Chris Gunsolley wrote on May 19
th, 2016 at 10:53am:
John Cepko wrote on Jan 20
th, 2016 at 1:17am:
I love tree crotches.
The 'V' usually is an interesting piece, and you get two per crotch.
Anything that a firewood splitter cant/'won't tackle is good for me.
I like trunks better than branch wood, unless the branch is huge.
Bradford Pear is brittle because the bark grows deep into the crotch, creating a weak place for the branch to break off at the slightest stress. For that reason BP crotches are out, they will fly apart on the lathe. Don't ask me how I know... But, it turns like butter, with long curlies, so get all the solid wood from that tree you can get.
John,
I know this may be tricky to describe, but how do you orient the bowls in the trunk to get two bowls out of the crotch, both exploiting the interesting grain patterns within the crotch?
For instance, say the crotch is standing vertically--approximately as one would naturally grow most of the time--and we're facing the "V" straight on... After cutting the branches off, in cutting the wood with your chainsaw to make blanks, would you cut the wood through the center, the way that you normally would to remove the pith in a cross-grain cut in a log without a crotch? So, where the branches intersect and mend into one piece of wood, one bowl would come from the crotch at the side where one branch was, and another would come from the side where the other branch was? To clarify, if the tree were still standing and we were to draw the bowls on the crotch in the tree, the bowls would be sideways, perpendicular to the ground but as high as possible on that crotch? Basically, one bowl would be on the left half, the other on the right half?
If that doesn't sound quite right, would you please attempt to describe how you would cut your blanks from the crotch to take full advantage of the grain patterns?
Please bear with me. This is tricky to describe and I'm sure to answer. But thank you.
I do mine as the others above me described.
If the crotch is a simple Y , I line up the piths of both branches of the Y, wnd cut a line on the outside bark of each branch.
Then I go to the trunk end of the Y, and try to make a line on the same plane as the first. This might/will involve orienting the log, and propping it up so as to be able to get a good line... Imagine the Y on its side.
I like to cut down the side of the log, and right through the center of both branches. I cut down the side to avoid cutting pure end grain.
The first couple can be tricky, but then it gets easier to get the best blank from a log.
Now, if you have 3 or more branches coming from a node, take your pick.