apple wood for furniture

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wood butcher

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I just cut down a 50 year old apple tree on our family lot that my sisters and I spent many a summer in when we were kids. It's a pretty nice pile of logs but they are only about three feet long and will yield heart wood about 13-14 inches wide and a couple of crotch logs. I would like to make something for each of my sisters from this tree. Because of the log size I think I will be limited to spice boxes or spice cabinets. What is the reality of using apple for furniture like this? I sure do appreciate any input and thanks for all the information on many subjects I have gottten from all of you.
 
Only once did I ever make the mistake of working with that stuff! It's beautiful, machines and takes finish simlar to cherry and most importantly holds fond memories for you. This 4/4 apple was air dried inside for at least ten years, I'm not sure exactly how long and was by far, hands down the MOST unstable wood I ever worked with!!! I could rip it to width and the next moring it would have an 1/8th crook in three feet! I've seen so much tension ripping 8/4 stock the board would split violently when the blade get's to the last foot many times but this apple was not moving until the next day! Be very aware of this when you decide what to make and maybe you'll have better luck than I did! Something as complex as a spice chest I wouldn't even consider. In less than a year you'll never get those drawers open again!
 
I haven't worked much with Apple wood yet, although I have some 15-16"-wide pieces( cut 15 yrs ago)
which are destined for a Spice Box.
If you have a 50 yr old tree with 13-14" heartwood that would be a pretty fast growing tree and more prone to be unstable. Apple trees due to their growing conditions have a tendency for "contortion" lumber, this stuff is going to twist like crazy while drying. I would get some good input on how best to dry this; leave the best boards for  a good, long (10yrs?) drying and make some smaller solid keepsake items for the near term for your sisters.
I would not give up on this wood, but it will take some efforts to get it dried successfully.

In American Woodworker Feb. 1994, Craig Bentzley has a great article on building a Pennsylvania spice box.
He uses Cherry, but the original was made from Apple- The Pennsylvania Spice Box by Griffith
 
Thanks GV. Craig Bentzley's plan is what I was going to use!
This leads me to another question. The wood is now in log form with the ends Anchorsealed, should I pass the 10 yr drying period in log form or get them sawn to 8/4 for the drying period? The logs are about nine months old. Will internal stresses be relieved better as logs or as lumber?

Thanks all,
Fuzz
 
Hey guys,

I spent about two hours measuring and fondling the spice box. That was over twenty years ago, but I'm still dubious about the apple attribution. The sides of the box display a crotch figure which may in fact be apple but I have doubts about the rest of the piece. The color of the entire piece is fairly uniform and it's obvious that it's been refinished a few times, including the removal of a later yellow ocher paint. I don't know if the museum did any analysis on the wood, but I've always assumed it was cherry. That said, I've worked with smaller pieces of apple over the years and never experienced any instability issues. Also it is very nice wood from a workability standpoint, especially turning. At any rate, good luck with the project. Let me know if I can answer any questions.

Craig
 
Many a fine saw handle was made from Quartersawn apple wood. A lot of fruitwood gets a bad name because it comes from limbs rather than from trunks. The only real way to know would be to saw it up and let it dry. If it behaves itself in the drying process it will probably work well for your spice box. If not it is good for tool handles as Jefferson said, it also makes nice turnings. If you can get 1 inch thick quartersawn pieces from it it will make great saw handles. If you can't get enough from it for a spice box a candle box or pipe box would be nice.
Mike
 
Hi Fuzz
I seldom get wide apple boards here in Minnesota so when I do I like to process it as quick as I can. The trees here seem to grow with a twist in the trunk. The wood I have left in logs tends to split down the length of the log, like cooking a hot dog on a stick over a fire. I have it cut into boards at the local mill,and dried in a kiln.You can air dry but it needs a lot of weight on it. If your not sure about the moisture content when storing , stickers are helpful.I bet I'm not the only one with storage problems, so I like to store things for the near future. 1/3 of my shop is wood storage, and a 40' shipping container used for cold storage.I seem to have a problem throwing wood away. My wife thinks I should be on that hoarder show on tv. The French used fruit woods often in large cabinets with good results, but the furniture I have restored that had been in floods were a real mess.
The rule for air drying wood is 7 to 10 years per inch, 8/4 , is 14 to 20 years. I'm not sure I could wait that long.  
  Oh, one other thing to consider ,air drying refers to stickered piles of wood stacked outside, under cover.If the wood is stacked inside, the air circulation is removed, adding years to the drying time.
Good luck     Randy
 
Apple wood is notoriously unstable. Turn something out of it.

I've never heard of drying 2 inch stock for so long. A year per inch may be a little quick, but I think the figures quoted are a little extreme.-Al
 
When I was growing up in rural Ireland, a local mill weighed down freshly cut apple logs in the mill pond until shortly before the wood was required. They used the apple for the teeth and some other parts of the mill's gear train.
 
Hi All
  I have to agree with Al , the air drying time does seem extreme. But when you consider woodworkers like to work with wood with a moisture content between 6 and 8 percent, and the best air drying in the northern part of the U.S. can produce is 12 to 15 percent, you begin to understand why the old timers invented the kiln. One might get as low as 6% in the arid southwest but I think most of us live  some-what north.
Indoor air drying without air circulation can produce mold/stains or decay. Drying too fast can cause checking, and warping. I think these drying problems in the past are why some of you are talking about the old technique of spring boarding.
  Take into consideration, air drying in the north is after spring rains and before frost, not very long.
Randy
 
Last May a friend cut down an apple tree. I know this is the wrong time of year to harvest lumber, but I figured what the heck and took several chunks of the trunk of the tree. I coated the ends of the logs with Anchorseal.  They laid around outside the shop until October, at that time I moved the big pieces into my wood shed and brought two 20? pieces into the shop. I milled the two pieces into 1? boards on the band saw, stacked and stickered them right in the shop and forgot about them until this morning when I read this post. When I got into the shop this morning I grabbed the moisture meter and started taking readings. At first I thought there was something wrong, the readings seemed too low, so I changed the battery in the meter  and tried again, no change in the readings. Everything in the shop read 6 to 8% including the apple. Much of it is cupped but it is dry as a bone, I ripped one piece to check the inside, 6%. I went out to my three sided shed and checked out there every thing, that was milled, in the shed read 8 to 10%. I am in Wisconsin. I am curious do others with forced air heating in there shops have similar readings, does anybody humidify their shops.
 
Thanks to every one for all the input. I think I'm just going to go for it. I will cut it to 5/4, sticker, stack it indoors, put cement blocks on top and blow a fan on it. Wait and see what happens, nothing is going to happen if I don't do something. If things don't work out it looks like I'll be smoking a whole buuuuunch of ribs!

Fuzz
 
I've seen similar results, but with walnut. I got a chance about 12-14 years ago to get a large walnut tree being removed by a contractor. Once cut into movable log sections I took it to a local guy who had set up an old sawmill for personal use. After he had cut it up to 5/4 and 8/4 planks I stickered it up in my basement and with box fans and a pair of dehumidifiers began the drying process.

After two years I began checking moisture content with my handheld Delmhorst moisture meter, and was surprised that all of my readings came out between 8-10 %. I've used quite a bit of it and have had no issues with it, in fact it's a joy to use. It cuts and machines nicely and working it with hand tools is a breeze.

I realize that walnut is quite a bit different than apple, but with air movement and dehumidifiers, you might get it to dry in much less time than if you just stickered it up outside. I'd certainly give it a shot.
 
Speaking of spice boxes, Skinner has a fine example for sale, the listing

http://www.skinnerinc.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2538B+++++27+&refno=++888419
 
"Thanks to every one for all the input. I think I'm just going to go for it. I will cut it to 5/4, sticker, stack it indoors, put cement blocks on top and blow a fan on it. Wait and see what happens, nothing is going to happen if I don't do something. If things don't work out it looks like I'll be smoking a whole buuuuunch of ribs!"

Do not blow a fan on your stacked and stickered apple if it's indoors in a climate-controlled shop.  During this time of year, almost all climate-controlled shops are very, very dry unless you live in Florida.  I speak from experience in this area - I mill and dry an awful lot of lumber myself, from the log.  Blowing a fan on a small stack of lumber in an indoor shop environment with less than 50% R.H. is an almost sure-fire recipe for ruining your wood - it will quite badly surface-check, and probably honeycomb.  Under those circumstances, it will only be useful for smoking bacon or ribs.

As most have noted, apple's stability largely depends on the straightness of the tree, or if it's compression wood taken from limbs.  If the tunk of your tree was nice and straight, you should have some very workable wood.

In my case, I've dried several trees worth of apple, but since my objective was getting quarter-sawn wood for making handplanes, I split the logs into halves, removed the bark, and let it dry for a couple of years before sawing it.  This is, by the way, one of the best ways to get stable, dry wood with the least effort and with the least checking.
 
dkeller,
From North Carolina I see, my wife is Lumbee from Robeson County! We're out in Colorado now.
Thanks for the input. Will reaction wood always have internal stresses or can the stress be eliminated or reduced with proper processing of the lumber?

Fuzz
 
Generally speaking, reaction wood is best suited for making tomato stakes and warming your shop in the winter (in the woodstove).  The exception might be small turned objects, but using it in furniture is asking for it. 

But - that opinion is influenced by my philosophy, which is that if I'm going to put more than a day's work into a piece, then I want to use the best lumber I can find/buy, because its marginal extra cost is going to be tiny compared to the work I put in.  That's why I tend to not do very many glue-ups - I've decided that the additional work to surface, joint, glue and clamp followed by more surfacing at the end is way more costly than spending the extra $$ on wood wide enough to avoid doing the glue-up.

But others have different situations and value systems, so using questionable lumber (like reaction wood) may fit their needs.
 
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