The Bar Has Arrived, Some Assembly Required

Long term project especially considering the wood needs to cure. We had rock maple that was half blow over last year during Hurricane Lee. We cut it down this summer so it didn't kill anyone. Just got the wood back from the sawmill a few weeks ago. I wasn't there but my Father said the guy was zipping through some oak logs my brother had but he had a hell of time with these. Those are 2 inch rough cut. That's a door to the left, never mind that.




This is where it's going in that nook to the left:

Looks like a nice little stack Richard. It'd be a good idea to paint the ends of the boards with a couple coats of oil base primer so they don't dry out too fast. That'll cause more checking and splitting than you want. Make sure they're not too close to any heat source either. How long are the boards? You never know, when you surface the boards you might have some nice grain in there. Have fun!

Nice! I've seen board ends dipped or brushed with melted paraffin wax too. When I cut some trees for a customer after the storm last year, I noticed the beautiful tiger maple grain on some of the splits; hated to see it wasted. On my list of dream toys- portable sawmill.

Felled some really decent big old black walnut trees for a guy once. He was intending to put in an apple orchard. I told him those trees were valuable. Rich guy. He cut a lot of it up for FIREWOOD He would have given me as much as I wanted; I just didn't have the wherewithall to transport 1000lb logs

Something good comes out of something bad.... Lee wrecked the whole town of Owego, NY. My sister in law had to gut the whole house including floors. They're all put back together now.

I was going to paint them but I didn't get to it yet, probably should but I'm A#1 procrastinator. No heat source in the garage yet other than the furnace which is really far away. They are about 9 or 10 feet. These are actually from a higher part of the trunk. The lower part cracked when we were taking it down/sawing it. Not exactly sure when it cracked. That went for firewood. It's actually this tree in the center that is leaning a little, it might have been alright but the kids play out there a lot. You can definitely see the roots on the side where they were pulled up. I could of took a lot more out of it but didn't have time.

We "cut it down" with the Bobcat. LOL. Just kept digging a hole with the backhoe around it until it fell over. Figured it was easier than digging the stump out by itself.

Dann757 wrote:I noticed the beautiful tiger maple grain on some of the splits; hated to see it wasted.

If that was curly maple it's ridiculously expensive, I'll emphasize ridiculously expensive . It has a 3-D effect to it when you get it sanded down. My brother has piece it looks like it has waves in it and you practically have to run your hand over it to break the illusion.

I have a piece here but not a great example, see those bumps? They aren't bumps, it's perfectly flat. The more you sand it the more it's pronounced.

That is some beautiful wood! I sure agree it's harder than oak. I made a work table for a customer years ago for her decorating studio. Used 4x4 doug fir for the corner posts, right out of HD. She wanted open bottom for wallpaper books and 2 faux raised panel drawers on one side and working drawers on the other. She wanted real maple butcher block top. I finally found real butcher block slab stock at this crazy warehouse in a nasty industrial area in NE NJ. Huge dirty old warehouse that sold a lot of metal stock; for some reason they had butcher block slabs. What a runaround that was. It was a bear to cut the slab to size let alone sand it. Took forever to sand. And it was food grade butcher block so the glue was almost like hot melt glue or something. She was happy with it but it was no moneymaker for me.

That'll make a sweet bar. My buddy built one a few years back. Got a huge chunk of maple from a saw mill, then sanded and urethaned it -looks like glass plate. Stunning in person.

SMITTY wrote:That'll make a sweet bar. My buddy built one a few years back. Got a huge chunk of maple from a saw mill, then sanded and urethaned it -looks like glass plate. Stunning in person.

I should note the curly maple is not the bar wood, hope I didn't give that impression. The curly maple is some stock my brother had that is here.

That's some beeeeuuuutiful wood! Does it all have sticks between it, or just the top layers? It should all be "stuck" or it'll take two forevers to dry. I'm glad it's 2". SO many people cut hardwood one inch and then after it's dry discover they can't plane one inch out of it. Hardwood is darned expensive. I always have my eye out for a deal & it's been 10 yrs since I saw a good deal. Don't forget the "after" pictures!

Right down to the sticks on the concrete Freddy.

Don't forget the "after" pictures!

I'll update with new pictures in 3 or 4 years.

I've got a couple of pickup loads of exotic hardwood ruff cut boards. Many decades ago a nearby company that makes hardwood veneer was given notice they were a public fire hazard. They made sliced and bookmarked veneer. Logs from South America would arrive by rail, all kinds of wood except walnut. The production process, debarked the log and split it lengthwise. The half log was mounted flat faced on a machine that lifted it several feet. Then in was lowered slicing off the 1/32 inch cut of veneer. The knife was a floor mounted v knife as long as the log. The process was repeated until no more cuts could be made because the knife would cut into the metal clamps holding the log. What was left was a 1+ inch thick board from the center of the tree. This was their junk. It was just piled up outside. Eventually the pile was the size of a football field. That's when they were told to get ride of it. I bought a pickup load and was given several more loads free. Still have most of it, stacked and stickered in dry storage.