Has anyone else made the terrible discovery when splitting wood after bucking a 20' length 24" diameter maple only to find it has exceptional curl throughout the 20' length?
I've run into some tough ones when splitting up a "yardbird" that had a lot of branching, and the trunk may have twisted as the tree tried to re-orient itself. Woods trees are usually straight-grained because the shoot straight up trying to reach the light, with most of the surviving branches at the top of the trunk. I toughed it out on the tough ones because I needed to get wood drying at the time. Now I'm more picky and don't mess with the gnarly ones.
My first thought was the value of a 20' log with great curl. I needed dry wood at the time too. Does anyone know what causes curl? I've read conflicting theories,one is environmental conditions(wind,rocky soil etc) and the other suggested it was genetic in nature.
Yep, I've been heardbroken several times. Took a storm-damaged cherry down. Bucked it. Started splitting it. Came to realize I could have had it milled for dead-straight 20-22' long 8/4 14" wide heavily, heavily curled planks with some of the most beautiful cherry red color I've ever seen. Almost the hot rodder's dream pearl black cherry type color. Market price around here, I'm putting a couple thousand dollars up the chimney with that one. Found a really nice fiddleback maple log the same way. 17'-ish feet, could have gotten a few 8/4 at 10" wide out of it, didn't see the figure until I was splitting. I need to learn to recognize figure from the bark patterns before I start bucking.
There are a few good threads in The Sawyers room below this section on curly ash, maple and walut. They turn into turning blanks and small project pieces. Too bad about that log. You'll be reminded every time you handle a split. Nice find though.
Thank you for the info, I'll check it out. It's kind of soul crushing knowing what's being split up could've bought a bunch of dried cordwood or trailer of logs etc.
Right. Keep in mind that there are carvers and wood turners looking for stock out there that may not have access to nice stock. We have a local woodcutter that saves anything splated and curly for the wood workers and was selling stock on Craigslist. He will mill the longer pieces for live edge furniture. He did great bundle deals when buying multpile pieces.
