So I have an oak tree that is about 20’ high after we cut the top off and about 24-36” diameter. The tree has a twist of about 180 degrees in about 10’ of length. What would be some ideas that I could make with it?? Thank you
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Twisted tree
- Thread starter Carl Mitchell
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2004
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- Location
- Lakeland, Florida
- Website
- www.hockenberywoodturning.com
Not sure what you mean by twists. If you have a groove in the bark contour that may present an opportunity for a natural edge bowl
Or use the grooves for openings and voids in hollow forms
This NE Beech bowl was turned by centering the opening on a deep vee found near the base of a huge beech
This NE bowl used the vee off center a bit
This HF was turned centering the opening on a vee and another vee made a window
Are you saying at a point along the trunk of the tree it is twisted clockwise or counterclockwise 180 degrees without compromising the wood within the trunk? I can't imagine how that would happen.
I get a LOT of twisted things in my woods but all are relatively small diameters, less than 2" or so, twisted by honeysuckle vines wrapping around when young and forcing the trunk to appear twisted. (These twisted "sticks" are incredibly popular with people who make rustic furniture, walking sticks and such - one friend wandered in our woods for hours and hauled off a truckload.
I have never seen a severely twisted mature tree. I'm also curious about the nature of the twist.
But a quick Google search shows lots of examples AND gives a number of reasons a tree may twist while growing. Interesting reading.
Twisting like you described might make for some powerful internal stresses. It would be interesting to turn something and see if/how it warps.
JKJ
I have never seen a severely twisted mature tree. I'm also curious about the nature of the twist.
But a quick Google search shows lots of examples AND gives a number of reasons a tree may twist while growing. Interesting reading.
Twisting like you described might make for some powerful internal stresses. It would be interesting to turn something and see if/how it warps.
JKJ
Not that much of a twist, but probably half of that, and they are a pain to split for firewood, never turned any, as I assume there is a good chance it will split while drying, besides all these are softwood, not big hardwood, unless you call poplar a hardwood ;-).
Turning a vase in endgrain might look good, still burns if it does not survive
A picture would answer a lot of questions.
besides all these are softwood, not big hardwood, unless you call poplar a hardwood ;-).
Turning a vase in endgrain might look good, still burns if it does not survive
Sorry, I'm not quite sure what the "besides all these are softwood" refers to.
If referring to the poplar growing in many parts of the country, tulip (yellow) poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera. It is definitely classified as a hardwood. Some can be quite hard and dense, especially the heartwood of larger trees. (I have a number here over 3' in diameter.)
In some parts of the country where tulip poplar is not common, some appear to have confused it with trees of the populus genus such as aspen and cottenwood that I saw often out west. Some cottenwood trees do grow in our half of the country but I've never knowingly seen one nor worked with a log. BTW, aspens and cottenwoods are also classified as hardwoods, although they are quite soft hardwoods!
I've sawn many yellow poplar logs into boards and cut and dried it for turning blanks. Some can be beautiful - I have some with a wonderful purple tint and some "rainbow" poplar with dark streaks and colors, caused in this case by a lightning strike. I have 6 large (yellow) poplar logs on the ground now, waiting for time for me to saw them. I often use the boards for building siding, some of this will go on a new horse shelter.
As for turning, I love (yellow, tulip) poplar. Fairly easy to turn and easy to smooth once you know how.
As mentioned, the yellow poplar trees can be large. This is the stump I dug up after having one poplar tree cut down. (I didn't dare cut it down myself.) Took me about 4 hours, using excavator and skid steer, to it dig up and move it out of the way. (I needed to widen the gravel drive in that curve to make it esier to move my big trailers.)
This is a "beads of courage" lidded box I made from a fairly large yellow poplar blank. I put a music box inside the lid. I let the large blank dry for years before turning. BTW, if made from a single blank rather than from glued-up layers, I always turn things like this with the grain running vertical.
While making this and a couple of others I came up with the idea of using a tapered connection between the lid and the box to make it easier for kids, some with mobility problems, to remove and replace. Many are made with the "traditional" woodturner's method of fitting the lid with mostly straight vertical connections. At a symposium once I examined 10 BOC boxes made the "traditional" way. FIVE of them were stuck, probably from changing humidity. The local BOC guy in our club said he probably had to fix about half of those donated by members.
I made this visual aid from plywood to take to demos to show some reasons to use tapered lids.
This example uses an outside taper on the box but I also do some with inside tapers, like the one in the photo above.
Tapering the lid-to-box connection eliminates all possibility of the lid sticking, even if the box is made in face-grain orientation, even if the humidity varies significantly.OK, back on topic: this is one article I found on twisted trees:
Why Do Trees Grow in Spirals?
Washington is full of beauty— summits, mountain lakes, shrubsteppe, the Salish Sea, the Pacific Ocean and forests—that beckons us outdoors. Along with this pronounced beauty comes a plethora of natural oddities.
www.wta.org
JKJ
Agreed.
Hey, if a picture is worth a thousand words, does that mean a word is worth a milli-picture?
One diner I frequent on Sundays has a big leaf maple outside one window. It has a major spiral in it, indicated by the bark pattern. I think some trees just grow that way while others don't, just "because"...
robo hippy
robo hippy
I may be wrong, but I believe @Leo Van Der Loo has a bunch of Balsam Poplar around his neck of the woods.
I also, sort of, enjoy working with Tulip Poplar. It makes for a good demo wood, as it cuts easily, albeit is on the softer side of the hardwoods. I have yet to come across the heartwood of a monster specimen though--one day, I'm sure. I am also a fan of the green color of the heartwood that tends to mellow to a nice bronze color over time. Here are a couple of demo pieces I recently sanded/oiled to send back to the clubs for their fundraiser auctions. The large egg in both is Tulip Poplar.
While you have the twisty one, you could just get more into it and attempt something like these ,
, 
I’ve seen Bois D Arc trees that grow in the open twist like that. It has to do with the prevailing winds constantly pushing on an uneven top.
The twist can be seen in the bark. When making Osage bows these trees are to be avoided like the plague.
The twist can be seen in the bark. When making Osage bows these trees are to be avoided like the plague.
I'll have to do some research. I have some Osage orange logs that were cut down before I bought this place. The exterior does have a bit of a spiral to it, but it doesn't show on the interior. I need to go confirm.
@John K Jordan
I remember that demo in your picture.
Glad to see that you are back on the forums and allowing us to gain from your experiences and knowledge.
Alan V
I remember that demo in your picture.
Glad to see that you are back on the forums and allowing us to gain from your experiences and knowledge.
Alan V
Thanks, Alan! That club was one of my favorites for demos. (There are one or two otherwise, elsewhere, to remain unidentified...)
That particular demo in 2017 was interesting! Two people in the club hierarchy asked for different demos for that meeting. So I squished both into the allotted time. I had just done the BOC boxes elsewhere a couple of months earlier so I was ready! Quite easy to make. All wood is dry.
BTW, that BOC style was my three+ layer contribution to the two-layer design Harvey Meyer taught.
(If I can get my act together I might write up something on these for the Tips/Tutorials forum section.)
The basics of my method (sans lid), if anyone is interested:
And one custom-made for a special little boy.
(but with a lid bevel style different from the drawings)
Cherry, and Basswood for the chip carving.
I might try to get to TAW this time - I've missed a number. If I see Sir Lucas this weekend I'll see if he's planning to go.
JKJ
Anyone else going to the TAW Symposium in January? I haven't pulled the trigger, but if some of you go, I'll definitely go.
Edit: I'm going to go ahead and sign up. It would be dumb not to go as it's 30 minutes from my house.
Here's a maple on top of a hill in the middle of the woods has a pretty good twist going. I see it every day I'm in my deer stand. I think about what it would look like as a bowl every time I look at it. I didn't measure it but it's probably around 18" at breast height.
Attachments
Wonder if the twist was caused by honeysuckle or other vine growing around the tree when young.
In his excellent book "Understanding Wood" or maybe his other ecellent book "Identifying Wood" Bruce Hoadley that elm trees as they grow rotate clockwise for a few years, then counterclockwise for a years, then clockwise, . . . Try to split elm and one quickly realizes there is not a straight vertical cleavage plane as there is is easy splitting wood like ash and oak.
In his excellent book "Understanding Wood" or maybe his other ecellent book "Identifying Wood" Bruce Hoadley that elm trees as they grow rotate clockwise for a few years, then counterclockwise for a years, then clockwise, . . . Try to split elm and one quickly realizes there is not a straight vertical cleavage plane as there is is easy splitting wood like ash and oak.
In my experience, when a vine spirals around a growing tree it causes a different look, creating widely-spaced deep spiraling grooves as the choked tree is constrained by the vine but grows wider between the spirals. When small, the vine is often visible with leaves and all. When older, the tree usually wins. There are a bunch in my woods similar to this picture (pilfered from the web):
Here's a nice graphic illustrating interlocked grain:
Some can be beautiful when turned.
I recommend that everyone interested in wood (structure, how it grows, how it behaves as it dries, etc.) get a copy of Hoadley's books, at least the first one. Hoadley provides a valuable perspective: he is both a craftsman and wood technologist.
JKJ
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