Cutting up the spalted beech tree…

It has been another very busy year and frustratingly, much to the detriment of my blog - my New Years resolution is to post on a much more frequent basis!

I purchased this beech tree about a year ago and it was heavily spalted then - I could see this after cutting a thick slice off one end (my spalted beech test!). Another year and it’s just about right for cutting into.

The Circular saw cuts swiftly through the wood and is better suited and more accurate than a bandsaw for producing smaller sized sections – however, it is not possible to cut full width natural edge slabs, one advantage of a large bandsaw…

About two thirds of the tree has been cut into 80mm squares and these will eventually be used for salt and pepper mills. The spalted lines look impressive running through the finished piece and I am always running out of this size of wood! The lower sections of the tree will be rough turned into bowl blanks, with the possibility of creating something quite special.

A stack of 80mm squares. Enough for a lot of salt and pepper mills…

Cutting up the large slabs for bowl blanks…

The first blank mounted on the lathe. I’ll be posting more photo’s when they have been rough turned…