Sharing wood

[John Hicks]

I have a couple of turner friends up here in the Olympics, and whenever I find something; I like to share a bit of it with them. I found this poplar, and some willow, in a ad that stated it was just cut, and more importantly, free. I couldn't take much as it was very heavy; but anyway, my friends will like the mineral staining that both of these trees had. The willow had red staining through it and the popular (not tulip poplar) had mineral streaking throughout. The three poplar trees were over 7 feet across at the base! Did I mention it was heavy?

 

[Mike Johnson]

Make sure you write the species of wood on the cut pieces, several years from now you might have a larger collection of wood and sometimes it is a challenge to remember where you got it and what species it is. I usually use a sharpie and write the name or use a letter to identify the wood type on each piece of wood for reference later on. If you are roughing them into bowl blanks right away you can always use a pencil to mark the date, species and weight on the roughed bowl which helps later on when you have stacks of rough turned bowls.