Plum for wooden tools

Re: Plum for wooden tools

Stephen Shepherd in the State of Deseret

>Most fruit woods are suitable for tools. They do not season well in the round and require being quartered, ends sealed and properly and slowly seasoned to prevent checking. Once dry the hard fruit woods usually work well.

Plum (Prunus spp.) is however one of the few fruit woods that turns into prune wood. It suffers from fungal attack and can have enclosed pitch or resin pockets, the trees natural defense. The wood can get fuzzy when worked.

As with most fruit woods, it is a crap shoot, sometimes you get real good stuff and other times you get firewood. Give it a shot and see how it goes, then report back and tell us what happened.

Stephen

Re: Plum for wooden tools

Tom MacGregor

>A heavy wet snowstorm took down a plum tree on my property and I thought I'd try to use some of it. It was difficult to dry, prone to cracks and checks, and when cut twisted like crazy. It was also some of the most beautiful wood I've worked, with a dozen shades from ivory to brown, complex grain patterns and swirls & bursts of deep violet. It was worth the effort for even a small amount of such amazing stuff. I don't know what variety of plum it was, but given the chance I'd try it again.