Storm Damage: A Woodworker’s Harvest
There’s a storm making away across the nation. Tornadoes in the south. Snow, ice, and blizzard 
conditions in the midwest and north. With the storm comes a lot of tree damage. From broken branches to split trunks and downed trees, there can be a lot of cleanup to do. I’ve got several downed branches in my small city lot from last night’s ice storm.When I’m in the midst of cleaning up debris like this, I always have a hard time throwing away anything bigger around than my wrist. With the price of lumber these days, it seems like there should be something I could do with this free wood.
So I’ve been known to cut the larger branches into manageable lengths and store them in my unheated cellar to dry out. Sometimes I’ll paint the ends to help minimize checking and cracking during the drying process.
So what do you do with this free lumber? Well, of course, it depends on the wood. I find that what I end up doing most is turning smaller projects on the lathe. I remember a few years back my kids making fun of me because every time I went to the shop, I came out with a hand full of handles for my tools. (Making handles for your files, for example, is an easy project to do.) Or you could use your free lumber to make accent pieces for your projects: drawer fronts, knobs, pulls, inlays, and so on. I’ve got some larger logs that I’d like to use to try my hand at turning a bowl, like Brian Simmons did in this podcast.
So while you or your neighbors are cleaning up the debris from less fortunate trees, snag onto the larger stuff and make something beautiful out of it!