Beech log cutting and beech vessels

[cornucopia]

hello folks

I have cut the last of a batch of beech that I bought about 3 years ago, I wanted it to spalt with lots of zonal lines but it had other ideas!!

here are two beech logs, both were about 20" wide and by the time the ends were trimmed the blanks from them were about 14/15" long.

this one had better figure but had gone too far in places....


so I cut around the rot and got one 8" blank and two at nearly 5"


the next log wasn't as good and had fine splits in one side


but I managed to get two 6" and two 5" from this log (you can see the splits highlighted in red at the top of the log)


here are the blanks


and here are two similar shaped pieces which I made from a previous log from the same batch

 

[Castanea]

Hi Cornucopia, lovely wood and lovely turning.
I'm not an expert but I'm pretty sure I was taught that the black compatmentalizing lines (which I think is what you are refering to as Zonal Lines) are caused by the living tree responding to fungal damage by building an internal wall to compartmentalise the damage and try to prevent its spread throughout the sound wood. As such it's either there when the tree is felled or it's not. Once the tree is felled the spalting process will continue and there will be changes to the colouring and patterning but I don't think there will be any more of the atractive (and usually very hard) black lines produced once the tree is dead.
Despite the lack of lines it is good looking wood (and this from someone who's not over-fond of spalting!)
Good luck with the process of turning it into beautiful things

 

[cornucopia]

thank you

I think you have the basic idea of spalting covered.... but I have never seen freshly felled timber with any spalting unless it was dead standing or diseased and I buy a few tonnes a year and have been spalting my own for nearly 15 years.

 

[Castanea]

I suppose I'm talking about diseased trees where the tree is responding to the fungal infection by creating bands of hard black tissue. I guess the problem then is you've got well rotted wood on one side and sound wood on the other and it's a nightmare to turn whereas your way of storing sound timber reduces the chances of nasty soft areas and is clearly working for you. The zonal lines you are looking for may be the places where two species of fungi are meeting and setting up their own micro "no-man's-lands" giving those striking lines. There's a lot going on - I'm keen to find out more so I'll be quizzing various tree surgeons when I see them next! and doing some searches on the web. Maybe I'll leave a couple of logs outside for a while and see what happens!
The work on your website looks fantastic and only then did I realised I subscribed to your youtube channel just a couple of weeks ago. Your little series on boxes was very very good. I read Richard Raffan's book recently (which was also very good) and you and he are clearly coming from the same place on boxes. Your advice on where NOT to sand was very helpful so thank you. A load of wood I turned round 18 months ago is nice and dry at last so I can spend much of the winter trying to perfect my box making so I'll be re-watching your videos here and there to make sure I've not missed anything.
All the best
Ian

 

[Dalboy]

Two great pieces of turning George Love the shape on both this is the thing with spalted wood you never know what you will get so always a surprise when turned.

An interesting video which you may have already watched

Spalting Wood

 

[graduate_owner]

Nice work How long did it take you to hollow out each of these? It seems to take me ages to hollow out end grain.

K

 

[cornucopia]

they are about 60 to 90 minutes each depending on how tall they are, I did a time lapse video of the 2nd piece being made and that was 65 minutes.
I'd post a link but would probably get in trouble!! but if you search "George Watkins" on YouTube you'll find it

 

[paulm]

Good to see the process from log to finished piece George, lovely work as always

Cheers, Paul

 

[Dalboy]

they are about 60 to 90 minutes each depending on how tall they are, I did a time lapse video of the 2nd piece being made and that was 65 minutes.
I'd post a link but would probably get in trouble!! but if you search "George Watkins" on YouTube you'll find it

I can't see why you can't so HERE it is George and thank you for another

 

[graduate_owner]

Thanks Dalboy, that link worked no problem. Interesting video.

K

 

[Bigbud78]

What I will say is, I cant wait for Fallout 4 either over 300 hours in FO3

 

[BearTricks]

Before I moved in to my current house the previous owner decided to take a chainsaw to an old beech tree in the garden and make a 'rustic' looking bench out of it to attract renters. What I was left with was probably a ton of badly split beech logs in the firewood pile, and a bench that I could do without. It's basically a rough cut section of the trunk suspended between two stumps.

The tree was huge too. Probably the biggest beech I've ever seen. I would have been flush with turning wood for years. Instead I salvaged two decent sections, probably enough for a couple of spare change dishes.