting edge off before hitting the grinding wheel with it.

Good luck with the project...should look pretty cool with the "eyes" all around:cool:

[Paul39]

Thanks guys, I'll take some photos today of the pile on the street and what I have home. I'll do some bark and grain photos to see if any of you can tell me what kind of pine.

Paul

[Keoni]

:) Here are pics of Norfolk Island Pine.It was turned green to .75". Anchor sealed for
2 wks. Finished and sanded to 600 grit and soaked in Danish oil for a wk. After a wk. used Minn Wipe On Poly and buffed. One has been spalted for 1 month.

[Paul39]

Here are the pine photos. Car is a 1988 Ford Festiva which I tax severely at times.

The largest dimention of the butt is 28 in / 711 mm. The widest part of the split is 24 in / 608 mm.

The diameter of the small end of the top is 10 in. 254 mm.

Now that you have seen the bark and inside, any thoughts of what kind of pine. It grew in the city of Asheville, NC, USA.

So far I have the whole tree. I had to split one piece to get it in the car. I bought a used chain saw with a 20 inch bar today to handle this and all the other timber I keep finding.

The simetrical figure in the NFIP bowl above is beautiful. From what I have seen so far this tree is more random.

Thanks for all the advise. My lathe has only 350 mm swing so I'm restricted until I get the 1000 mm swing monster lathe finished. I'll paint all the big stuff and keep it in the shade. Some I'll halve and quarter along the check lines & paint.

Paul

[Gil Jones]

Hey Paul,
Go to this site >> http://www.uccoatings.com/Home/Products << and check out the product called Anchorseal. It is a paraffin wax emulsion sealer for green wood (used on the end grain). UC Coating used to send out a free sample quart of it if a person asked by phone or email. Worth a try. It is an excellent product, and our turning club (Tallahassee) keeps a 55-gallon drum on hand and sells it to members in 5-gallon buckets. Call or email them and see if they still send out the samples.
By the way, that wood you have sure does not look like pine.

[joe greiner]

Doesn't look like most of the pine I've seen, either. Most of it in our (Gil and me) neck of the woods has platelets (sort of shingles) in the bark.

And, according to my very imperfect understanding, Norfolk Island Pine isn't a true pine (Pinus something). Their best (+/-) feature is the regularity of the knots at single horizons; other nice features too, of course.

My favorite trick for timber identification is to take a sample to a local nurseryman or horticularist, along with needles, berries, leaves and flowers if available. They're usually happy to show off their knowledge.

Whatever it is, there are some beautiful turnings hidden inside. Congratulations.:2tsup:

Cheers,
Joe

[Paul39]

Joe,

I got all but one piece home today. It is 2 ft. diameter X 3 1/2 ft. long. I'll have to split it to move it. I will have a total of 35 ft. of timber with the top diameter of 10 in. and the butt 28 in.

I don't think Norfolk Island Pine survives outside here. I know the big platelet type bark you refer to. I think t
hat is jack pine or maybe southern yellow pine. SYP has the wonderful orange red center that heart of pine floors come from. I cut a piece in half today and it is almost white all the way through.. It seems harder than white pine.

The person who told me about the timber said it was a Christmas tree that got too big.

All the limbs were chipped and stump ground, so there was little to go by. When I rolled one of the logs today there was a 6 inch piece of branch that was from the spruce family. I don't know if it came from this tree or from last December's Christmas tree.

At any rate, as you say, I have lots of nice turning wood. I heat with wood, so the off cuts will be next winter's heat.

I'm itching to get the smallest end on the lathe.

Paul

[Ed Reiss]

Paul, I could be wrong (SWMBO tells me so all the time:doh:), but it might be white cedar you have there.

[glenn k]

Spruce have needles that are attached on pegs and have pendulus cones genus Picea. All have P's
Firs have needles that are attached with things like suction cups and the cones are ascending. Genus is Abies no P's but some A's but no A in suction cup or Fir.
If the needles are in groups of 2, 3 or more then it maybe a pine or cedar (Cedrus)
If you showed a branch I could at least give genus.
Hope this helps

[jatt]

Car is a 1988 Ford Festiva which I tax severely at times.


Good car those Festivas. Had a 1989 Mazda 121 as a daily driver & a 87 Festiva as a wrecker for parts. A few exterior cosmetic changes from the Mazda. Running gear and major panel work is the same.

[rsser]

I guess it's worth stating the obvious ... that bulls eyes around the outside mean you'll be end-grain turning a lump.

And you'll find as a rough-turned piece dries, and also when finish turning, the knots are likely to loosen off and will need some fixing and maybe filling.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

[joe greiner]

Now that it's daylight here, I just took a squint at a couple more small Noble Fir ex-Christmas trees, and the bark is similar to your pic 4. The random concentration of your knots also suggest a Christmas tree, generally bred for lots of branches/limbs.

You're right about Norfolk Island Pine distribution. Most of the larger ones I've seen are South of Orlando. I have a small one outdoors. It's gotten too big to move indoors; it's pot-bound, and I should plant it for experiment if nothing else. It should be dead by now. I use the Darwin method. Heck, I can kill cactus with negligence.

With that much tree, it shouldn't be difficult to mark the upper end of each log as I suggested.

Using paint instead of wax or AnchorSeal, periodic re-painting will help. DAMHIKT. You could also allow some pieces to crack on their own, then split along the cracks. I guess it should be obvious, those pieces will have knots only on one side, or larger on one side than the other.

Ern is spot on about shrinking and cracking in the knots. You may be OK if you limit the thickness in the turning to about 1/3 of the knot diameter.

Take all this with a grain of salt. I've learned the right way to do a few things, and the wrong way to do almost everything else.

Cheers,
Joe

[Paul39]

Thanks to all for the advice. We have had quite a bit of cold, and this morning brought a frozen sewer pipe under the house, and when thawed, cracked sewer pipe.

With further thawing a split supply pipe.

I have other things on my mind besides turning at the moment.

Tomorrow predicted to be 54F, so that will help while I fix things.

[hughie]

this morning brought a frozen sewer pipe under the house, and when thawed, cracked sewer pipe. With further thawing a split supply pipe.


Ah memories of things I prefer to forget from a sojourn in North America many years a go.