Stump and roots

[Mike Novak]

Hi

A car knocked down a neighbor’s plum tree. Said I could take it, so I hitched it to the truck and pulled it the rest of the way out of the ground.

Some of the roots are almost as big around as the trunk, and the part of the stump that was in the ground is much bigger than the trunk

Any advice or watch outs turning roots or stumps? I know that rocks and dirt can be a problem, and sometimes roots look grown together when they are not.

Is it worth the effort? Will need to power wash and do lots of trimming before I could lay anything out.

 

[Andrew Hale]

Go for it! Wear your face shield and stay out of the line of fire. You’ll sharpen more often, but every so often you find treasure in some wild grain or even some punky defects. Root balls are always interesting.

 

[William Rogers]

Best to power wash it first. No doubt there are rocks embedded and power washing can uncover most of them.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

Hope no ants, keep it outside before u know....u know that piece of wood, eh

 

[Richard Coers]

I just replied to the other root ball post. I stopped cutting root balls when I hit an imbedded brick. Too much cutting, too much abrasive debris, too little yield.

 

[Randy Anderson]

I got some very nice pieces from a catalpa tree stump a lady brought me a while back. It made driftwood look good. Her husband had pulled it out of the ground with his tractor so it was a tangled muddy mess. After a good washing with the hose and some careful cuts to get at promising looking pieces I got a lot more out of it than I thought. She ended up buying every piece I made out of it. Don't forget - not everything is a bowl. Some pieces are best suited for hollow forms and vases.

 

[Dean Center]

Process that plum STAT! It's beautiful wood, but it cracks early and badly.

 

[John Dillon]

I haven't turned much root because I also had a decent chunk from a neighbors ornamental tree/bush.

Couldn't really see it at the time, or feel it, but it had some sort of sap substance within the root which gummed-up my CBN wheel whenever I sharpened my gouge. Wasn't obvious to me at the time, but I kept wondering why I needed to sharpen after (practically) every cut I would take. I figured out the grit on the CBN had been lightly coated to almost smooth with the sap substance. I bailed out on it as it wasn't worth the hassle.

I'm more aware now of making sure my gouges are "clean" before sharpening.

I know there can be some beautiful figure in root burls, but can be tough on gouges, and possibly CBN wheels. Just wanted you to be aware. Good luck.

 

[JeffSmith]

Process that plum STAT! It's beautiful wood, but it cracks early and badly.

I'll second that - it also smells lovely when turning. Its a very good candidate for boiling to keep cracking to a minimum it you're planning to twice turn.

 

[Kalia Kliban]

Best to power wash it first. No doubt there are rocks embedded and power washing can uncover most of them.

What uncovers the rest of the rocks is either the nice fresh bandsaw blade or your favorite gouge :>) Ask me how I know. Plum is lovely stuff to work with, with some amazing color. It's dense and fine-grained, scrapes really well and takes fine detail, but isn't too tough to sand.

 

[RichColvin]

Are plum roots better at not checking than other fruit woods?

 

[Mike Novak]

I spent time yesterday to clean up the root ball and cut into sections. More work than I expected to get it cleaned, and I removed dozens of rocks. What’s left should get me 4 12” bowls. The grain will have to be really special for me to do another stump.

I made one bowl from the trunk so far. Wet plum cuts like butter! Looks good too.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

I spent time yesterday to clean up the root ball and cut into sections. More work than I expected to get it cleaned, and I removed dozens of rocks. What’s left should get me 4 12” bowls. The grain will have to be really special for me to do another stump.

I made one bowl from the trunk so far. Wet plum cuts like butter! Looks good too.

The big test is drying it without it twisting and splitting all out of shape.
The experience I had with plum is that it had beautiful colors when first exposed then as it dried it turned crud looking brown.