Hoarding weird firewood

[Adios Pantalones]

Anyone else come across interesting cuts of wood and think "I should save this for project X. Sure- I'll get to it".

If I did that, I'd need more land. I go through 2 cords of slab waste per kiln firing, 4-5 times a year- so it's really easy to see something tiger striped, spalted, or burled...

 

[CountryBoy19]

Boxelder...

Oh, this isn't a wood ID thread is it... I've always thought boxelder was pretty wood...

 

[Applesister]

I had a roommate at college whos boyfriend owned a pottery studio in Sturbridge MA, a sort of crafts epicenter.
He was a Berkeley music major. We all went to art school in Boston. So I can understand your eye for certain "blanks" of wood. It just seems odd if you are a clay person to sway to a wood medium.
I remember the kilns this clayworker had and they were huge walk in rooms lined with shelves. He had a chainsaw accident where the saw kicked back and cut his chest open, hit his sternum. Never forgot it.
He cut ALOT of wood too. He lived in this tiny shack out in the middle of the woods and his shop was 7 miles down the road.
So why such large kilns?
That Boxelder wont help much. The first time I saw those raspberry streaks of brilliant color I thought the tree had sucked up some toxic chemical from the high water table and the chemical plant down the road. It was like Bart Simpson's three eyed fish. I kept some splits from that tree for several years.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

How can you not love wood?

Larger kilns are more efficient. Also, for wood firing, a larger kiln takes a long time to stack with pottery and fire- you'd rather consolidate that into few times a year than many times for efficiency.

Also- longer, slower firings give different effects than a shorter firing. Mine only takes a couple of days- large Japanese style kilns may take well over a week.

 

[Jags]

I don't know of any weird wood - only weird people.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

I don't know of any weird wood - only weird people.

I agree 100%

 

[Soundchasm]

I admit to having a collection of "Interesting Splits I Have Known". Sometimes it's the figuring in the wood, sometimes it's the species, and sometimes, whether or not it hit my house...

Just picking one up evokes all kinds of memories. Embrace the weirdness.

 

[Applesister]

Ive been looking at pictures of Viking ships on Pinterest, shipbuilding is the ultimate woodworking project. Theres an archeological site in Canada of a Viking colony that I have linked. Amazing proof of how far they traveled by boat.

 

[blades]

Yep them boys sure got around, weather by design or accident is a never ending debate.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Ive been looking at pictures of Viking ships on Pinterest, shipbuilding is the ultimate woodworking project. Theres an archeological site in Canada of a Viking colony that I have linked. Amazing proof of how far they traveled by boat.

I have a fascination with that stuff http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/index.aspx

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I don't know of any weird wood - only weird people.

 

[Applesister]

I have a fascination with that stuff http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/index.aspx

See...theres an element of truth to the BS.
So what classifies as weird wood?
The kind that sinks in water?
Water weighs..what...61 lbs ft/3?
The wood that glows?
Ive seen it but didnt touch it. Phosphorescent wood. That was one of the coolest things Ive seen in my lifetime. Up in the Adirondack mtns by the Canadian border. How old does it make the wood?
Another one is the Dragon tree, it bleeds bright red sap. The bleeding tree. Its pretty strange stuff.
Ah...another one Ive seen on the Black River in Jamaica are trees that grow a mass tangle of roots down into the water with no dirt at all, they just form these dense matts of interwoven roots. I dont know the name of them.
Theres another one down there they call the Tree of Life. Its roots grow on top of the soil and spread out on the ground underneath the tree like giant snakes. The West Indies is a great place to go if youre a tree freak.
The only wood they import is White Oak, for Rum barrels. Cooperage.
My favorite freak wood/tree are the Baobabs from Madagascar, not that I'd ever want to go there. They are like the epic ancients. I imagine the wood to look like a giant carrot.
I think everybody argues over which tree is the oldest. Cant tell till you cut it down. The ironic twist.

 

[Applesister]

Dragons blood trees. Its so amazing...
Sounds like something from a Harry Potter book.

 

[Applesister]

What about Aspen?
The one tree that clones itself over thousands of acres of land. Considered to be the oldest living organism? And largest.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I don't get a good feel for any of that sort of thing from the slab waste delivered here in NH, though I love it all.