People put some weird stuff in trees

Today at the sawmill we have this piece of really, really goofy hard maple. 

This tree was not in great shape when it was removed, and it’s been sitting in the log pile for two and a half years. I got this tree from my buddy Brent at Meridian Tree, and he saved it for me because it’s weird and goofy.

Looking at the bottom of the log, we have some cracking and bark inclusions, but it’s in pretty good shape at the butt end. 

On the top side there are all kinds of rot inclusions, so there’s probably going to be some interesting voids in the middle. 

What’s most interesting though is all of this undulation that you can see on the side of the log. That is all the ripples from the figure and curl that is in the log. There’s a lot going on in this log, so I’m excited to get slicing and see what’s inside!

Let’s take a look at one of the first cuts off the top. There’s definitely a lot of spalt going on! There’s so many color shifts that happen in maple as it starts to decompose. This one has some reds, blues, and oranges. Very pretty.

Here’s where all the weird stuff is. There’s a lot of swirly patterns around the bark inclusion and then spalting on either end, plus some fun color shifts. 

This next one has some mushrooms growing out of it, and coincidentally, there’s a lot of figure where those mushrooms are coming out. 

Look at all of the curl around this bark inclusion! This one has all the beautiful reds and oranges swirled together. 

The top section of the tree is going to yield the most useful pieces, because the lower part of these slabs are punky from all of that dirt that was in it when it was standing as a tree. 

Down here at the bottom, it is more solid, and it still has some really pretty color. 

The top has all of the fun swirly grains, and it’s also really solid and in good shape structurally. 

I caught a glimpse of something fun in this void, which turned out to be… a protein shake. This takes the title of weirdest thing I’ve found in a log!  

These have some really cool colors and spalt lines! Here there are two individual narrow spalt lines really close together, which is crazy. I don’t think I’ve seen this kind of spalt before. 

Up at the top of these slabs, there’s a lot of crazy swirly grain, as well as some early decay staining. These are pretty darn incredible. 

This looks pretty cool. It’s got a weird shape, but it would be cool as a table top with a fill, because besides the void, it’s pretty uniform. Plus it has the squiggly grain, the color, the spalt… a lot going on. 

This one has some crazy crotch figure, as well as all these tracks are. That is gorgeous!

Here’s a quick look at the bottom pieces, which have a whole lot of bug damage. Not much else going on. 

And this is the last slab from that log. It has a lot of color and spalting, and it’s also the least punky and rotten of all of the slabs. 

So, this worked out kind of how I was expecting, and also not like I was expecting at the same time. I was expecting some unique areas of figure, but I also ended up with some full-on pieces of wood that can work independently. So you can do some fun cuttings if you want to select some of the more colored or figured areas out of the slab, or the slabs can be used as a full piece for a tabletop with some kind of epoxy to fill the voids. 

Overall, it was a nice, fun, quick adventure! Thank you as always for joining, I greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions or comments about the sawmill or anything back in the shop, please feel free to leave me a comment. As always, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. And until next time, happy woodworking!