Green crotch wood

If it's 3' thick and weighs 5#, it's rotted...:-)

steve antonucci

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Re: Green crotch wood

Gary Evans, Tallassee, TN

>Ron,

That's part of the fun. Sometimes you get great crotch figure, sometimes you get bark. The wider the angle that the two branches make, the more likelihood that you will find good figure. The tighter the angle, the more likelihood that you will have bark inclusion. The more bark inclusion, the more the likelihood of rot.

I often take a cut below the crotch about the distance of the diameter or maybe an inch or two farther and take a close look at the resulting surface. If the crotch is two trunks growing together, you can usually see the bark inclusion that far down. If there is only one pith evident at that point, then your chances are better for good crotch figure.

If the only thing I was interested in was crotch figure, I would be tempted to split the crotch on site and see what I had before I hauled it home. It's usually easier to load a half-piece anyway.

Gary

Re: Green crotch wood

Gary Evans, Tallassee, TN

>Ron,

A couple of other thoughts.

I wish I could draw this for you, but if you will do this little exercise, you will have a better idea of how to judge a crotch:

Draw two simple "Y" shapes, one where the top spreads out wide (almost, but not quite a "T") and one where the top is a very narrow "V" shape.

Starting at any of the end points, draw an outline around each "Y", staying 1/8" away from the existing lines. Draw 3 or 4 of these outlines, and you will soon see that with the "T" shaped "Y", it is easy to maintain that 1/8" between the lines. With the "V" shaped "Y", you soon have a mess at the point of the "V".

This is the same way that a tree puts on growth. It essentially "outlines" itself each year with a new layer of cells. If the angle of the crotch is shallow enough, you get nice layers of irregular grain laid down every year, with the layer of bark floating on top. If the angle of the crotch is too tight, you get bark growing between the two trunks.

Maybe more than you wanted to know 8^],

Gary

Re: Green crotch wood

vicmarc.fan

>Gary,

Thank you for the excelent comments. I have been picking the wrong things to cut up. Found a log cut from a BIG tree this morning. I am pretty sure it is a limb because the pith is not centered at all. I will have to trim some off from the outside to get it on the lathe. If I cut the log down the center I can leave all the pith on one half. Is this a good idea? I want to use this wood to pratice with my McNaughton coring tool.

Ron

Re: Green crotch wood

Gary Evans, Tallassee, TN

>Ron,

If the pith is way off center then the thicker part of the wood may contain a lot of reaction wood. That means there is no predicting how it will move as it dries. Still, if it's practice wood, I'd go for it. At worst, it may be like a cherry bowl that I roughed out to 1" thick. When I went to finish it, there wasn't enough wood to get a trued 1/16" bowl from.

You can always charge it off to "educational expense." 8^]

Gary