Kevin Koski

[#1]

Hi Everyone,

How are we liking the winter, so far?  It's been brutally cold here in northern OH.  You would think you could walk out on the ice on our 1 acre pond with no problems, but you would be wrong!  I walked out on mine, and fell right through.  Luckily it was only waist deep, and I was able to get myself out easy enough.  My dog usually follows me wherever I go, but this time she stuck to the edge of the pond.  When I went through, I swore I saw her smile.

Anyways, last fall we got that curly log from my logger buddy.  As I said in the previous blog on the log, you never can really tell what is inside.  I bought some cherry logs one time that looked fantastic.  Nice, and solid on the ends, no knots, and straight.  I opened them up, and you could have planted flowers inside of them.  They heart had rotted down to about the mulch level.  The sawmill bought 20 acres of woods one time, and all of the cherry trees were like that.  He lost a bunch of money on that one.  You can go broke fast buying logs at $1.00 a board foot, and then firewooding, and chipping your purchase.

Let's cut the curly maple logs. Here we have Melvin squaring up the smallest of the three logs.

The first cut of this log produced lots of ambrosia streaks, like this, below:

Hate those ambrosia beetles.  They borrow into the tree causing the sap to run which stains the wood.  Sometimes with dramatic effects though like these boards below exhibit.  The boards below had very white  backgrounds with contrasting red streaking.  My picture taking skills need some work.

Onto the logs at hand. Keep cutting Melvin and let's see if we can get away from those streaks.  Next cut produced pieces like this one below:

Now that's more like it.  We ended up with quite a few that were 10/4 (2.5" thick) like the one above, and lots of 8/4 (2"thick) as well, like this one below.  This one below was over 12" wide.  The logs yielded lots of snow white boards. 

Goes to show you, sometimes life goes your way, other times you fall into an icy pond!

Thanks for reading.

Kevin Koski

Curly Maple Wood

Dry Kiln owner/operator

www.curlymaplewood.com

[#2]

Don't despair over the odd board. It can be used to make something small which will have it's own unusual beautiful character.

Vern Carlson

[#3]

As a turner, I have to take issue with your comment "Hate those ambrosia beetles." Cut those areas out, seal the endgrain with anchor seal, and put the chunks up on ebay for us bowl turners to buy! We love 'em!

[#4]

I like the stains,  it adds character to the stock.

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J. Kevin K wrote:

Hi Everyone,

How are we liking the winter, so far?  It's been brutally cold here in northern OH.  You would think you could walk out on the ice on our 1 acre pond with no problems, but you would be wrong!  I walked out on mine, and fell right through.  Luckily it was only waist deep, and I was able to get myself out easy enough.  My dog usually follows me wherever I go, but this time she stuck to the edge of the pond.  When I went through, I swore I saw her smile.

Anyways, last fall we got that curly log from my logger buddy.  As I said in the previous blog on the log, you never can really tell what is inside.  I bought some cherry logs one time that looked fantastic.  Nice, and solid on the ends, no knots, and straight.  I opened them up, and you could have planted flowers inside of them.  They heart had rotted down to about the mulch level.  The sawmill bought 20 acres of woods one time, and all of the cherry trees were like that.  He lost a bunch of money on that one.  You can go broke fast buying logs at $1.00 a board foot, and then firewooding, and chipping your purchase.

Let's cut the curly maple logs. Here we have Melvin squaring up the smallest of the three logs.

The first cut of this log produced lots of ambrosia streaks, like this, below:

Hate those ambrosia beetles.  They borrow into the tree causing the sap to run which stains the wood.  Sometimes with dramatic effects though like these boards below exhibit.  The boards below had very white  backgrounds with contrasting red streaking.  My picture taking skills need some work.

Onto the logs at hand. Keep cutting Melvin and let's see if we can get away from those streaks.  Next cut produced pieces like this one below:

Now that's more like it.  We ended up with quite a few that were 10/4 (2.5" thick) like the one above, and lots of 8/4 (2"thick) as well, like this one below.  This one below was over 12" wide.  The logs yielded lots of snow white boards. 

Goes to show you, sometimes life goes your way, other times you fall into an icy pond!

Thanks for reading.

Kevin Koski

Curly Maple Wood

Dry Kiln owner/operator

www.curlymaplewood.com

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