Fresh beech - advice please

[Roy_H]

Today, the 100+yr-old beech tree in out garden was felled at last. It was massive, but sadly under attack from a lot of fungus and rot.

On the bright side, here's a sample from a smallish (120mm) branch:


There is a lot more like this, up to 500+ mm diameter...

So, I'm okay with waxing and sealing freshly sawn logs of quite small proportions, but what should I do with a whole tree?!

I'm keen to try out my Woodcut hollower on some of this wet timber to rough down some shapes for drying, but once they've been wet turned what's the best way to dry them out? Should I seal them in any particular way?

Also, what's a good diameter to start with on my Coronet 3 lathe? - I'm rather spoilt for choice when it comes to timber size, but am conscious that the lathe will only be able to take so much.:-k

I'm new to this aspect of turning - as green as the timber in fact... :roll:
Any advice would be greatly appreciated - and if anyone near East Herts has a mobile sawmill and fancies some beech, let me know

 

[Neil Dyball]

Hi Roy,

Lots of views but no comments, not sure why!

If you've got a whole tree I'd cut it into long lengths and store somewhere out of the wind and rain. If you don't want to wax all the ends, and I didn't, you might lose a bit to shakes at the ends but sounds like you can afford to lose this!

I'm no expert with wet turned stuff but when I've rough turned before I've used one of two methods.

Firstly, try putting your rough turned piece in a paper bag, or bags, check regularly, if the paper feels damp replace it with a dry one. weigh the piece at the start and again regularly thereafter, when weight is constant it's pretty much 'dry' for it's environment

Or, put it in a plastic bag, check regularly, if the inside of the bag is wet turn it inside out abd replace the piece. Once the inside of the bag feels dry when you check it, leave the piece in the bag but with the top open. This allows a small amount of air movement but not enough to allow cracking of the piece. Should now be dry enough to finish turn.

No idea what the Coronet can handle, sorry! Start small and work your way up as long as it feels comfortable?

Hope some of this helps.

Neil.

 

[Paul.J]

Roy i would cut the larger logs into manageable lengths and store them on end,outside,out of the wind and sun.
It looks like spalting is taking place so you will have to keep a careful eye on that as it can go too far and be of no use,or a lot of work to get a good finish.
You could also do a lot of part turning for bowls and hollow forms,and let them dry out over time,or turn them wet thin and even,and let nature do the rest with them drying out.
Don't know about your lathe but i would try and use blanks that are evenly balanced,and start off with smaller pieces to get used to the hollower.

 

[BMac]

Roy,

I use Neil's paper bag (or newspaper) method for most stuff but, with Beech, I give the whole piece a coat of sanding sealer after I turn it. I think this slows drying a bit and it does seem to reduce the number of failures I have.

Brendan

 

[cornucopia]

Roy has the trunk also got the brown stain in it? i've seen a similar marking before on a horse chestnut tree which was under attack from fungus and disease- the brown stain ruined the timber, after a few months of it being felled it went too soft to turn and after a year or so it was like cork. i have a vague memory from my tree surgery training its a disease which begins with the letter "Q" but thats as much as i can remember.

 

[Roy_H]

Thanks for all the tips everyone, very useful. I'll start collecting paper bags!

George: The brown stain is only present in a few logs, the main trunk is clear. Many of the branches exhibit the dark boundary lines normally associated with spalting or are completely clear. Some have this dark brown stain however.

You are right about the disease though - that's the reason the tree had to be felled. When you mentioned chestnut it rang a bell with me as I've seen the effect you describe in logs from that timber. The centre was very dark and soft.
Our local tree officer said the fungal attack was probably kretzschmaria deusta, which looks like this on the inside of affected trees:
link to pic

I'm hoping that I'm in time to save the majority of timber if I can get it drying out now and arrest the decay. The dark brown areas feel as solid as the rest of the log at the moment.

 

[OldWood]

Useful discussion - thanks guys.

I have a similar problem but possibly not so user friendly in that a much bigger beech tree came down in a neighbouring farmer's field and he is quite happy for me to take anything off it I want - which I have been doing, some for turning, some for logs, but have now got to the main bole and it is is get on towards 1m in diameter. It does present an interesting cut with a 22" chain saw when standing in a stream! And then the wood has to be got out of the stream.

OW