Cholla Harvest

[budnder]

Harvested a couple of batches of Cholla today and thought I'd take a couple of pictures along the way for grins.

1) I usually look for dead branches that haven't fallen on the ground yet, and ones where the skin is either already off, or half off. Once it lays on the ground for a while, I find it discolors on one side. And I'm looking for straight pieces... some are too curved to work with.

2) I use a little battery powered sawz-all to cut larger pieces out of the tree that I then take back to the porch where I cut them up into blank size straight pieces.

3) Then into a bucket and hit them with a power washer to knock all the dirt out of them. They are usually full of dirt.

4) Then lay them in the sun to dry out. Not all, but most of them end up a nice "woody" color.

 

[Robert Taylor]

Very nice. Thanks for he insight on how to work it. I've turned a few but I bought hem from Bruce 119.

 

[Mr Vic]

I'll take the root ball if it was attached. But seriously if it was still attached it is beautiful. Might have some sand and small rocks but well worth having to re-sharpen.

Never thought of power washing. Always used a small dental pick and tweezers. I'll bet your way is much faster.

 

[oldtoolsniper]

That stuff is just plain cool.


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[budnder]

...the root ball...

Have you had any luck getting good material out of the roots?

I haven't had much luck. "Ball" is kinda a misnomer for what I usually find - there isn't much "underground" and what there is spreads out into individual roots pretty quickly. The one blank I managed to get out of a root mass was kinda bland. Seems like it might have some potential for "worthless wood" - slice off a 3/4" slab and resin fill the voids. I saved a slice off of the pic attached to give that a try.

 

[JohnU]

Very Nice. I wish I had access to picking my own. I made a few bangles with larger pieces a couple years ago and get tons of requests for them. Unfortunately its hard to get a correct size without having the metal core to measure up to. I bought several from a woman out west but was only able to use three of them.

 

[budnder]

Bangles is a great idea - I hand't seen that before. The Teddy Bear Cholla trunk/limbs have a really pretty skeleton, but much too big for a pen... maybe about right for a bangle.

What size do you need for a bangle... maybe something that will have solid 3 inch circle of material by 3/4" wide?

Problem with the Teddy Bear is those little balls of joy adorning it will absolutely fish hook into you if get anywhere near them. And somehow it seams that the more you try to get the things unstuck the more they get embedded.

 

[JohnU]

As you know, We don't have that fun stuff in IL. lol That looks like what I used. The size all depends on the Bangle size you choose. I think it was around 4" outer diameter so there was enough to turn down to a perfect circle. I took a hole saw smaller than what I needed and drilled out the center, then slid it down on a small yogurt cup, and placed it in a cottage cheese bowl to cast. This cut back on how much Alumilite was wasted. Then it was put on the Nova Chuck and turned down the inner diameter. The outer diameter was turned down after the metal core was silicone on. They are a nice change to make and really go over well.

 

[budnder]

... 4" outer diameter ...

That's about as big as I could find - the pic is the main trunk of a large Teddy Bear Cholla (already dead... no cholla was harmed in this research ).

 

[JohnU]

I think your in business. One warning.... Once you make one for your wife she will want more!

... 4" outer diameter ...

That's about as big as I could find - the pic is the main trunk of a large Teddy Bear Cholla (already dead... no cholla was harmed in this research ).