Help/advice on making furniture from large tree stumps.

[Rob D]

I reckon you could get someone in they should be able to rough out the sections of the bench by hand - reading your other posts it sounds like really you need someone to come in and just cut away most of the wood roughly so that you can take your time finishing it off.

 

 

It's prob around 2 to 3 hours work freehand although not pleasant work with the tip of the saw constantly buried but there may be someone on here local to you that would come and do it and £100-00 a fair price.

 

 

 

 

[StumpyJoe]

Spot on with your assessment Rob and glad to know you think it's a worthwhile request - I wait and see.

[Woodcrafter]

You'll have more luck posting on the chainsaw carving wall!

[wisewood]

Hi Stumpy,

 

I might be able to rough it out for you mate on that price, providing it's only a couple of hours work and there's no nails etc.

 

PM your details mate

Cheers

Si

[agg221]

Stumpy, if you're going to end up doing a lot of hand tool work on this, I suggest getting yourself a side axe (and a cant hook if you can run to one, for rolling the thing around, although this can be improvised with some chain and a scaffold pole). You can find side axes (aka broad axe) on ebay for about £20-30. They are used across the grain, using a sort of circular motion rather than a short, chopping motion. You have to cut downwards, hence you need to be able to roll the log around. You can remove large amounts or very fine shavings and you can get a pretty good finish from the off with practice.

 

Cutting something like this out entirely by hand is nothing like as difficult as it first appears, although it's a bit slower and a lot more tiring than doing it with a chainsaw. I made the replacement stem post (bit at the front) for the one on the boat shown here:

 

Hagley - bow deplated

 

using hand tools only after the chainsaw packed up (no pictures to hand of the finished item). It took a day, including making the full length rebates up each side to let the planks in to. I did a lot of it with an adze rather than a side axe, but I would suggest avoiding this unless you are already familiar with their use - although I just picked one up and worked it out over the first few bits of timber, so it's not that hard!

 

If Si can cut the bulk out then you should be OK.

 

Alec

[StumpyJoe]

Thanks for the advice Alec - I'll relay my experiences later on the hand tool aspect.

In the meantime I've pm'd Si to see if he thinks it could be a goer to chainsaw out the rough.