Tpt life Posted June 7, 2015 Report Share Posted June 7, 2015 I have read very little about root wood except from whittlers. This punky stump I dug out of a planting bed was likely arbor vitae or yew. I just got curious how deep the punk ran as it was not rotting in the pattern of above grade wood. As I ran my jack across it, I could see appealing patterns. I know embedded rock might be a concern, but a root slab might have appealing figure. Is it stable? Gravity places stresses on above grade branches, what about soil supported branches? Would crotches have less internal stress? The smaller volume of root material might limit the scale to small boxes and I doubt there would be any practicality behind the pursuit. I am simply curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted June 7, 2015 Report Share Posted June 7, 2015 I think root wood will present awesome grain patterns. I imaging we don't much of it commercially, becsuse it is such a pain to harvest. As for structure, all that gnarly grain, while pretty, is sure to have a lot of weakness for the same reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted June 7, 2015 Report Share Posted June 7, 2015 Your best bet is going to be like you said carving comunity or turners I suspect there will be a lot of internal stresses and it will crack bad as it dries. I would coat it right now so it can dry as stable as possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted June 7, 2015 Report Share Posted June 7, 2015 A root SLAB, yeah...could definitely be worth effort. Little pieces like that...not sure what it would be good for...knife scales? I'm reading Nakashima's book at the moment and he's mentioned root wood in a positive way on several occasions. If he goes into depth about it I'll let you know. I'm getting through the book slowly...it's next to my throne so only a few pages per day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPCV_Woodworker Posted June 8, 2015 Report Share Posted June 8, 2015 A root SLAB, yeah...could definitely be worth effort. Little pieces like that...not sure what it would be good for...knife scales? I'm reading Nakashima's book at the moment and he's mentioned root wood in a positive way on several occasions. If he goes into depth about it I'll let you know. I'm getting through the book slowly...it's next to my throne so only a few pages per day. I see what you did there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinF Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 A root SLAB, yeah...could definitely be worth effort. Little pieces like that...not sure what it would be good for...knife scales? I'm reading Nakashima's book at the moment and he's mentioned root wood in a positive way on several occasions. If he goes into depth about it I'll let you know. I'm getting through the book slowly...it's next to my throne so only a few pages per day. you should eat more veggies then, your colon will thank you, and you'll get your book done quicker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wouldwurker Posted June 15, 2015 Report Share Posted June 15, 2015 I've put a few gnarly beach ball sized tumor-esque root balls through my bandsaw to look at the inside. In every case it wasn't as dense as the outside made it look,...lots of air gaps... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted June 15, 2015 Report Share Posted June 15, 2015 Those air pockets will be par for the course when slicing through a root wad. Think of the way roots grow...they're like tentacles until they swell so large that they fuse themselves together into a single mass. You're also likely to find a ton of blade-dulling debris within the wood since the roots encapsulate the earth around them as they grow. In my opinion working with roots wouldn't be worth all the headaches involved unless you somehow acquired a huge awesome chunk of something...or whittled a little nugget like Carus had. Here's an example of a Nakashima root slab table. Since he frequently harvested wood from his own property, he had access to material that most of us will never have access to... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weithman5 Posted June 18, 2015 Report Share Posted June 18, 2015 This is looking up the trunk from right where the root starts from a bush I yanked out. I think it would make nice coasters, cooking spoon rest or even contrasting inlay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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