Over the last several years I've been taking scans and building wooden replicas of ancient Egyptian furniture. My next couple projects require specific sections of tree limbs. I'm asking here because I'm looking for a sensible way to explain what I'm after before I start contacting Greater Toronto Area arborists. I'd be fine with signing a liability waiver to go on site and cut with my own saw. I'm hoping to walk away with enough for two stools and two tables for $150-ish.
As an arborist, is there anything else you'd want to know? Does it sound like too much damn trouble? I see cherry firewood available on the local FB Marketplace but it all l looks to be cut too short and or from cherry orchard/ornamental trees. I've found that those are generally unusable because of rot and bark inclusions.
The grain structure of this stool leg (generally following the curve but squirrelly on the back of the bend) suggests it's taken from a limb as illustrated.. For the small table, I need a bunch of 2 foot long black cherry branches with heartwood of about 2” diameter and some larger diameter limbs for the carved top.
Thanks!
by PeaEquivalent2350
12 Comments
Id call a smaller company and see when/ if on their schedule they are taking down a cherry or maple. Tell em what you are doing and usually it’s no biggie. We would cut shitake logs to size for people and put them out of the jobsite for them to grab. Only stipulation is they had to be taken before we left the job. We never wanted people in our jobsite though… Thats a no no.
The first picture is not how trees work. It’s not how branches are attached. Some searches of tree biology ought to clear that up for you. And the second picture appears to indicate that you want to make something out of the pith. That is not recommended. Pith is unstable for woodworking.
Waivers don’t hold water in court, you’ll need to be insured and carry workers’ comp to enter a job site. Expect a quote to have wood delivered, or find a firewood supplier to work with.
#1 isn’t how trees grow. Those bends might come from natural growth of a stem or be bent before or after cutting but that’s not from a crotch.
Have you consulted with a wood scientist regarding the type of timber used?
I’m not an archeologist so IDK what woods were typically used in Egyptian furniture.
Anyway. A local Arborist is unlikely to let you sign a waiver/cut on site. Sounds like a legal nightmare for all involved.
They would however happily let you provide a photo of the cut you’d like and make the cut while they’re blocking a tree down.
A kind phone call, willingness to show up when the crew does, and a few bucks for the boss/crew would probably get the piece you’re after.
Arborists don’t want to be involved in this. They’re running a business. You’re doing research. Unless you find someone that’s willing and able to donate their time to you, $150 isn’t worth the headache. $150 is probably about 1 hrs worth of time. Do you think this can be done in 1 hour?
Just my two cents, that first pic isn’t naturally occurring. The stem may have been intentionally bent then carved. That’s how a lot of bend wood was made for European naval stores
No sensible arborist will let you cut it with your own saw. It’s their job site and they are required to keep everyone there safe. Which means you’d need training – not a waiver. Even experienced and qualified arborists normally have to demonstrate they know what they’re doing first.
That looks like it needs to come out of a healthy tree? Arborists don’t usually cut down healthy trees unless they work in forestry or farming.
Most arborists will sell timber if it’s valuable, but honestly we don’t work with valuable timber very often and you could be waiting a long time for one with exactly what you want.
Farms growing cherry for wood (not fruit) are common in the northern USA and a few exist in Canada. Reach out to them – they’re mostly niche farms catering to high end furniture production so they should be willing to work with you.
Maple might be a bit more tricky since that’s more of a mass produced timber… I live on the other side of the world but in my experience big farms have already sold all their timber long before it’s harvested and they won’t breach the contract by selling to someone else. I’d look for cherry first then ask if they know any small scale maple farms.
I’m a Minnesota green woodworker lurking here. I’m not super skilled but I’ll try to help.
To clarify what you’re looking for, the curved leg also has the pith visibly running through it, and a second pith mark on the underside from the trunk/second leg of the fork? **Is that accurate?** (I see pith in the second photo, but we can’t see the end of the leg in the first one)
Generally when I’ve seen people work with curved pieces, it’s taken from the outside of the pith, and may have toger-striping from being under compression.
Facebook’s search is ass. “cut wood” and “cut tree” would be good search terms that filter out furniture, but you need to learn to recognize what the bark/end sections of cherry and whatever your local maples look like. Craigslist is better, but seems to be disused around me (if you can learn to use their boolean search operators it’s way better).
Check a few days after storms, high wind, heavy wet snow, and nights where ice freezes on branches and people are usually begging for you to take it (this time of year is slimmer pickings unless you want oak and elm, I think?)
If you run across bigger logs at someone’s place, be careful to assess what’s supporting the log before you cut. I got punched in the gut by a tree rolling a quarter turn because I cut a branch I thought was insignificant.
Hello neighbor!
Try University Firewood off Kipling. We get our cords of wood from them for our fireplace, but i think they also (or used to) vut trees for people. They might do and sell the wood too lol Either way, they’re super nice people! Worth a try 😊
Try reaching out to colleges with arb programs. They usually have a few nerdy arborists hanging around that might be interested in helping you. Humber is close to the GTA, Fleming is as well if you have transportation. Or, look for a company that has its own sawmill.
I get that op is a serious researcher, and by now sick of a bunch of neck beads telling op that they’re wrong with very little evidence… but.. the two knots visible in the first picture are pointing in different directions, and I find normally they point in the same direction, towards the sun or away from the earth. Gotta be bent.
In my area people often give away wood that they don’t want to pay someone else to haul away. So maybe check facebook marketplace.
I first saw things like this at a Maritime museum in Maine. In boat building they’re called ships knees and wooden ships had dozens of them, many apparently from the stump/root area of the tree. As I recall they were fairly massive, 6 to 8 inches in cross section. Sounds like a real fun project!
Here’s a pic showing the various knees: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Krummtr%C3%A4.JPG](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Krummtr%C3%A4.JPG)
And an article on knee harvesting from bogs: [https://davidcecelski.com/2020/05/09/root-knees-and-juniper-swamps/](https://davidcecelski.com/2020/05/09/root-knees-and-juniper-swamps/)