The great Cherry Run '05-long with pics

The great Cherry Run '05-long with pics · 10-01-2005, 07:47 PM

Today my wife, daughter and I drove to the Hillsborough to get the FREE cherry generously offered by member Doug Joyce. The drive was quick, about 1 hour, but I have a lead foot. Once we arrive we were warmly greeted by Doug and his wife, and their beautiful dog Zoe. Doug and I proceeded to attend to the required shop tour, while the ladies chatted about the things to be done in the area for later in the day. Doug has a very nice shop set-up, complete with a Unisaw, finishing area and ample wood and supply storage areas (very well organized, I must add). Once that concluded, Gator, timely showed up, and we procceeded to go through the wood that Doug was giving to us. I consider it a nice score, many small pieces that will be perfect for boxes and such and a few good size pieces that will make something more substantial. We loaded up the wood in our truck and Gators car. Gator had to run, so he departed with many thanks to Doug. Gator, it was great to meet you and put a face to the name. Then Doug offered a tour of his home. This no ordinary Centex type home. No, it was designed by Doug who also had a hand in most of the construction. The home is designed like the three spoke wheel system of high-tech racing bike wheels (Doug and his wife are avid bike riders). The center is a great room with lofty ceilings, and sweet A/V system, and beautiful hardwood floors. One of the coolest things about the room IMO, was the center of the floor. The hardwood flooring was laid in a triangular pattern, and when it got to the center triangle, that was composed of an inlay of walnut and ambrosia maple. The Ambrosia marks in the maple were aligned to radiate out from the flats of the center triangle...very cool. The rest of the house is composed of the three wings (spokes) with a very well thought out traffic flow pattern to them and very nice handcrafted touches throughout. Of course the views out all windows were of beautifully wood land, and nice landscaping. I also saw the cabinets that were made out of the cherry, that we got the off-cuts from. Doug definitely took the best wood for them. The color was beautiful, very warm and rich. The construction was simple but very well done, somewhat Shaker style. Definitely something to be proud of. After the house tour we had to hit the road. I had promised Ava, my daughter, Happy Meals at McDonald and she was ready to collect her prize. After eating we walked around Hillsborough a bit, then wandered on home, stopping at a local park for a little playtime. A wonderful day had by all. I want to thank Doug and his wife for their hospitality and the generous donation of wood to The DaveO wood butchery fund. If any of ya'll see any pieces that you could use in your projects let me know we'll hook up somehow. Thanks for enduring my narrative, now for the pics!!!

Cloudancer and Red Sonja, sorry we missed you, you left just shortly before we arrived, it would have been nice to meet ya'll. If you are interested in any of this cherry for Cloudancer's mini aquarium project, I would love to trade for a turning blank out of the logs you got from Doug. I just received my new bowl gouge (stealth gloat) and am dying to spin me a new bowl. Thanks for looking ya'll come back now, ya hear! Dave

Monty · 10-01-2005, 08:24 PM

A heartwarming story. Doug sounds like a good guy, and his generosity is appreciated, even by those of us who didn't take any of the wood.

Congrats on the wood haul - I'm sure you'll "butcher" it into something a lot nicer than I would!

cloudancer · 10-01-2005, 11:08 PM

DaveO, we should definitly get together and trade at some point. If for no other reason than lunch and to chat. Very sorry we missed you, we were both hoping to get there with some overlap.

. I'd agree Doug has a very nice place, maybe he'll give us a good deal when he desides to sell it

.

As for the wood, pictures are comming... We managed to stuff 7 logs (I think that's the right number) in Sonja's Vibe and get them home safely. Then we spent ALL day working on them (just got inside). Several of them have dry rot, but a few are really solid. One might,maybe be spalted, need to look at it better tomorrow.. May need to even post pics for opinions on how to deal with it.

As for the adventure... we didn't know how to remove bark for sure so we tryed a number of things... Started with a chisel, then a wire brush on a grinder (we completly destroyed the brush) and finialy at about 5:20 (1/2 hour drive) decided to go to Woodcraft to see about getting a draw-knife. Got there before they locked the door

. Bought a new roughing gouge too, but couldn't get anything else in my little car.

Net of the story is a draw knife is perfect for removing bark and we cleaned up the last four logs in less time than the first two. Pics when Sonja finishes downloading them....

*edit to correct number of logs*

DaveO · 10-01-2005, 11:14 PM

Awesome, I look forward to seeing your pics. If you got a new tool out of it, it can't be too bad. Let me know about the trade, I like to eat anytime. Dave

cloudancer · 10-01-2005, 11:25 PM

Doug, Hope you make it over to this thread. I was going to stop by your origional and say thanks but it was closed.

If you do make it, Thank you very much

. The wood will be well used, I suspect some will be on a lathe as early as tomorrow.

-Greg

Monty · 10-01-2005, 11:39 PM

Cloudancer - why did you remove the bark?

cloudancer · 10-01-2005, 11:49 PM

Mostly because it was half falling off and didn't want to deal with that in the Garage, partially to keep from dealing with it on the lathe.

Any particular reason to do so or not? It certainly speed up our understanding of what was usable and what needed some salvage help.

Monty · 10-02-2005, 12:03 AM

I'm no expert, but I think you can save yourself a lot of trouble trying to strip all the bark off your logs. All you really have to do is seal the end grain to prevent checking in the ends your logs. When the time comes to turn something from your log, just cut your blank out with your chainsaw or bandsaw. The bark shouldn't be a problem, unless it's REALLY loose - if so, those loose pieces can be easily torn off with your hand when you mount the blank on your lathe. At least that's my opinion.

If you like the look of "natural edge" pieces, you'll want that bark to stay on, anyway!

Red Sonja · 10-02-2005, 12:25 AM

Greg's already posted a good bit of the story of our Great Cherry Run, but I have the pictures.

I ran out of energy for taking pix (and we ran out of daylight) after the first log (and we'd made the Woodcraft run). But here is what a load of logs looks like in a Pontiac Vibe. I bet the salesman never thought I'd do this to the poor car when we bought it!

Below you can see the reason we took my car for this run instead of Greg's.

First log de-barked. This is a very nice log that will become some very nice bowls some day.

Closeup of the log.

Probably more pictures later, but today was long and turned into more work than expected, but definitely worth it! Thanks again Doug (and Colleen and Zoe).

-Sonja

DaveO · 10-02-2005, 09:02 AM

Nice haul, Doug commented on how he was surprised that you fit it all in that little car. I am glad you went yourselves, I wouldn't of wanted to tie that all to my roof rack. Looking forward to seeing what is made out of those logs. Dave