Pear Wood

[The Bitter End]

Good Morning all

 

I hope that I am not in contravention of the rules of MSW and if i am please let me know immediately and I will remove this post. (this is NOT about commercial gain, it is about limiting my waste and hopefully yours too)

 

I am a fruit farmer in South Africa with access to an almost unlimited supply of fruit woods(Pear, apple, peach, apricot and plum). As it currently sits I use this wood for barbecuing, as there are mountains of it on the farm and on farms all around me and we are creating more ever day as we pull out old trees and plant new ones.

 

This post consists of 2 parts, firstly, if there is anyone who would like some of this timber, either in block shape or a specific curve or curves please let me know and I will be happy to ship to you if you can cover shipping costs once the timber arrives at its destination.

 

Secondly, I do not want any money for this wood BUT I am a new modeller and equipment can become very expensive very quickly, if anyone would like to trade old/used/damaged equipment/plans/parts for this wood I would really appreciate it.

 

Please remember that the primary point of this is to not let tonnes of good pear wood go to waste so if you do need some and have nothing to trade for it please let me know and we can make a plan to get supplies to you.

 

Kind Regards

 

Haiko

[Jim Lad]

A real pity that we here in Oz won't be able to avail ourselves of your offer due to our strict quarantine regulations. 

 

John

[The Bitter End]

Just now, Jim Lad said:

A real pity that we here in Oz won't be able to avail ourselves of your offer due to our strict quarantine regulations. 

 

John

Good morning Jim

 

As a matter of interest what is the process for importing foreign timber into OZ? Is it even theoretically possible? It is ultimately a good thing that you guys have these kinds of regulation. I could probably DHL a school of live piranhas into South Africa and nobody would bat an eye.

[Jim Lad]

We can import timber, but it has to be from a commercial source and properly treated.

 

John

[Jaager]

Generous thought, bad idea.

The commercial guys use kilns and fumigation and probably other methods to keep from exporting diseases and insects along with the wood.

The amateur export world has gained us Starlings, Japanese Beatles, Dutch Elm disease, Fire Ants, to name a few.  If your guys are still sloppy about what comes in,

I would not bet on their being any more careful about what goes out.  The wood that you offer is from wide spread agricultural species.  If you have something indigenous that is 

kept in check by your eco system,  letting it out in this way could lead to a real disaster.  This is a realm best left to professionals. 

[Jolley Roger]

Well, guess more wood for us SA locals!

I'm definitely interested in your offer.

I have an old Dremel Drill Press that is gathering dust, if this is something you would be interested in?

[Gregory]

That's an interesting looking drill press...  I don't see any kind of dynamic motion mechanism..

[Jolley Roger]

23 minutes ago, Gregory said:

That's an interesting looking drill press...  I don't see any kind of dynamic motion mechanism..

The dremel tool stays stationary and the table moves up and down, pretty old school, but apparently a lot more accurate than their newer drill presses.

[Jaager]

Jolly,

If you have any ambition to go to scratch building,  get as much and more of what Haiko is offering as you can even unrealistically handle..  Work a deal and use specie even.

This is especially true if  what is being offered is 4x4 or 8x4 (or your domestic equivalent of those dimensions).  If your living situation is limited,  long term rent a small storage unit.

Debark,  seal all cut ends ( surplus house latex paint will do if gobbed on super thick - a piece of Bounty will do for a brush) - sticker between pieces.  Find a storage unit location

that is not prone to termite or carpenter ant invasion.  Maybe spread Borax fabric softener on the floor - kills roaches - maybe other beasties react against it too - study up.

There is also a local species of Buxus there, see if you can get a bunch, a big bunch.  

If you do come over to the dark side,  you will probably always regret it if you miss this.  Think Scrooge McDuck in his vault of gold or Smaug in his.     

Get with your fellow countrymen who share this interest and pool your efforts.

 

Let me add some of my perspective on this.  I come at this from POF in the 1:48 to 1:60 range of scales.  It is difficult to grasp just how much wood it takes to fully frame a ship at these scales. 

An impressive amount winds up as saw dust.  Tackling a liner will give you a real appreciation for the stress on the treasurer who had to come up with the money to pay for a real one or the sawyer who had to obliterate a forest to supply the wood needed. 

Edited October 4, 2019 by Jaager

[The Bitter End]

9 hours ago, Jolley Roger said:

Well, guess more wood for us SA locals!

I'm definitely interested in your offer.

I have an old Dremel Drill Press that is gathering dust, if this is something you would be interested in?

Good evening sir!

 

Thank you so much for your kind offer. I would love to give the drill press a good home.

 

If you would like to come out to the farm and choose your trees and wood you are most welcome to. This is a guest farm so there is plenty of room if you would like to stay the night. Alternately I can just pick and choose a load of good stuff and meet up with you next time I'm in Cape Town, which should be fairly soon.

 

I am still working my way through your build log. A really great experience so far. I am highly impressed by your work.

[The Bitter End]

1 hour ago, Jaager said:

Jolly,

If you have any ambition to go to scratch building,  get as much and more of what Haiko is offering as you can even unrealistically handle..  Work a deal and use specie even.

This is especially true if  what is being offered is 4x4 or 8x4 (or your domestic equivalent of those dimensions).  If your living situation is limited,  long term rent a small storage unit.

Debark,  seal all cut ends ( surplus house latex paint will do if gobbed on super thick - a piece of Bounty will do for a brush) - sticker between pieces.  Find a storage unit location

that is not prone to termite or carpenter ant invasion.  Maybe spread Borax fabric softener on the floor - kills roaches - maybe other beasties react against it too - study up.

There is also a local species of Buxus there, see if you can get a bunch, a big bunch.  

If you do come over to the dark side,  you will probably always regret it if you miss this.  Think Scrooge McDuck in his vault of gold or Smaug in his.     

Get with your fellow countrymen who share this interest and pool your efforts.

 

Let me add some of my perspective on this.  I come at this from POF in the 1:48 to 1:60 range of scales.  It is difficult to grasp just how much wood it takes to fully frame a ship at these scales. 

An impressive amount winds up as saw dust.  Tackling a liner will give you a real appreciation for the stress on the treasurer who had to come up with the money to pay for a real one or the sawyer who had to obliterate a forest to supply the wood needed. 

Hi Jaager

 

This is actually a very valid point. I do a fair amount of carpentry and the moment you cut anything other than a dead straight plank the wastage is remarkable. I can only imagine what that must be like when you a cutting hundreds of curves that must all be perfect.(Im guessing a fair amount of the wood winds up in the bin too when mistakes are made).

 

Luckily for old Jolly I hope to farm here for a long time and there is a almost limitless amount of wood here for him whenever he would like it.

[Roger Pellett]

Many many years ago, a work colleague told me that he was going to remove a pear tree from his property and he would give me the logs.  I found a local saw mill that was willing to cut them up and wound up with a stack of boards.  When I moved from Southeastern, Ohio to Duluth, MN the movers moved them. They then sat in a “cool dry place” for many years until I finally cut them into blocks.

 

Jaager is right, I was amazed at the amount of waste just to get clear blocks from rough cut boards.  One of the problems of using a professional saw mill is that you have little or no control how the logs are sawn.  Knowing what I know now about the structure of wood I probably could have had the logs milled to reduce waste.

 

You are fortunate to have access to this wonderful modeling wood.

 

Roger

[Jolley Roger]

On 10/4/2019 at 7:17 PM, Jaager said:

If you have any ambition to go to scratch building,  get as much and more of what Haiko is offering as you can even unrealistically handle.

Thanks Jaager, I will take your advice to heart.

I am definitely leaning towards scratch building, busy tooling up and sourcing wood  

[Jolley Roger]

On 10/4/2019 at 8:33 PM, The_bitter_end said:

Thank you so much for your kind offer. I would love to give the drill press a good home.

 

If you would like to come out to the farm and choose your trees and wood you are most welcome to. This is a guest farm so there is plenty of room if you would like to stay the night. Alternately I can just pick and choose a load of good stuff and meet up with you next time I'm in Cape Town, which should be fairly soon.

 

Thanks Haiko,

I actually live in Hartbeespoort, North West! Pity we didn't have this conversation a month ago, I drove past Montagu three weeks ago!

I  will be coming to Cape Town sometime in 2020 though, so would like take up your kind offer then. I'm sure my admiral will like to come stay over (had a look at your website and it looks fantastic)

If you have need of the drill press in the meantime I can courier/postnet it to you - we can discuss the finer details on the message function under our profiles.

[Tony Hunt]

I don't know if it is still the case, but in the past I've brought timber samples into Australia in my airline luggage, had it inspected by the quarantine guys and it has sailed through.  Of course, it was cleaned milled timber.  Rough logs would certainly fail to pass.