When my wife decided the large oak tree in front of our house needed a trim, I couldn’t bear to see the many branches go to waste, or even worse, chipped or relegated to someone else’s firewood pile.
As a dedicated turner and a person who hates to see anything go to waste, I soon worked out a way of converting thicker branches, however there are some issues involved in using wood of such a small size compared to the boards used for furniture.
Most often, wood needs to be dry so it is stable and will not move as you cut, shape and join it. Here lies the problem in using small diameter pieces of wood.
The general method used to dry wood requires the log (or in this case branch) to be cut in half along the grain, removing the heart, or pith, and allowing the wood to shrink around its diameter as cells dry out and collapse, reducing the chance of cracks developing. This process presents two problems, which are
