Subject: Wood cut from limbs usable?

From: Michael Brush <[email-masked]>
Date: 11 Feb 1997 19:01:30 GMT

In general, is hardwood cut from limbs and properly dried useful for
woodworking projects?  Any limitations?  Courtesy of a storm, I have an
oak limb with some 8-10 feet of fairly straight wood averaging about 8" 
in diameter and I'd prefer not to use it for firewood if it can be turned
into useful, small lumber. Thanks in advance.
Mike

---

From: jim mcnamara <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 16:19:03 -0700

Tree limbs often have a lot of reaction wood,
which when used in projects causes all sorts of warping,
cracking, and checking.

jim mcnamara

Michael Brush wrote:
> woodworking projects?  Any limitations? [snip]

---

From: [email-masked] (Richard Absher)
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 02:23:25 GMT

>into useful, small lumber. Thanks in advance.
I use wood like this for small fretwork projects and have had very
good results with it.  I don't have any idea how it would work in
other projects though.

Richard Absher            "There's no telling what we can create 
[email-masked]  if we give God the credit."-Tricia Wilhoit
Christiansburg, VA             
USA                            

My new web site under construction at: 
     http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/5510/index.htm
The Woodcarver's Listserver:
      http://www.terranet.ab.ca:80/~bjudt/WoodcarverList.html
The Scrolling List-- Send command "SUB SCROLLING-LIST (YOUR NAME)" 
                     without quotes to :
		     [email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (Tom Perigrin)
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 01:33:07 GMT

> > woodworking projects?  Any limitations? [snip]

True enough, reaction wood can be a bad thing.  BUT, long ago shipwrights
and wagonwrights and a few otherwrights used to go out into the woods with
the fellers and sawyers, and help identify trees that had particularly
useful knees and groins, and make sure those got into the woodlot.    Ships
need lots of knees to help support the deck beams, without the amount of
lost space that a "standard" 45 degree brace would take.   So they used
well seasoned knees that attached to the inside of the rib and the bottom
of the deck beam.  Same with "prairie schooners", and a lot of other
wagons.   You can also find knees and groins in some English timber framing
>from  the 1400 to 1700s.

Also, don' turn up your nose at limbs, when you are turning wood *grin*.  I
have made lots of weedpots and saltshakers and meat mallets and
candlesticks and whoknowswhat out of limbs.   I DON'T make things that need
to remain straight and true +/- 0.01 inch out of a limb,  but there are a
zillion things that can work even if they undergo a little warping.   Who
cares if a captured ring baby rattle is a little bit twisted?  I call it
"character" and up the price 10%.  *grin*

Also, limbs can afford pegs, if you are into pegging things.

Tom

------

Due to the increasing prevelance of bulk mail senders that automatically
extract names from newsgroup postings, I have had to "bugger" my e-mail
address.   To send email directly to me, please remove the "*" in my e-mail
address.

---

From: [email-masked] (Michael John Hide)
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 05:16:17 GMT

;In general, is hardwood cut from limbs and properly dried useful for
;woodworking projects?  Any limitations?  Courtesy of a storm, I have
an
;oak limb with some 8-10 feet of fairly straight wood averaging about
8" 
;in diameter and I'd prefer not to use it for firewood if it can be
turned
;into useful, small lumber. Thanks in advance.
;Mike

tree limbs vary their annular rings so that they can resist bending
loads due to their own weight .So when a limb is cut sawn and dried it
in all likleyhood  will relieve its internal stresses and curl . The
amountof curl will be dependant on the amount of vertical the branch
was when growing on the tree ,if it was allmost vertical then it can
be treated the same as regular trunk lumber 
Once cut and dried as mentioned the internal stresses should be
relieved ,however every time it is recut /shaped the material will
restabilize .I have found the trick to using this stuff is to cut it
allmost to size and leave it for at least a couple of days to allow
any movement to occur and then cut to required size 
As far as use in the past for ship and house building the idea in
these cases was to have the direction of the applied load follow the
direction of the grain thereby maximizing the strength of the material
and to minimize any cross grain loading .In the UK many of the old
houses ,cottages particularly in coastal areas used old ships timbers
>from  the breakers yards .Some pubs in Kent that i know of in the lower
levels have used keel timbers , the rib mortices are readily visable
as are the ribs themselve in the outer walls .
In short this type of timber is a little more trouble to use ,one
other item ,when selecting any material at the lumber yard allways
check to make sure you are not getting bough material ,if you can see
the annular rings and they are not evenly distributed ,say much
tighter at on side of the board than the other then steer clear .
                            mjh

---

From: [email-masked] (Al Taylor)
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 10:47:13 GMT

>into useful, small lumber. Thanks in advance.

Mike,

Sure, I had a load of firewood delivered one time ( after I got too
lazy to do it myself ) with a lot of beautiful chunks of walnut in
it....don't ask I don't know why. Every time I took a armload into the
house I picked out pieces I just couldn't burn. I ended up with a nice
little pile in my two-car woodshop. I just let them sit there for a
few weeks. After I couldn't stand it any more I cut them on the band
saw, the table saw, and jointer until I had some perfect blocks of
free walnut.  The first project was a bunch of those wooden hinges I
mentioned in an earlier post. Worth all the trouble. That was a long
time ago.  Since then I'm always finding a use for the free pieces.
There's something rewarding about taking it from the raw form and
turning it into something useful.

Al

---

From: [email-masked] (LEE WARD)
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 97 10:20:00 -0600

Good luck on yer Oak Limb,However with all the Millions of BF of
free,seasoned,Planed,aged Wood lying around everywhere you could look i
ask WHY BOTHER With limbs? In my Area once a week folks toss out
Furniture,Wood,etc etc etc and its all free and i even make stuff from
it,,Funny thing is that Folks are throwin away Nice Wood Furniture so
they can go buy imitation! Ethan Allen,Broyhill,etc are just a few to be
found,,I even found 100yr old handsaws! I imagine your limb would be
good since many old boatbuilders would use some limbs for specific boat
components..Good luck
                              Lee Ward

-----------------------------------------------------------------
CorpSoft BBS, Romeoville IL : (815)886-9388 v.34 33600 (ringdown)
         20 Gig's : 21 CDROM's : RIME/FIDO/I-net/Intelec
-----------------------------------------------------------------

---

From: [email-masked] (Terry Clark)
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 21:55:57 -0600

>into useful, small lumber. Thanks in advance.

Any wood growing at an angle to the vertical is strengthened by the tree
with what is called reaction wood. Lumber made with reaction wood does
tend to warp since it was created in an unequal pressure situation. When
trying to finish such wood the fibers of some species become fuzzy and
nearly impossible to finish. 

Depends on what you want to do with the wood. I'd settle for articles with
a rough hewn look and where some wood movement would be tolerated. If it
is white oak you could use it for some small outdoor furniture.

-- 
 Terry Clark PA-C                   |      "The ENIAC was a Son of a Bitch 
   [email-masked]             |       to program."                                        
     [email-masked]      |                      -  Ms. Jennings Bakrit