Being at almost ground zero for hurricane Florence there is a sadly huge abundance of downed tree in my area. I'd like to get some advice on what to bring home. Today I cut some logs from a red oak and then saw a big hickory tree so I cut sections of that as well. I think the hickory will be much better for beating on but thought I'd ask here before hauling it home. The rounds of oak are 16" and the hickory is about 19". I can't load the hickory on the "basket" that I keep in my receiver hitch hole so I will need help to get it loaded and back to the house. If it isn't good for a forming stump or anvil stand I'll leave it. I don't do any metal shaping but it's always fascinated me and I've actually rounded up a fair number of tools for a beginner metal deformer. My anvil is a 130+ pound old beat up thing that's been sitting in the dirt for a decade. Now I'll at least get it off the ground. It has a badly mushroomed and repaired top but will work fine for me. Thanks Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
I would think either hickory or oak would be fine, with fresh cut logs you should coat the ends with wax or some paint to seal them so they will dry slow, otherwise will most likely split.
Also grab a pine round if you can. I've used those at times, as they will get dished in the middle, and that sometimes is good for certain shaping jobs .
Great. Thanks I'm a beekeeper so I have plenty of wax. Also massive amounts of pine so I will grab a few logs. I'll keep the ends on some gravel and keep them from rotting with copper naphthenate. Driving into town yesterday there was an oak stump that was dug out or cut off with a stump grinder. It had to be 5'in diameter. Likely several hundred years old. The hickory was over 125 years old by my ring count. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
I did mine with 1" 1/8" strap around it, top and bottom. Then made angle iron legs from those, and welded the angle to an old wheel, at the bottom. Nice roll-around forming stump!
I would say grab all of them, I watched this video yesterday, guy seems pretty knowledgeable and explains it pretty well. I remember him saying he has several different stumps with different shaped dishes in them, like a tool, grab the right tool to make the right shape.
being in the southeast i am assuming that the oak you are talking about is the, abundant in the south, Live Oak or Southern Live Oak and not the "traditional" white oak most people think of when you mention oak. The Live Oak is hard as nails and has great rot resistance... it was used in ship building (including the USS Constitution, which was fittingly named “Old Ironsides”). I needed to take a few small trees out of a property I had in OBX NC and the stuff ate up chainsaw chains faster than most wood I have cut, and the grain is wavy so it doesn't split very easily either...lol. If you can find a piece big enough to use as an anvil base I would grab it. just my $0.02 Chappy
Live Oak is more of a Coastal Tree. In Alabama Live Oaks mostly grow within a 100 miles of the Coast with most within the first 50. Now specimens can be planted and grown throughout...., The trees in DealyPlaza (Dallas) were Texas Live Oaks. Any of those logs will work. Pine can be used as forming blocks. It's easier to carve. The hot metal will burn it out but it still can be used as a form. Look up...Stump Anvil.
I have been using a big log for year and one side has a concave surface, should I need it to be flat I could just turn it over. HRP
There are so many types of oak here. The live oaks are plentiful and huge but the one I sectioned wasn't a live oak. It isn't white oak either so the exact species isn't know to me. I do know that it wasn't nearly as hard as the hickory for sure. I figured it was a type of red oak cause it smelled like dog turd when freshly cut. I got two hickory rounds back to the house. I just rolled them up a pair of 8' 2X4 onto my receiver basket. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
Red oak is usually reddish inside, and smells like cat crap until it dries out, and even then if it gets wet again will still smell for a long time. When I had a wood heater, I would use red oak if I had to, but I prefer white or water oak. They don't smell as strong. Hickory is best used for tool handles and BBQ wood!
Red oak will stain steel purple if any moisture is present. Elm is good for clubs. (Son, I'll beat yo ass with a piss elm club) Hickory is used for handles because it handles shock well and would be my choice for a shaping block. Pine, at least the northern varieties would be almost like a leather shot bag for shaping. Most any hardwood should work for an anvil base.
Water Oak will rot almost immediately, Red Oak is almost as bad. Both are pretty soft, as Oaks go. Down here (South GA) we have Chestnut Oak, which is hard and fairly rot resistant, and one we call Post Oak, which is also hard and has good rot resistance. Live Oak has already been mentioned. You can coat the ends of logs with anti-freeze, the non-diluted is best, and that will help control the checking. If you can find some Longleaf Pine, that would resist rotting really well. It's also much harder than Loblolly or Slash, but it will ooze that sticky tar for a long time. Plus, it's pretty easy to ignite, and burns like crazy once you do. Probably not ideal if you do a lot of smithing.
I'll grab some longleaf pine sections. Lots of it around. I probably have 15 on my lot and my church has an 8 acre lot that's mostly LL. I usually rake my own pine straw from there every fall for bed mulch. It's the cleanest and pritiest pine straw and worth the effort IMO. I'd like to get some opinions about other woods such as willow and gum? Are these worth grabbing? I'm currently hunting for a bunch of Dogwood I saw. I can't remember where I was but I'll find it. Maybe I need to bring a dog? Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
How about some root sections from the hickory tree? This tree was blown over and the root ball and stump are now sitting nest to the road. Any tips on how to debark this stuff? I tried a draw knife which worked OK but isn't long enough and I end up hitting my knuckles one I get near the wood. It won't just peal off and separate like most bark I've removed. Maybe it needs to be spring time for easier removal? It's going to take me forever to debark these two sections. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
I don't know about the cat crap smell. I don't eat Chinese food . I know the smell is diSTINKtive but never heard it described in the feline manner. To me it always smelled a little like dog shit. Do I have to remove the bark from these trunk sections? I know they will rot if water gets in between the wood and the bark so can I just seal it with wax? Debarking this stuff is nuts. The bark seems completely glued to the wood unlike any other wood I've tried Debarking which, admittedly, isn't huge in variety. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
Green wood won't "debark" too easily if at all. Let it season a year or two and it should slough off pretty well. For "real" blacksmiths American Elm might have been chosen for example as a base because it is notoriously tough to split. It would probably last forever in that use. It was pretty much wiped out a long time ago because of Dutch Elm disease. It makes some of the best firewood around, hot and quiet, nice bed of coals.
Dang, I thought I just read that cured hickory was almost impossible to debark? If I let it lay around for a year or two won't it rot? Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
Not to take anything away from the traditional stump believe me I would love to have a stump or should I say room for one or more in my shop! I have however discovered the tuck puck I was skeptical but these things really work and they fit in the tool box drawer. Just wanted to share another option. Hobo Jim http://www.tuckpuck.com/
This looks like a great fit limited space etc. Nice looking piece too. I am thinking about using slices of the same truck section with each slice having different profile holes taken out. These could even be stacked on top of each other no? Anyway the stump in my horribly inexperienced mind offers the ability to make a few different profile holes. I saw a video with an area removed that looked like a horse shoe but gradually got deeper from heel to toe. This made one single divot very versatile. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
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