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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (53049)	7/5/2000 4:28:25 PM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Goodness... I am reading what the two of you have written and I am just killing myself laffing... no..really... I'm sorry... I apologize... but it's making me LAFF!! Guess it's the old case of "bin there done that"... heck... ain't that the truth. Latest escapade was my inability to pitch out all of the beautiful white paper birch logs and branches after some trees got wrecked during the ice storm in '98.... See... well, it's like this. I had just been down in Blue Mountain Lake area in the Adirondacks the summer before, and I saw the most amazing rustic furniture made out of branches and "paper" and stuff... and, well... it seemed like a damned CRIME to pitch out all of the nice branches off of the birch trees... So, I carefully cut them up into various lengths and sorted them by diameter... and put some of them up in the rafters in the garage at the back of my studio... But the bigger stuff... Well, I stood them on end along one inner wall in the garage... But, there were...uhm... "complications"... Because I didn't want to cleanly limb off each stick... to preserve its interesting "branchiness" in case it might come in handy when building a piece of furniture... And so, I had what amounted to a tightly-packed forest of birch trees, complete with sharp sticks poking out of it... trying to gouge my shins, or poke out an eye, or maybe put a first-class scratch on may canoe whenever I was putting it away.... Well... gee... guess this went on for a whole 2 years... but then, about 4 weeks ago... well... I even hate to admit this, but I carried all of the birch branches back and tossed them on the branch heap out in the field behind the house. Makes me guilty to even look at them as I pass by on my way out to the fields... Yep, there they sit... up on top of a bunch of moldy, rotted branches... stark and white... like bleached bones... pointing accusatory "fingers" up at me... jeez... I feel very bad about them... that I couldn't turn them into something "new"... but then I often DO manage to make one thing into another,.. but the truth is that I just can't keep up with all of the old stuff that needs renewing... at least not anymore... I almost AM that old stuff now... think I need someone to renew me.... or else I'll end up on the branch pile going moldy...

To: Ilaine who wrote (53049)	7/5/2000 6:01:26 PM
From: IceShark	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

If you do the greenhouse solar bit you really have to watch out that it doesn't dry too fast. Got a pal that has done 10s of thousands of bd ft for boat building and he has to use humidifiers in the kiln during the summer. Cuts down standard air dry by usually a factor of 6. He does it because he says the resulting wood is higher quality than air or commercial kiln drying. The stuff looks pretty good to me, though never used it. Make sure you slap paraffin solution on the end grain of the green timber. Oh, and BTW, Norm is getting a divorce so he should be free any month now. -g-

To: Ilaine who wrote (53049)	7/5/2000 9:50:44 PM
From: nihil	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

You are mad. When I was young and very poor I built all the furniture in our apartment. Walnut veneer. When I was middle-aged and poor I built all the furniture in my big waterfront house. Teak veneer. Solid koa. Beautiful. Would to god I had those hours back. (wouldn't mind that finger tip either!) When you work with hardwoods you must use good masks. Woodworkers' lungs are always full of dust. Tell you what, buy some expensive ship model kits and work on them and practice law. Hire your furniture custom made and buy some fancy african hardwoods -- have something unique made by artists. For example martinandmacarthur.com or yebo.co.za South African made from recycled african hardwood. Also try "african hardwood furniture." Try the "ironwood" or "zebra wood." or point your search engine at "koa furniture." Oak is ugly, fibrous, stupid wood. Good primarily for school room and library furniture. Hard maple is too new englandy, and you can't find nice grain any more. Fruit wood is often beautiful. Walnut and butternut make lovely furniture. Tropical hardwoods, especially teak and rosewood are great classics, but weird wood like tigerwood has great potential. I love koa and there are many artists out here who are making future heirlooms pretty cheap.