WoodWriting Haiku Thursday's --by RusticWoodArt #4: "Slivered Audacity"

Both are very nice.

-- Mark

Great Frank. Are those the pesky powder post beetle tracks in the maple.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Hello….;
—-hi Mark; ....and thanks for your kind words that encourage….

—-hi Karson; ....beetle tracks yes, you really do have a sharp eye there Kason. I don’t come across so much of the ‘powder beetle’ as I do what I call ‘bark beetles up here. One of the reasons I strip//debark the wood I use is because of those ‘bark beetles’ and the fine ground wood trail they leave behind.

My methods and length of time that go into a piece of ‘wood art’ or furniture can be somewhat lengthy and long for some woodworkers to understand….like from downed tree to finished piece there will often be 2-5 years going by. Some-times I will strip the bark within 6 months to a year and then there are also those times when the bark stays on for 2-3 years outside. When I get ready to bring the wood inside to my shop, I will then remove the bark. Under the bark, I will often find the larvae making tracks and so it’s just a matter removing them from their places of tunnel growth under the bark. Some folks like these tracks in the wood, but more often then not, when I’m doing a special piece….by the time I’m done sanding and all, the tracks have been erased from the wood. I do find bark beetle in apple, maple and pine, but these do not penetrate into the interior of the wood for the most part.

As you mention about the powder beetle, well these can some times be a pesky pest, but are more seen in wood that has gone spalted and even more so borders on the line of punky….and for punky wood there’s not much use. The piece of wood seen here is what I call a sliver of wood that came off of a bigger slab I was cutting….that interior of the wood had gone punky. As I said not much use for punky wood except I will take and saw into thin strips such as seen here and some into a thickness of up to 2-3 inches, then I will make these into pieces of ‘wood art’ which folks buy and hang in homes and their offices….’wood art’ be-comes ‘wall art’. These can be and are a hot item and since so much time can go by, from start to finish, I am able to monitor any activity of wood powder. I have an oak burl now that sits on a desk in my office, which I am working on….and have been working on. First cut the burl some years ago….last fall finally got around to removing the bark and that’s when I saw some larvae in the wood. Some tell-tale signs of wood boring also showed up which I am monitoring for new activity, as I work on a free form sculpture. Finish time is yet down the road….so plenty of time to see what happens and if I need to treat the wood.

Well thats enough for now and you all have a very good day….

Thank you.
GODSPEED,
Frank

-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/