I am a turner in Toledo, OH. I recently moved there, and am looking for wood sources, especially hard maple, Bradford pear, holly, box elder, etc for making platters and vases. I am searching for 9-10 inch square by 2 inch pieces. Any help will be appreciated.
Since you're asking, you must not have a chainsaw and trees. I'd say contact a wood turners club, or individual wood turners. They're all over the place. Second choice would be saw mills and firewood sellers, and ask for a favor. I hope this could be of some help, and let me be the first to say welcome to the forum.
Sorry for a late reply, but call tree services. Tell them what you are looking for, and negotiate the costs for sections of logs to be dropped in your drive. Buy a chainsaw, you're going to need one sooner or latter. I've been turning for 31 years. Once you get a good relationship with a tree service, you're home free. Always give them a free bowl from each batch of wood delivered, and a bag of ornaments at Christmas. After that you will have all the free wood you ever wanted. Hopefully!
I have been scrounging wood for bowls for 25 years. I listen for a chainsaw and go check it out. I know many of the tree men around here now. They know what is prized here now.
I had a great day splitting wood for Windsor chairs long ago. The next day I woke up feeling UNCOMFORTBLE. Hemorrhoids!! You can hurt yourself. I pay for the wood to be cut into small pieces.
95% of the wood seems to be pine or oak but maple is what I look for here. Find a turning club near you. That's where I learned how to find wood.
Id walk up to whoever i saw in the next log truck and ask about big block cutoffs from the bucking site. In mature hardwood logging you tend to skid to a landing and buck whole stems into saleable length logs then load them out. That means trimming back double hearts on the small end where the crown forked, into single hearts which leaves a foot or two of a crotched chunk of stem. Theyre hard as a rock, therefore difficult to split, and weigh a ton. Even i leave them there, and i sell firewood. Just not worth my effort for a few pieces. But theres some beautiful figure in there to be revealed. Itd be a rare logger who didnt say yes please, come clean them up for me.
Double hearts? Sounds like crotch wood to me. Never heard it described this way. That's what bowl turners are looking for. Great crotch figure.
Yeah, when the sawlogs are cut below the first fork, it often reveals two hearts wjere the tree made an equal split. That gets bucked off. If you haul in a log with one end showing double hearts at say 16ft long, theyll "trim it back" and pay you for the next size down.. Maybe 14ft, maybe 12. Or maybe they drop the whole stem a grade. No sense hauling wood you wont be paid for or giving an excuse to critique.
I drive around Atlanta looking for wood like that. Double heart.