Bradford Pear tree (Pyrus calleryana)

[TG Design]

A buddy from work cut down a few of his aging Bradford pear trees over the weekend. One of them has been dead since spring and he found this interesting spalting. Does anyone have experience in making blanks with this? How should I cut it? Chainsaw 6-8" slabs and then cut long grain blanks? 1" slabs and make cross grain blanks? It's about 4' long (14" diameter) so I have lots of material. Or is this a waste of time and should make a bon fire?

What do you think?

 

[mark james]

The spalting looks very nice, and the fact that it is not too long on the ground is a plus (not punky yet). May need to be stabilized eventually. How to cut? - all that you mentioned.

 

[magpens]

Looks very promising. . I would say long grain is your best option.

 

[MRDucks2]

I am a novice at this but have cut up a few hundred spalted blanks from logs. I would certainly cut a few cross grain slabs to see how they process. But, with a 14" diameter log you have plenty to work with and get both long grain and cross grain blanks from pieces of the log cut length wise.

I normally slice up longer pieces of the log, myself. By cutting a log 11" to around 17" in length, you then cut it into 1"+ slabs see what you end up with.

From those slabs, you can now see the applying and any other character from both sides and decide how to cut to take best advantage of the character of the wood.

If you chop it into 6" to 8" pieces first, you get what you get, which may be fine. I just like hunting for those few very special blanks first.

From the 1"+ slabs that are 11" to 17" long on a 14" diameter log, you will have plenty of wood to still cut some cross grain and diagonal if you want.


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[TG Design]

Thanks for all the insight. I did not think about cutting some diagonal, great suggestion.


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[Foushee]

Take very light passes. I have a dying Bradford Pear in my backyard and over the last few years after each major storm broke large branches from the tree I've cut and dried a lot of wood to use in projects. Each time I turn a blank from that tree I've encountered problems. The last one I turned was for a file handle and it shattered when my carbide tool hit a very small crack that became exposed during the turning.

 

[TG Design]

Foushee, that is very interesting, thanks for the heads up. I will be cutting this up today, I will post my results.


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[TG Design]

I got the chainsaw out today, out of that 4' log, only these pieces are not rotted, the rest was too far gone. But it's enough for a couple of pens.

 

[TG Design]

Here's a PSI Shake pen made from the log above. I cut about 6 blanks from the small piece, and picked the blank with the most spalting. But as you know, you never know what patterns you get as you turn it. It's finished with CA. I'm giving the pen to the tree owner. He will get a big kick out of the fact I made one pen from that 4' long.

 

[TG Design]

Here is the next experiment, a Locust tree root ball and trunk. I've been picking out the dirt for a few weeks now. Maybe I will get a pen or two from it?