Woodturning from Hurricane Katrina

[backtalk]

I live in the SE Louisiana area that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Luckily, my town was one of the few not completely destroyed. My grandmother, however lives in the Long Beach, MS area and although her home is fine, several of the age old oaks and pecan trees on her property are down. My question here is that I would like to take some of the logs that we are cutting and use them to turn something to keep as a part of our family. These trees were very special to us and we hate to see all of it just cut up into firewood. I have been wanting to get back into woodturning and have access to a nice lathe. I need to know from those here if it is possible to turn Oak from a downed log and what I need to do to prepare the wood. I know that as it dries it will begin to crack and I was wondering if any of you have any pointers.

Thank You
C Watkins

 

[Bob Hadley]

I'll get the ball rolling. I wouldn’t worry about the species too much. Even the most ornery wood can turn out nice. (...turn out... Get it?).

The short answer is, the wood could be OK, or not. The condition can vary depending on the circumstances that blew the tree down. Nonetheless, a wind-damaged tree that might be useless for lumber can yield a fair volume of turning stock. Take wood only from parts of the trunk that appear to be free of damage. Don't bother with branches.

You need a chainsaw, a strong back and a friend or two or three to help. There are all sorts of special tools for maneuvering log that come in handy. Too many to discuss here.

If you don’t already own a chainsaw, this is probably not the ideal first experience. Too many bad things can happen with a chainsaw and random piles of wood. Better to wait for a tree removal service to cut it up and then ask to take the wood off their hands (they'll be happy to have you haul it away).

Paint the cut ends with Anchorseal as soon as they are sawn and again if you bandsaw the logs into blocks or squares for turning. That will help prevent cracking. If you can't do it right away, you can expect to lose a fair amount to cracks.

BH

 

[pfduffy]

Downed trees

I would like to add that the sooner the better on turning the logs into ruff form bowls the better. Seal them and put them in grocery paper bags to store- - temporarily. Pecan and oak are problematic in that they get very hard to turn when dry. Also, watch out for wind-shake cracks that will cause breakage at almost every stage of the turning so inspect the blanks carefully as you go along. When a hurricane blew thru our area we were all left with large trees lying on the ground. I still have a 30in x 20 ft.red oak in my back yard. If I could move it it would be nice lumber. But, it lies there getting ready to spalt and rot. Good Luck! Philip