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Peppermills and such, and saving green wood

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Can't remember who's video I was watching, but he grabbed a branch out of a pile in his shop -- cherry he said, a couple years old. Stuck it on the lathe and proceeded to turn a box or peppermill or something like that. OK, so I've seen cherry split while I was watching! Anyhoo, so now I have some pretty big branches and suckers (3+ inches D) of newly-fallen apple. And questions:
  • Is it possible to save branches with pith in them, and use them to turn a box or peppermill in a year or so (with a reasonable number of casualties out of the ones saved)? I coated some cherry that came down this summer, it hasn't done very well, but we had quite the hot summer (for us). We're soaking wet now.
  • For those of you who aren't dedicated bowl-/hollow-form-only turners, what source(s) do you use for spindle stock in this size range? Do you buy it retail? Harvest it yourself? other....?
 

hockenbery

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I dry a lot of limbs with the pith in 3" diameter or less.
I have about 10 citrus limbs from last year where I lost six but I still have 4 that will make nice globe in Christmas ornaments.
I seal the ends and put them in a pile or on a shelf. No time invested.
Holly seems to dry ok for me all the time.

Anything larger than 4" is much more likely to split..

Al
 
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I dry a lot of limbs with the pith in 3" diameter or less.
I have about 10 citrus limbs from last year where I lost six but I still have 4 that will make nice globe in Christmas ornaments.
I seal the ends and put them in a pile or on a shelf. No time invested.
Holly seems to dry ok for me all the time.

Anything larger than 4" is much more likely to split..

Al

Well, that's encouraging Al. I'll keep track of what I set aside, and report next year what the mortality rate was. I've got quite a bit of holly also, but haven't looked at it for awhile. Thanks!
 
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There is no harm in just saving it to see what happens. I suspect that it will split, but maybe not. If it splits, it can still be used for firewood.

Normally, I'd agree with the "no harm" part, but there's so much of this, I could spend hours sorting and cutting them off, and coating the ends. Time is running short on actually turning stuff before Christmas, LOL!:D I'll be selective, per Al's post, and do what I can do -- see what happens! I notice nobody, so far, is sharing (generally speaking) their sources for larger spindle stock.

On a weather note: Didn't dare be out there today playing with apple branches in the rain/wind-storm we had today. Trees falling! Driving up Highway 305, cars suddenly slowed, stopped -- 30' hemlock had fallen directly across the road. Three men jumped out of their vehicles, pulled the fortunately skinny tree out of the way, and off we went. One of the alders on our property border snapped a big branch off. Nasty out there!
 
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source for spindle stock

Jamie
citrus wood is notorious for splitting
even if sealed.
i have acquired ash and maple baseball bat blanks for turning pepper mills. they are about 3inch diameter.
if memory serves i got them from austin hardwoods. not sure if you have one of those in washington but you also may try internet sources or rocklers.
 

john lucas

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You can rough turn them so you've removed a lot of the wood and then let them dry. They will dry much faster. The problem then, especially with pepper mills, is remounting them on the lathe to true everything up or maybe drill out more of the interior. With Pepper mill blanks you won't have the center to keep the drill aligned. With care and slow feeding you can still do it. I rough boxes all the time, especially on woods prone to cracking. I tape them back together so I won't lose the box tops, and then seal the end grain. Mostly like Al, I just cut up the limbs, seal the ends or wrap them with stretch wrap, and then put them up. If they split, they become smaller spindle stock for ornament finials. not much time lost and I usually get something out of them.
 
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