A friend called to let us know he’d just removed an old burled ornamental cherry tree from his yard, would Ed like the trunk? Through the years Ed’s learned that getting wood which other people have cut is too much of a long shot. John understands what Ed needs.
Yesterday John and his wife, Kathy, arrived with the stump.
Ed headed for a ladder and his chain saw to trim several limbs hanging too low to back the trailer under to get close enough to the tree trunk to utilize the tree in assisting the removal of the burled stump.
The trailer backed into position, a cable was attached to the ladder on which John had placed the stump, and thrown over a limb then securely winched.
They moved it slow and easy wanting no surprise upsets.
Planning the next move.
John slowly moved the truck forward until the ladder was at the edge of the trailer.
Carefully releasing the winch as Ed steadied the ladder to get the stump to turn safely onto the ground. That beast is heavy!
John and Kathy also brought some of the bigger limbs.
Ed is thankful that our new neighbors have a chainsaw sawmill to make easier work of cutting the big stump into some manageable pieces.
Walking Wheel Seven news: Ed has applied the first coat of finish, he’ll add a few more before calling it good. Meanwhile he has made only a few Swan spindles this week which will be finished tomorrow. It looks like they’ll be ready to put in the store Saturday morning at 9am, Pacific Daylight Time.
ETA: Estimated wrong: there won’t be any spindles posted until next week. Sorry for the change.
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Wanda, what a wonderful gift to Ed (and us!). It’s so nice to know that wood is being used to make these beautiful spindles instead of just being thrown out.
I bet they are going to be so beautiful when done!
yeah!!!
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Fire wood, or spindles, hmmmm. 🙂
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I love it when I see grand old trees finding a finish in life that respects them!
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Yes! And such a useful “finish” in the hands of spinners who love them.
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Wow! thanks for documenting the whole process of stump delivery! I can’t wait to see the spindles that come out of this wood — burled cherry is amazing!!
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Ed’s hoping for some beautiful spindles… 🙂
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Wow what a operation. But the wood looks beautiful. I would I could smell it.
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A fun part of woodworking is the scents of different types of wood. 🙂
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What an operation! How long does a stump like that need to dry before it can be sawed and worked?
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It’s hard to predict when Ed will start using it. It will first need to be sawn into manageable blocks. From there he’ll rough-cut basic spindle shapes and let it sit until dry and stabilized. When he was producing wooden bowls for a living he became very knowledgeable and skilled at working with green wood. It comes down to what the wood demands. He’s cut some wood that needed to cure couple of years before the wood was stable enough to shape. Long answer for a simple question.