Hi Everyone,
Hope all had a Happy Turkey day. I had a happy T-bone steak as I don't like turkey.
Sorry for the delay in posting the results of the cut-up big ash burl. The Amish guy that did the milling on it for me had a family emergency. His brother, sister-in-law, and is little niece, and infant nephew were involved in a severe buggy/car accident. Those Amish buggies never win in those collisions. All were life flighted to Youngstown. His sister-in-law sustained severe head injuries, and needed emergency surgery. His brother also had head injuries, and some broken bones. His niece had a broken arm, but is okay otherwise. The baby was laying in the middle of the road, and was unhurt aside from cuts, and scrapes! Babies guardian angel was definitely on duty that day. Not so much for the horse. It walked across the street, laid down, and died, but horses can be replaced. All four are doing well now, and all but his sister-in-law are now at home and recovering.
On to the ash burl. Here we have it wrestled onto the bed of the band-mill.
Since the log part of the burl is a foot off the bed of the mill, and the burl was small and lumpy, we found out that the dogs that hold the logs down to the mill bed were as useless as a screen door on a submarine. Some inovation was needed to hold it down so it could be filleted.
Below is our solution.
Just ratchet strap it down, So far, so good.
Now for the moment of truth. Even the Amish guy is getting excited to see what's inside. I can't wait either. I can just see the beautiful burly vase I am going to have made for my wife. I can't wait, cut it Melvin, and let's see what we have! Here is what it looks like below:
$%&*$! It is plain! There's no beautiful, burly type figure to it. It looks like an ugly tree stump, minus the heartwood. We kept cutting slabs off of it hoping it would get better. It got worse instead. Same absence of figure, but with bark pockets thrown in as well. All I got out of it are big heavy wooden frisbees. At least it was fun watching the dog try and catch them. And so it goes in my world. Sometimes I buy logs/lumber that looks like it was touched by God. Other times, I get this. I lost some money, and time, but that's okay. I am still thankful that I was able to have a nice big, bloody steak for Thanksgiving! The dog even got a bone out of it. She leaves them in the lawn for me to find with my mower. That's her payback for throwing her wooden frisbees.
Thank you for reading!
Kevin Koski
Curly Maple Wood.com
Dry kiln operator
Owner Operator
