Start of the collecting season

[Mike Davis]

I have been out searching some friends properties, and have found some great wood to cut up. Here is a box elder root system...At the best price, Free!

Should hopefully get this to the sawmill later before heading to work. Hope to find some usable wood in it

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Cool, that looks like it will have some nice wood in it. I'm going to go wood and rock collecting this year.

 

[jonnymac44]

Nice Mike, I'd love to see some pics of the blocks once it's ready, but that is probably gonna be a while, eh?

 

[MountainBilly]

I live on a couple of acres with mostly cedar, hemlock, red alder and big leaf maple. I have one big leaf maple that is long dead and another with a fair amount of live branches that is half dead. I'm going to take those trees down and am assuming that I should just cut it into two?? foot sections with a chain saw. If a section looks interesting, take it down to a bandsaw mill for fine slicing.

I'd appreciate any input on what to look for in selecting promising trees, where on/in the tree to look and the best way to slice it up to find good knife scale material. I gave no thought to roots, for instance.

 

[Mike Davis]

Generally you can see burls growing on the outside of a tree. Also, to a small extent you can see curl on the surface, it will look like ripples on the tree. Sometimes it is hard to see with the bark on, but sometimes not. Big leaf maple can make some real awesome wood, and alot of maple ends up with curl. As far as sections, if you do it in 2-4 foot sections, that will yield you quite a lot of wood.Sometimes you can almost see the warp in the grain rings, and be able to selectively pick the cuts to get that specific piece. Root systems almost always have some figured wood, due to the crazy nature of root growth. Alder is too soft, as is cedar. No idea about hemlock, but i have yet to see it in use, so i would just stick to the maple.

Nice Mike, I'd love to see some pics of the blocks once it's ready, but that is probably gonna be a while, eh?

actually this one has been drying for a few years already and is pretty dry. At this point we have it cut and ready to go to the mill, hopefully i will have it all done by monday

 

[Don in SC]

We have Hemlock in this part of the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. The wood is some where between pine and cedar. It can have some nice color variations from gold to brown but I would think to sofl unless you have it stabilized. Donald

 

[Mike Davis]

Thought i would post a few pics of my newest find. This is Honey locust, 16 feet long and LOADED! Still waiting on the sawmill to get the box elder done....

Should get a few decent handles out of this one

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Mike, that looks like it will be nice! Is each "ball" a burl?

I need to figure out what to look for here, wood collecting sounds fun.

 

[NickWheeler]

Wow!!! That's freak'n cool. I'm real familiar with spotting burls here around the Northwest, but I'm curious about the Box Elder.... is there any indication of it having the red spalting colors in it while still in the rough.... or do you only know once you cut it open???

Mike at WSSI sold me a few blocks of the red about 11 or 12 years ago and he said he nearly had to give it away....nobody wanted it. Fast forward a few years and he could never get it or keep it once he did because people changed their minds and like it now. I love the stuff myself! Even the clear box elder burl is beautiful... the light color goes really well with a damascus blade and heat-blued fittings!!!

 

[Mike Davis]

No way to tell from the outside...At least not from what i have found. From what i was told yesterday, and this sounds crazy, the female trees produce more heartwood than a male tree and in turn produce more red tones in the wood. I guess the difference in them is that a male tree delivers a pollen and the female tree does not, also female tree flowers contain a simple ovary....I feel like i am typing crazy here, just relaying what i was told by a tree farmer.....LOL. I am headed to the sawmill in the morning and hoping that he has at least started on my box elder...if not, i might get a touch angry. A lot of red in that one will post pics.