Top 5 wood to mill

[Woodworks]

Sorry Jay I don't mill, there only boards I bought I never saw the trees.

[Woodworks]

That I can do Here a couple of picture of a Tantalus during construction, the pictures of the finished piece don,t show the depth of colour of the wood. And looking at the pictures now still does not really do the wood justice.

[Woodworks]

" It will be a bittersweet day for you when you use your last board!" Yep but at the rate I am using it and the fact I have almost given up making furniture means it could be many a year until I run out

[burrell_]

i will list what i enjoy milling as alec did

opening the first cut up waiting to see the colour

Walnut

Oak

Cherry

Elm (old knoty bit is best)

Acacia (if u can find a good bit ) and im not shore if u would call it a hard wood but shore big j will tell me

i no its a hard wood to cut

 

martin

[muttley9050]

What are peoples thoughts on lime, worth milling or firewood?

[Pltreesurgery]

What about sweet chestnut ? There's a huge lump lying down in a field just where I am , blew over last year year and the Gardner cleared up everything he could manage with his wee saw but left the main trunk , approx 1.5 to 2 m diameter at base , prob closer to 1.5

[burrell_]

sweetchest nut is nice never milled it but if i remember ROB D done a vid of him milling one and the wood had a nice colour and grain

and lime iv always firewood

but may have a look next time i get a bit of lime

[agg221]

What about sweet chestnut ? There's a huge lump lying down in a field just where I am , blew over last year year and the Gardner cleared up everything he could manage with his wee saw but left the main trunk , approx 1.5 to 2 m diameter at base , prob closer to 1.5

 

Sweet chestnut is quite decent. It's a bit bland - no particular grain or figure even when quarter sawn and it looks a bit like ash but goes a nice golden colour when oxidised. Its big advantage over ash for me is that it has a much closer grain, so you don't get those dirty grain marks which seem to appear so quickly on ash. I just don't like ash very much (hence it wasn't on my list )

 

Sweet chestnut is also very good for construction/exposed use. It's very durable, equivalent to oak, just not quite as strong. It makes good posts/shingles/cladding boards.

 

In very large trees, check carefully for star cracking or ring shake before bothering to mill. If it hasn't got these defects then definitely worth considering.

 

Alec

[Lozzatrees]

Lime is usually very light in colour, free of knots and easy to carve so wood sculptors and some turners like it. But it is not durable outside so would most likely need kiln drying.

My Dad has turned bowls and vases from it and used texturing, charring and paint techniques to make some striking pieces.

 

Sweet Chestnut on the other hand is very durable outside and suitable for furniture and fencing.

 

All the woods mentioned above have their own qualities and uses with lovely grain and so forth but for a list of durable woods for outdoor use such as garden furniture my list would be.

 

Hardwoods

Pedunculate Oak

Sweet Chestnut

Wych Elm

Robinia

 

Softwoods

Yew

Cedar (Lebanon and Atlas)

Larch

[Rob D]

What about sweet chestnut ? There's a huge lump lying down in a field just where I am , blew over last year year and the Gardner cleared up everything he could manage with his wee saw but left the main trunk , approx 1.5 to 2 m diameter at base , prob closer to 1.5

 

 

 

It could be worth it but just check that there is no ring shake ... sweet chestnut over 70 years old is often prone to it... I milled a biggee a few years ago in my naive keeness to mill everything and threw 70% away!

 

 

Its a bland timber but good for outdoor stuff