Hunting Arborist to help?

[Sable123]

Hello All,

In January I will be heading back home to do a number of things. 1st have a late christmas with family, 2nd get that bushpig that eluded me in September and 3rd get started on my man cave!
We have a nice large back room with fire place and our trophies mounted neatly on the wall, the only thing missing is a bar!!
I enjoy making my own things and giving everything a try. We have some beautiful Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) trees on our farm and I will love to turn one of them into a bar for the cave. Only problem is I don't know too much about the processing, treating, handling etc..of a raw tree all the way to the finished product. I would hate to cut down such a beautiful tree and mishandle it to the point where it becomes useless.
So what I am looking for is someone with a bit of know how on these types of things!
How to handle and treat the wood once cut? Removing the bark, best method? Treating it? Drying it out? etc....
I will try and post a few pics of the process so you can keep track. I'll even throw in a few pics of shot baboons and bushpigs just too keep it within the "hunting forum" guidelines!

Kind regards
Jono

 

[BRICKBURN]

The topic falls within general chat without any issues.

Look forward to seeing your progress on your table.
There is plenty of info on the web about lumbering, bucking and splitting logs for lumber.

It appears to be a pretty fast growing species. So I'd wonder about how hard it is.
Apparently it is used for some lumber.

Have you seen it used for this purpose before?

 

[peras]

Looking forward to the progress pics!

 

[Sable123]

At 660kg/m3 thats pretty dense wood, which means it should be good to work with and cut. We have some on our farm that my pops-in law says fell 20 years ago and they solid as anything with minimal insect damage.
While doing research I found alot of tables, chairs etc...for sale made from Blackwood. Looked into an Arborist forum online but those guys speak a whole different language, which is why I approached like minded folks

Will send pics and progress report.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Look under Lumber and Woodwork.
You'll get plenty of appropriate help.

 

[billc]

I would tell you once you get it cut in to the boards you will be using.
Make sure to let it dry out well.Let it set in the room your going to build the bar in for a few weeks.Some wood shrinks more then others but all shrink some.

 

[Sable123]

Feel like an unfaithful person here but....I joined another forum! . Also created a blog to track my progress of how this "little " project goes! Here is the link:

http://lumberjocks.com/JonoMcHugh/blog

Cheers
Jono

 

[Scott Slough]

Jono,

Sounds like an interesting project. I have some experience with air-drying wood, so I would be more than happy to help. Will the bar be in a climate controlled area completely inside or in an open air lapa-styled arrangement? You will need to dry the wood much dryer if it is going to be in the climate controlled environment. Regardless, you are going to need months to dry this wood rather than weeks.

I would recommend cutting into the rough dimensions that you are interested in using as the final size (it is definitely going to shrink and have some splits) and air dry it. You have to keep in completely out of the sun and rain. If you have a barn or shed with a good roof and open rafters, closely-spaced (if they are more than 24 inches just build a small lattice so the wood doesn't warp), place the wood in the rafters of a barn or shed that has good cross ventilation and wait. If you cut it now to your rough dimensions and get it drying, it should be ready for the open-air lapa application in six months and for the climate-controlled application in a year to 18 months .. sorry for the bad news.

Here is a short brochure with good pictures of the wood and how it is stacked for air drying - http://www.nzffa.org.nz/farm-forest...ling-and-grading-new-zealand-grown-blackwood/

If you want to contact me directly, my e-mail is sslough@sfasu.edu ... my guess is the continuing conversation will be less interesting to the rest of the forum.

 

[Sable123]

Fantastic advice, thanks Scott. Much appreciated.

The bar will be based indoors and even then will not be effected by any direct sunlight, winds etc...
That was one of my concerns was the drying period so thanks for the advice and i'll definately get a look in at the website. We have plenty of barn space on our farm so i should be able to hang it in a good enough place to dry....shame about the time period though, but I guess if i do it properly now it should last longer.
My other concern is once cut and left to dry will not then be vulnerable to insect damage?
Why would the open air lapa only require six months? Is that because it would still be drying once installed?

Thanks again for the help, i'll post pics of my progress. So be sure to look out for my emails as I struggle along

Just had a quick look at that website and this photo is exactly how I want the bar to look!!

Cheers
Jono

 

[Sable123]

$3,000 a cubic metre?? Hell, I might just sell the wood instead!

 

[Scott Slough]

I thought the price was a bit high myself!

As far as the outside vs. inside ...

Both your heating and cooling will lower the relative humidity in the home significantly less than outside. There are two types of water in the wood ... free water which will be the first to dry out (the 6 months) and the water that is bound to the wood fibers (the 12-18 months). For the lapa (no sun or rain, but open to the humidity) the wood will never dry beyond the loss of the free water. When you move the wood inside with the much lower humidity's it will continue to dry by removing the water that is bound to the fibers, which causes shrinkage and splitting. It doesn't continue to dry in the lapa because it will remain at the same average humidity.

Insect damage

Placing it in the rafters helps dramatically with the insects. We only have a couple of airborne insects that attack wood in the US and I suspect the same will be true in Africa. The few that do, are not in swarms and would at the most create minor damage that might even improve the "rustic" look of the wood.

Split down the middle

I love the look of the split tree in the brochure. If you are going for that, peel the outer and inner bark to even the drying. A link to some tools for bark removal, although I am certain you can "scrape" something together once you see the tools - http://woodsmithexperience.co.uk/shop/category/bark-peelers
Good luck!