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Is this log any good?

Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Messages
70
Likes
45
Location
Reidsville, NC
o_O
I saw it in person a few days ago but was unable to transport it home. The burl wraps around the whole trunk. "LOG" weighs about 200 to 250 pounds. It is cherry, we think. Yes, the left side is a crotch, and the burl-age is all down in there too.

Brother discovered LOG a few doors down the suburban roadside from where he lives . He is a brute of a boy and fetched it with a hand truck by himself and wheeled it a few hundred feet down the street, then a 100' gravel drive and a final trip through a sloped back yard. He said the whole tree was like this and regretted he could not get all of it. What a score that would have been.

I am having him get it up off the ground (we lifted it onto a couple of other logs before I had to return home), and he is going to cover it until I can get back to fetch it. That bowl-shaped indention there where the box cutter is laid is a bit punky; it looks like it collects a good amount of rain water, so I want to get it covered, then home and stabilized asap.

[Any advice on what to do aside from just getting it dry and out of the sun is greatly appreciated. Should I leave the punky bit there or dig it out right away?]

He also said he thought the bottom was spalting. Wouldn't THAT be a shame... It's been on the ground there where it is pictured for a while, and he said it had been "four or five months", but I don't know if that was entirely on the ground there or if it sat on the street for a while before he snarfed it.

It is 227 miles away. It will cost me 8 hours of drive time and about $75 USD to fetch it. Worth it?
 

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If the burl is already in your brother's possession, it's worth cutting into the log to see how bad the punk is. Spalting is almost always a death knell for figure, including burl figure. That's why I would suggest, if possible, having your brother cut into the log, take a couple more photos and send those to you. You might be able to make a better-informed decision on whether you want to spend the time and money to go retrieve it.
 
Might depend on what the want to turn out it. Sometimes we get focused on that nice hollow form. Could be a lot of stabilized pen blanks etc. As stated above you won't know until it's opened up. JMO
 
I will try to rip it in the traditional straight down the pith across the crotch way. Brother doesn't have a chainsaw or, really, the available time to fool around with it.
 
Any advice on what to do aside from just getting it dry and out of the sun is greatly appreciated. Should I leave the punky bit there or dig it out right away?]

Keep it off the ground and get it cut into turning blanks wrap them in plastic and turn them soon
They tend to get punky.

Cut caps for hollow forms with wood on the bottom
I just stumbled on these old photos of cherry burls both around 12-13” dia
IMG_0290.jpeg. IMG_0289.jpeg
 
After I section it up, is there a way to prevent it from getting punky? An extended DNA soak, perhaps? I have a carving wheel for my angle grinder, can remove the punky wood from the blanks right away, if that helps.
 
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