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Well this week was one of those special times.
Those of you on slack probably saw my call for birch wood.
Trying to do some deep hollowing, and white birch is particularly good for that.
Well this round of storms took down a birch tree about 4 miles away. Ask and you shall receive! Or so I hoped.
In the rain, I tried to contact the home owner.
Certain they wouldn’t care, but just in case you didn’t know, California has it as a felony to remove wood without permission.
I succeeded in talking with a young child, but not communicating with him.
So, I gave up and went back the next day.
Sure enough, they didn’t care, and actually thanked me for helping them out.
A win-win situation. So, I set off to cut the tree up enough that I could haul it home.
Birch is pretty light, so the pieces were still big.
But I was wet and cold, and figured I could cut it up at home on Monday.
There was some rot in the base, explained why the tree came down, but hoped it wouldn’t go far.
Monday morning, dry but still kind of cold, I start cutting away the rot.
First cut on the trunk was about 10 inches. Hmm, rot still showing.
So I grab my handy dandy sears probe, a long screw driver and check to see how far the punk goes.
Ugh, nothing solid. So I cut away 18”, and repeat. And repeat, and repeat.
Nothing through the entire trunk. Oh well, I’ll get some small hollow forms out of the limbs.
Nope, rotten as well. So, I’ve got a pile of sawdust from the chainsaw, and a pile of rotten birch.
Moral of the story, is free wood is never free, and sometimes it is extremely expensive.
If you collect free wood, remember sometimes it’s wonderful.
But sometimes it’s a waste of time.
Doing it with a group, at least makes it social.
Still looking for birch!
Please let me know if any comes up,
Dave
www.daves-turned-art.com
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