This is why they call us the Apple County.

[pyrocasto]

Sorry for the wood gloat. 😀 Not often I get such beautiful wood.

Well living in the apple county I can drive dozens of miles though orchards in any direction, just to give you a thought of how many derned trees there are.

Fortunantly, one orchard about a mile from my house is getting ready to burn the older trees to plant pumpkins. 46 year old trees, about 5 or so acres, and yet the few people that had ask and taken wood from him earlier used it all for firewood. 😱 I'm in the process of snatching up as many as I can before the dozer gets here, since most of the trees around here dont get this big before they push them down.

This is some of what I've gotten so far(with permission of course):
First pic is about 3/4 of one day's load, which bottomed out my little Ranger every bump we hit. Bigger ones are 2ft+ in diameter.
2nd pic was a half rotten piece. I decided to cut of the good half to see what it looked like. It's now in the process of becoming a bowl/platter.
The last pictures should produce something quite stunning. Not sure what yet, probably 3 different pieces since the main pith cracks so much.

Edit: pics order is messed up, not too hard to figure out which is which though.

 

[underdog]

Nice Haul there Chris! Post a picture when you make something, cuz that's some nice looking wood.

And thanks for the idea. I'll definitely be talking to the folks up the road at the peach orchard now... :cool2:

 

[Griesbach]

Nice prize there, Pyro. I got a piece of apple at our club's wood raffle a while back. It had been dry for I don't know how long. Part of it was unusable but the other half produced a nice hollow form (for me anyway 😀 ). It finished up and polished up really nice with a lot of different figure in it. Be sure to get it all sealed up ASAP as it will crack right in front of your eyes.

 

[Aaron Miller]

Hey Pyro,
I was wondering how much is available? I am in Raleigh, about an hour away. I would be more than willing to make the drive for some of that gorgeous apple wood.

 

[dkulze]

Seriously nice score, Pyro. Make sure and grab a couple of truck loads for the local clubs.

We've got seriously old apple up at this end of the world and I got you beat for size, but can't touch you for quantity and quality. That's some amazing stuff.

Seal it well cause it will crack really badly, including internal cracks. Also, if you can rough turn a bunch, do so. It hardens up into concrete when it dries. That's one reason it's so good for making kitchen implements.

Dietrich

 

[woodwish]

Wow, nice looking, We have no apple trees within hundreds of miles. This summer I am heading north for a couple of weeks for work, guess I should haul along my chainsaw :cool2: So what's your address? :cool2: I could trade you some Southern Sand Pine, turns lousy and won't even burn very good, we have plenty of it. 🙁

 

[Frank Kobilsek]

Hurry

Pyro
Dietrich is right that stuff will get really hard. I have had limited luck with apple but the bowls that did turn out I roughed within a week of the tree hitting the ground. Other wood I can seal the log and let it lay for a year or more and have a high success rate. Take a few days off the day job and get roughing.

Anybody else hve trouble with old Apple.

Frank

 

[Griesbach]

Frank,
I can't say that I had any trouble with the apple. As I posted earlier, the piece I got was dry for I don't know how long but I didn't find it to be really hard. It was a half log about 22" long and had quite a split along the pith. LOML is attached to the one piece I did get out of it. The other piece, from the same half log, showed a loose knot part way through forming it and as I tried to turn past it my form just got smaller till the knot showed up on the other side of the form. Firewood :mad:. Still, your information regarding apple getting hard when dry is in the memory bank.

 

[Jeff Jilg]

That is some beautiful wood Chris, thanks for sharing the gloat. Please post pics when you finally get to the finished pieces!

 

[pyrocasto]

Thanks guys, I have one small platter done and 2 pieces in mid working.
The pith is pretty much pre cracked in all of it, but I've had good luck with the everything else. I left a small piece with the ends unsealed to see what would happen. No kidding, it cracks faster than any other wood I've tried.

Hearing about how hard it gets, I'm going to turn all I can green.

Dietrich, I saw you piece in the other thread, man does it make me want to come north. Though I can only turn 12" diameter at the moment so I'm not in a hurry. 🙂

As for the local chapter, I still need to join mine. I just heard about them last month but missed the meeting. I'll visit the next one to get more info next saturday.

In the 10 years I've lived here I've seen dozens of big orchards(including my backyard) get torn out. I was never into turning then though and didnt know apple was so perty. 🙁

Hey Pyro,
I was wondering how much is available? I am in Raleigh, about an hour away. I would be more than willing to make the drive for some of that gorgeous apple wood.

Hey Aaron, I'll take a few pictures for you so you can see if it's worth coming. Most of the stuff left(which is 90% of the trees) is around 1ft diameter, some less. The pictures should give you a better look.

I'm busy this saturday, maybe sunday too, but free pretty much all other times.

 

[pyrocasto]

Here's pics. The one shows a row, there are about 2-3 others just like it.

This is about the size of 1/2-2/3 of the trees, the rest are a little smaller.

This is a small platter I've turned and I'm finishing now. You can see just how bad it's warped. Finished it, boiled it, put it in a brown paper bag for 2 days, and started finishing it with tung oil. 16 hours in the air this is how it looks. No cracking, only warpage.

Since I like to finish turn instead of letting it dry first, should I put it in the brown bad until it's dry and then seal it up? Or would letting it soak in the dish soap for a day, then finish turn and seal up be better?

Allan, if you're willing I'll be free anytime next week, week day or weekend. Just let me know. 😉 Another is coming Thursday or Friday it seems. All good looking wood not taken I will take, maybe give it to the local chapter like mentioned, or trade with a few "distant" buddies.

 

[Gretch Flo]

cracking and apple

I just got more crab apple from Mich State University. They took down 5 trees on the street in front of my office due to road construction :mad: but 😀 .
Went to their stash-chipping pile ( I have permission-have given the Grounds people some wooden gifts-they sometimes put aside for me some interesting or historic wood-Katsura, red cedar, asian cedar,bk oak, asian cherry. tree lilac) and hauled some home 4 days ago. Made 2 natural edged bowls yesterday, 1/8-3/16" thick, and the white sap wood is splitting some on one bowl this am-a problem I find esp with apple. It is currently undergoing CA therapy. These are relatively small (6-8 inches) and didn't want to double turn them. I put a coat of danish oil on right away to slow down the drying. Some split, some don't. I haven't used the paper bag trick. Any hints out there?? Gretch

 

[pyrocasto]

Gretch, I would try the soap or boil method. I found the same thing with a piece of mine. The sap wood and pith were the only things that really cracked.

You can see some sap wood on my piece yet no cracks with the boil method.