A friend offered me a dead maple tree she is having cut down. She first noticed the tree looked bad last spring and had an alleged expert look at it. He said it had a blight so she had it sprayed. Apparently the drought pushed it over the edge last summer.
She said it lost its leaves a little early last fall and that it never came out again this spring. We are in Tennessee so I’m guessing it is a soft maple. Going from memory the tree is about 30″ in diameter and had a lot of fairly low limbs. I do not know a portable bandsaw mill operator locally, but believe I could find one if the tree is worth salvaging. I have been building Windsor chairs lately so I guess I could use it for those legs and spindles if it is still green.
I don’t want to waste my time or spend any money if this is a lost cause. Any and all suggestions are appreciated.
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If it has a lot of low limbs, I'm assuming it grew out in the open, rather than in the woods. If that's the case, then there will be lots of twisting and turning of grain around the limbs, which means that while the wood may have lots of "character," it will be difficult to work with.
-Steve
Plus if it's a yard tree it may have hardware. Not worth hauling a mill to.
If you want some of it, fall it for fire wood and using saw and wedges, split out some 8/4 flitches from the sapwood areas beneath the limbs. That's where figure is usually found and you can airdry them for small projects.
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