My last cherry stock cutting adventure was pretty much a waste of time and only two marginal stock blanks from slicing up most of a 22"X20' cherry trunk piece by piece with a chainsaw and finding rot and knots everywhere.
I had a big walnut tree fall down in the hollow on my place and was going to let it sit there because it was so inaccessible on the steep hillside where it fell. I have been out of action getting cut on for a year or so and let it sit for 2 years.
I finally could't stand it anymore and loaded up my stuff to "just take a look at it".
Pretty thick, can you see the tree?
I wanted to see if I could cut out a crotch wood blank, I didn't know if the wood was still sound.
First cuts;
Slabbed off;
Crotch wood;
Pattern;
Cut out trying to avoid the bad places.
I struggled with changing my chainsaw cutout to a nice smooth plank on my cherry log debacle. A friend turned me on to a hand plainer for the job. With an 20% off coupon in hand I headed to Harbor Freight. I bought their most powerful plainer for $47 out the door. It works wonders on my rough plank. After I was able to trim things down a bit I did use my bandsaw for the basic shape.
Now, this plank has issues, it almost looks spalted but the wood is as hard as a rock. I dulled two chains cutting out the plank. Nice grain;
Done, I put a thin coat of shellac on the whole plank because it is as wet as a sponge and had started surface checking immediately after I cut it. With bow wood I have found a thin coat won't slow down drying but will stop surface checking.
Well, there is 20 more feet of trunk and I was cutting on the little end, this tree is BIG even though the chainsaw makes it look small. I know I will have to try to knock out a few more blanks out of it.
