Getting a nice load of Maple and Cherry Logs

[David Wyke]

Last Christmas when I did my first show a lady purchased an expensive bowl and brought her husband by the next day. He wanted me to turn urns for his business and offered to buy anything I needed. I turned him down several times since I want to turn for the fun of it.
The show this weekend offered another opportunity: A lady bought a bow at the Christmas show and called me this past week. She said her and her husband love wood bowls and have a lot of them in their house. She named several turners that she had purchased from, some professional turners, and some members of the AAW. I had no idea where she was going with this,
Long story short, they are building a house and have to remove some nice trees, love the style of bow I turn, wanted to know if I could use the logs and turn them some bowls.
I explained that usually if I receive a log I give that person a free bowl. She however said that they would buy the bowls and once they had all they wanted I could just keep the rest of the logs.
I went by and marked the logs the day before the show (12-15 logs). They came buy the show and bought a 17” and 14” walnut bowl and said they would get the logs to me in a week or two.
Now I will give them a few free bowls and they will buy a few for themselves, friends, and family. I explained it would be a year before they received a bowl and they would most likely receive bowls three years from now. I will get them off the ground and cover a heavy tarp but have air flow.
Is one bowl per log fair or one bowl for every 5-10 that I get? Many will be cored since the smallest is 14” and largest 36”.

 

[Brian Gustin]

If it was me (and I do the same - offer a free bowl in trade for a decent log that can make multiple bowls) I'd just go ahead and start turning bowls, and as they come up finished, let the "customer" know and they can come by and pick and choose - first one free, and after that they get first dibs on any bowl at a fair market price, if that's what they are after.. Either way I get wood to turn bowls, get to turn bowls, and enjoy my hobby , and maybe make enough money in bowl sales to pay for tooling, wear & tear, finishing & sanding supplies, etc. Dunno about you but I'm not in it to make money..

 

[David Wyke]

If it was me (and I do the same - offer a free bowl in trade for a decent log that can make multiple bowls) I'd just go ahead and start turning bowls, and as they come up finished, let the "customer" know and they can come by and pick and choose - first one free, and after that they get first dibs on any bowl at a fair market price, if that's what they are after.. Either way I get wood to turn bowls, get to turn bowls, and enjoy my hobby , and maybe make enough money in bowl sales to pay for tooling, wear & tear, finishing & sanding supplies, etc. Dunno about you but I'm not in it to make money..

I’m the same at this point, just try to make enough to fund the hobby and save a little for another lathe

 

[Gabriel Hoff]

Last Christmas when I did my first show a lady purchased an expensive bowl and brought her husband by the next day. He wanted me to turn urns for his business and offered to buy anything I needed. I turned him down several times since I want to turn for the fun of it.
The show this weekend offered another opportunity: A lady bought a bow at the Christmas show and called me this past week. She said her and her husband love wood bowls and have a lot of them in their house. She named several turners that she had purchased from, some professional turners, and some members of the AAW. I had no idea where she was going with this,
Long story short, they are building a house and have to remove some nice trees, love the style of bow I turn, wanted to know if I could use the logs and turn them some bowls.
I explained that usually if I receive a log I give that person a free bowl. She however said that they would buy the bowls and once they had all they wanted I could just keep the rest of the logs.
I went by and marked the logs the day before the show (12-15 logs). They came buy the show and bought a 17” and 14” walnut bowl and said they would get the logs to me in a week or two.
Now I will give them a few free bowls and they will buy a few for themselves, friends, and family. I explained it would be a year before they received a bowl and they would most likely receive bowls three years from now. I will get them off the ground and cover a heavy tarp but have air flow.
Is one bowl per log fair or one bowl for every 5-10 that I get? Many will be cored since the smallest is 14” and largest 36”.
View attachment 65379

Yikes, that is a big job. I would definitely enjoy it while you can, opportunities are sometimes few and far between! Of course I have denied a couple people of my own for the sake of learning and staying on track, so I totally understand the mindset

 

[Richard Coers]

Didn't you say you sold a bowl for $300. That would certainly cover the price of a log.

 

[David Wyke]

Didn't you say you sold a bowl for $300. That would certainly cover the price of a log.

Yes, and it would cover the price of a couple logs.

 

[David Wyke]

Yikes, that is a big job. I would definitely enjoy it while you can, opportunities are sometimes few and far between! Of course I have denied a couple people of my own for the sake of learning and staying on track, so I totally understand the mindset

The good thing is they understand how long it takes and know I will be working on other turning not related o this.

 

[Kevin Jesequel]

They would probably like to follow along. I’d send some photos of the roughed out batches as you get to them. Maybe a close up or two of some particularly nice grain they might be interested in down the road. Maybe invite them over once the rough outs are ready to return and let them pick out a couple for you to finish. Sounds like you made a great contact. I am sure they will tell all their friends about you when they have trees coming down as well.

 

[Alan Weinberg]

Lucky you to get so much quality free wood.

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

Nice catch, David. I guess that big one is the maple. I haven't seen any of mine grow like that. Mine all have straight trunks. Do you know what species?

 

[David Wyke]

They would probably like to follow along. I’d send some photos of the roughed out batches as you get to them. Maybe a close up or two of some particularly nice grain they might be interested in down the road. Maybe invite them over once the rough outs are ready to return and let them pick out a couple for you to finish. Sounds like you made a great contact. I am sure they will tell all their friends about you when they have trees coming down as well.

I talked to them about this exact thing and plan to send pictures. They are about 40 minutes from my house and will be visiting.

 

[David Wyke]

Lucky you to get so much quality free wood.

Yes I am. I am lucky as I have no problem getting wood as we have over 80 acres of trees. However I won’t cut a tree down just to make bowls. We do have several trees down that need to be harvested but they can wait.
I’ve had several offers of trees but to far away for me to go retrieve so this is a great opportunity.

 

[David Wyke]

Nice catch, David. I guess that big one is the maple. I haven't seen any of mine grow like that. Mine all have straight trunks. Do you know what species?

Yes, big one is maple and several other maples not in this photo. Species, not a clue, it’s maple! This one is smooth about half way up the log.

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

However I won’t cut a tree down just to make bowls.

I will, and have. Most of the time I cut one down that has to go anyway. I only have 5 acres, but 3 of it is unimproved forest. I'll cut one down in the back where no one could tell the difference.
View from the hunting blind:

Summertime

 

[robo hippy]

Well, I am jealous! Don't get black cherry out here in Oregon. The big one with bark inclusions may be a Bartlet Pear. That is the only tree I have seen that does that type of bark inclusions, other than the ornamental hawthorn which don't get close to that size.

robo hippy

 

[David Wyke]

I will, and have. Most of the time I cut one down that has to go anyway. I only have 5 acres, but 3 of it is unimproved forest. I'll cut one down in the back where no one could tell the difference.
View from the hunting blind:
View attachment 65408
Summertime
View attachment 65409

I will do the same if needed but I usually have enough downed trees to deal with.
However I have several like this that I check regularly to see if they are dying

 

[David Wyke]

Well, I am jealous! Don't get black cherry out here in Oregon. The big one with bark inclusions may be a Bartlet Pear. That is the only tree I have seen that does that type of bark inclusions, other than the ornamental hawthorn which don't get close to that size.

robo hippy

I don’t know if these are black cherry, haven’t looked at them real close. The one with bark inclusion is maple, I’ve had a couple like this before.

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

I will do the same if needed but I usually have enough downed trees to deal with.
However I have several like this that I check regularly to see if they are dying

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any burls on my place. On a slightly different tangent, I have found Osage orange and black locust logs lying around that are still perfectly good after many years. It's a scavenger hunt.