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One property of crabapple wood

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 6:40 pm
by Bob Gramann
I picked up a chunk of crabapple when my neighbor trimmed her tree a couple of weeks ago. I figured I would play with it and see if it was hard enough for a bridge or fingerboard. I don’t expect much out of this chunk since it grew a bit at an angle and it has knots. Anyway, I started to strip the bark before I put it in the shed to dry. You know how when you cut some apples, they start to oxidize and brown. Look at the picture below. The white spots were just cut with the drawknife. The red were scraped only minutes before. The wood reddens so quickly I barely had time to put down the drawknife and pick up the camera.

Re: One property of crabapple wood

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2019 12:37 pm
by Olivier Vandebroucke
Well that's fascinating, I always love to see how x wood reacts to treatment y. Does anyone know if that's actually usable for musical instruments? I know that some of my relatives have made furniture out of apple tree wood, but well, in the countryside, there are 2 kinds of wood, the one that's suitable for furniture and the one that's suitable for the fireplace :lol:

Re: One property of crabapple wood

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:20 pm
by Bob Howell
I have turned bowls from it but they usually crack. Its very unstable because usually you are working with the base which has the graft and lots of knots.


I did get a few charming ones so I keep trying.