Rescued branches from a rotting woodpile

[Nige52]

I cut this shrub down last year as it was growing horizontal, I thought the timber had all rotted away as it was in a pile down the bottom of the garden on dirt, been like it for 18 months, so today I decided to investigate and some of the bits appeared to be sound, so I turned one, damp and 'orrible, then dipped the ends in wax....I have no idea if it'll be any good though....I don't suppose I will till it's dry...this lump is 7.5" x 2.5" after turning....
The shrub is a Ceanothus apparently :) It's 7.5" x 2.5"

 

[paulm]

I can't see why that wouldn't be good for turning Nige, it looks like a nice piece of spalted wood to me.

 

[bassethound]

If that were me i think I would try drying it in the microwave and turning it down, but that's me, i couldn't resist it!

 

[Twister]

i rescued a few of these recently

had to have a look inside one of them

 

[Buckeye]

Make sure you don't keep them in the house, leave them covered outside or in a cold place.

Peter

 

[Penpal]

The age of discovery nothing is waste anymore flee while you can, head for the hills youre amongst us lost souls searching for the pot at the end of the rainbow of pens.

Peter.

 

[Twister]

mine are about 2 years old now so should be fairly dry
i will get a pen or 2 from each piece
that orange mess on my lathe is from a bit of "scrap" timber i found in wood pile
it has clogged up my air filter .the dust is so fine from turning it
hopefully should end up a nice object

Steve

 

[Nige52]

The logs are all in my shed at the moment, except for the one I turned down and waxed, which is in my front room along with a load of turned down Privet, which are about 25mm diameter, all drying out. I think the Privet is ok for turning now as I've been keeping an eye on the weight of each piece and since the weight dropped to about 70% of what it was, it hardly moves now so I don't expect any further drying....

 

[paulm]

If I want to dry pen blanks quickly I cut them to the right size unless they're very wet in which case I cut them oversize, wax the ends and stick them on the Aga for a week by which time they will be ready for turning. I have only ever lost a couple of blanks doing this.

 

[wm460]

Be interesting to see how it turns out like?