Siver Birch

Another question about suitable wood for turning.

I can get a hold of a quantity of Silver Birch newly cut. I have been told that it gets softer as it dries and is unsuitable for turning. Any comments please.

Tom.

Reply to
Tom Dougall
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I'm not positive which of them is "silver" birch, but I have turned a bit of yellow birch, and I think it's great stuff. There's a lot of nice figure even in the boring parts of the log, with a subtle bluish tint in a lot of it. It's well worth turning- but keep the logs in a dry, cool place. If you don't, you're likely to end up with a whole lot of nothing.

One thing I can warn you about it is that it rots fast. Especially paper birch (might be the silver birch you're talking about). Maybe it's drying, and that is what I've seen, but it does turn into mush fast. But, if you've got sound wood, turn it and get a finish on it, that has never happened to me.

A lot of times, birch will be standing dead, and rot so thuroughly that you can knock a large tree over with hand pressure. (and hope the top doesn't fall on you when it breaks into 3 or 4 big pieces, DAMHIKT) Obviously, this stuff is no good for anything at that point, unless you want to strip the bark off and use it for something.

Reply to
Prometheus

Two of my turnings of the birch you're probably talking about:

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I find no wood unsuitable for turning. Someone told me that the softer kinds of pine are unsuitable for turning, for me it becomes a challenge which can lead to:
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One example of very tortured beech, more than half of it is very spalted, parts of the spalted part had become spongy, but CA came in helpful:
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Just keep the tools sharp. Gerard

Reply to
Gerard

Reply to
TonyM

No, not really. Yellow birch is a shade-tolerant tree which contributes a good portion of our local climax forest. White birch, as in Betula papyfera, is a shade-intolerant tree capable of good growth in burned/cutover areas. It will even grow on poor quality soil, though much slower.

Black (Betula lenta) is also called sweet birch, river birch, or cherry birch, and has a wonderful pink color which reminds of cherry, as well as bark which is broken into lenticels rather than paper layers. Smells strongly of wintergreen when it's fresh, which makes it a fragrant joy to turn.

All the birches I know have waterproof bark, an attribute taken advantage of by the aboriginals, which means that it spalts fast in its "container." Best to take it to clean wood quickly to avoid the spalt. Waterproof bark is also the reason why you don't want to try and use a birch log fallen across a stream for a bridge. Odds on it's a shell full of trash, and will pitch you into the water.

Reply to
George

I heard that Baltic Birch plywood is made out of Silver Birch from Russia. They say that their forests are loaded with silver Birch.

Reply to
Dave

Theirs have the white bark, though not as papery - almost an alder look to it, and they are abundant, growing on the "podzol" soils which are really poor quality. Russians make neat baskets and boxes out of it, as well as the traditional buckets.

The "weeping" birch is sort of neat looking. Think it's called a silver by the folks who grow ornamentals in nurseries. Russians are fond of planting it as an ornamental.

"Baltic" can be Finnish, Russian, Estonian, etc. First encountered the stuff in some 5x5 metric thickness floor underlayment. Saw the Cyrillic F-A in that cheap purple color stamp they use everywhere on it. "Fabrika," or "factory" and a number.

Reply to
George

Hi Tom

Are you in Europe ??

The silver birch is the normal NW European Birch, very similar to the Paper Birch her in N.America, and if you have fresh cut Birch, you have good turning wood, it's just plain light colored wood, as I remember from cutting it for firewood as a boy in Holland, the wood does not get soft from drying, but you do have to keep it out of the wet, as it will rot in short order if left on the wet ground.

As I never worked with large size Silver Birch, I don't know it it has more color than the thinner stuff, I do know that one of the best if not the best tool making company that made shovels, pitch and hayforks, in that time, used birch for handles, and they did stand up well, light and strong, the co. name was Wedevag, don't know if they are still around or not.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Reply to
l.vanderloo

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