Dealing with a large root?

[arcos]

Good morning and happy new year to all...

So, finally, since my move, I have pretty much got my workspace sorted out and thinking about getting into some turning again...

I have a large Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo) root that has been drying for quite some time now, certainly over a year. The only way I can see to get into it is with a chainsaw...

My question... How to open her up? Is it best to cut straight through the middle and see the condition of the wood or better to try and take off workable chunks?

[Paul Hannaby]

For any large lump of wood / log, a year won't have made much impact on drying it below the surface.

It's usually a good idea to cut through the pith or to remove it completely to reduce the chance of cracking. Depending on the size of the log you can either work with half the log or a section of it for bigger logs.

If you are going to turn a bowl, rough turn it to a wall thickness of around 10% of the diameter and seal the end grain to slow down drying. Put it somewhere cool and leave it for a few months before returning. If you are unsure about whether it has dried as much as it is going to, you can weigh it. When the weight stops dropping, it has dried as much as it is going to.

For spindles, it's probably best to cut your spindle blanks, seal the ends and let them dry for a while before turning.

[Les Symonds]

Hi arcos....there is no single, simple answer to your question. Personal taste, splits and cracks in the timber, stones in the timber etc etc are all factors that can help us to determine how to cut into a root, but perhaps its size is more important than any of these. Roots clusters, by their very nature, are severely out of balance and the bigger they are, the more out of balance and potentially dangerous to turn they become. If you have the slightest reservations about your personal safety, then cut it into smaller pieces!

In the pictures below, is the before and after states of a root cluster of Leylandii. I turned it such that it ended up inverted.....the trunk making the base and walls of the pot, with the roots making the rim of the bowl.





The finished pot was only about several inches tall and wide....but it really tested me!

Les

[seventhdevil]

strawberry tree splits and shrinks to hell so good luck getting anything out of it.

my advice is split it through the middle and cover any grain in thick players of pva to slow the drying as much as possible and chuck it in the back of your shop for 5 years.

5 years down the line you can see what you have left to turn.

i found that even with rough turning and heavily sealing pretty much all my bowl blanks split, warped  and had a ridiculous amount of shrinkage.