• January Turning Challenge: Thin-Stemmed Something! (click here for details)
  • Conversations are now Direct Messages (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to John Lucas for "Lost and Found" being selected as Turning of the Week for January 13, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

California storm wood

W

Wayne Spence

Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
217
Likes
1
Location
Denver, Colorado
There must be enough trees down from the recent wind storms in and around Pasadena to fulfill enough turning wood for the entire country. Do any of you California residential turners have plans for harvesting the downed trees? I know it will depend to some extent on local government. Might be worth bringing a truckload or two into some of the western states.

Some videos of the trees on TV appeared to be eucalyptus. I recall Sam Maloff in the 80s talking about those trees planted earlier turning out to be red herrings as the wind twist rendered them useless for wood products. Any knowledge of that?
 
I drove up to San Marino with my Stihl saw and cruised around the area yesterday. The number of trees down was staggering. Oaks, camphor, sycamore, Chinese elm, pines, cypress and cedars of all types and sizes.

So many trees toppled into power lines and telephone poles that city crews were still working to restore service.

What was roadside was mostly limb wood and tons of palm fronds. There will be plenty prime trunk wood for turning, but as of yesterday, most were still complete trees laying in the road or in yards awaiting someone (not me) to safely reduce it to bolts. Definitely there should be lots of prime turning stock -- maybe later today (after the Packer game).

As for eucalyptus, it can be ok to turn, if you like turning granite! Actually it machines nicely but you do need to avoid twisted or curved grain. I sliced up a 5 foot section into 2 inch planks few years ago and as it seasoned the surface developed cracks (like a dry lake bed). I figured it would be firewood. When I finally got around to dressing it the wood was beautiful! The wood ended up as leveling blocks for my buddie's RV, but what nice leveling blocks they were!
 
Bob, why not offer a hand into reducing a tree or two into usable timber?

Worked real good around here for many of us in the northeast.
Made lots of friends doing that a couple years ago during a major ice storm, and now I get a lot of calls about "I have this or that you interested". Worked out great for a lot of great wood that would normally be off limits.
And it yielded a 450 lb white birch burl as well.
 
Many of the trees were laying in widow-maker configurations: with the trunks suspended between the uprooted base and the crown. The crews dismantling them were using a grapple-equipped loader to stabilize the mass. This technique prevents the root from rebounding as they saw up the tree -- they still have to manage the weight and balance the forces. I’m sure an experienced sawyer could do it safely by themselves, but I’m not that guy. The most I’m comfortable with is sawing nicely manageable pieces of de-limbed trunks.
 
Dean

Several years ago some walnut trees came down in Boulder. The politically correct City of Boulder had so much red tape to go through most turners and everyone else gave up on those trees. Don't know where they ended up, possibly for signs warning of high winds.
 
I drove around on Friday, and couldn't believe the devastation. There is going to be a lot of wood available. It's a wide area with tons of trees down. It will take weeks or months for it all to be cut up. I have stocked up already, and plan on going out at least one more time. Here's what I saw...

A couple varieties of Oak, Chinese Elm, Sweet Gum, Maple, Sycamore, Magnolia, Carob, Eucalyptus, also lots of Pines, Cypress, Cedar, and Palm.

Ads are starting to pop up on Craigslist, and I heard today there are starting to be piles of logs stacked on the road. If you are in the area, you will not be disappointed.
 
Dang! I was just in San Marino at the Huntington Botanical Gardens to give an after-dinner talk there on Nov. 18th and the place was looking kind of nice! I would hate to see it now - I hope many of the majestic old trees on the Huntington's grounds are still OK.... ... it is always sad to hear whenever this kind of damage results, event though it can assist turners in getting some wood. Living beautiful trees are to be highly valued while still alive too! I stayed at the CalTech Athenaeum, and there are some beautiful trees in that part of town too.... Hopefully they're still OK.... 🙁

Good luck Pasadenans in dealing with the windfall... 😱

Rob Wallace
 
[Several years ago some walnut trees came down in Boulder. The politically correct City of Boulder had so much red tape to go through most turners and everyone else gave up on those trees. Don't know where they ended up, possibly for signs warning of high winds
Click to expand...

If its anything like where I live... landfill, or at best woodchips for someones garden
 
walnuts in boulder

wayne if my source is accurate most of the walnuts in boulder were buried. the reasoning behind that decision was to keep the bug or disease that killed them from spreading further.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top