TomN Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Hi all, I recently got hold of a big chunk of poplar (my friend thinks) tree, which I would estimate weighs about 100kg. It certainly wasn't fun lifting into in the boot of my car. But I got it for free, so its all good! I deliberately got a chunk of tree trunk higher than I would need, as I don't have an anvil yet. I'm getting an anvil this Saturday and will be getting a friend to cut it to an appropriate height with his chainsaw, when I get the anvil home. My question is, should I leave the bark on the tree, or strip it off? And should I treat the wood in any way to preserve the wood and keep it useful for longer? I'm also currently presuming that I don't need to 'attach' the anvil to the top of the wood, as the weight of the anvil will hold it on there. Please correct me if i'm wrong, as I don't fancy an anvil on my foot. That would be a bit of a cartoon injury to get! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Taking the bark off before the log is fully dry will encourage splitting, but deter rotting. Painting the ends with something will prevent splitting. Fastening the anvil down is recommended, even big anvils will move under heavy hammering. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 Ok, so its been drying out for a week now. It was cut down on the day I took it, which would account for the weight of the xxxx thing. So should I strip the bark next week and paint the ends with any paint? Or is it best to use a wood seal? Thanks for your input Phil. Much appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Poplar, does it rot easily in your area? Do you have termite/death watch beetles/etc issues? You may want to treat it before it comes in contact with the ground! Some people make a hoop with a slight angle to it and drive that on the end and drive it lower when it becomes loose to help keep it together. I've made cleats for some anvil stands with massive cracks in them. Lastly my 515# anvil will move on it's stand when I am doing heavy work---just by myself. I put in some fairly small fence staples along the base and it stays put now. My lighter anvils have pieces of 2x6 cut to fit inside the curve of the base on the sides so I can lift and place them easily as they travel to demo's and classes. You may want to look at how mounting the anvil can cut it's loudness WAY down. Being able to hear your grandkids is a GOOD! thing and not annoying your neighbors helps a lot as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Dean Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 If you can, cut 3 "legs" on the bottom of the stump, this will allow it to sit steady on uneven surfaces, such as concrete floors. With only 3 legs they will always be in contact of the floor and have no 'rock'. The legs need only be about 1" tall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 Luckily I think I should have a nice flat concrete floor to place my log on. If that doesn't prove to be the case, then I will look to cut some 'feet' into it. If none of this goes so well, then I will look to make my own tripod stand. I shouldn't think we would have trouble with termites in England. Think they are rare, or maybe even non-existent over here. Rot I couldn't comment on, but my friend told me that it will lose a lot of weight when it dries out. So I will plan to take the bark off, and treat it. I might drill a few large holes in it to store hammers etc as I work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Forge some staples to hold hammers---or take some round stock bend 10 cm on one end and flatten and drill for large screws. Then bend it out and start making 5cm loops in it as you work it 1/2 way around the log. Then make the bend and flatten and have a hammer rack on your anvil. If you space the loops you can hang tongs between the hammers. Drilling holes in the wood is for wood workers---we're *blacksmiths*! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 thomas thats funny! (quite right though...) i reckon your poplar will be fine and not rot in uk, even though its a softwood if its good its definately strong enough, it will dry nicely indoors by your forge my anvil is massive, but i still have to watch it shifting across the stump becaus ei have not secured it... yet.. i definately should - i think about it every time i use the anvil... ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Poplar is a "soft" "hard" wood, if that makes sense. I had a pine stump that was much harder wood than my cottonwood stump that I used to shape copper bowls on but it was a hardwood by definition not a softwood. Trees like willow, poplar, aspen, cottonwood are hardwoods and all conifers are softwoods. It really has nothings to do with the particular density of the individual piece of wood but with whether or not it sheds it leaf or is evergreen in most cases. However I'm a metalsmith and know more about banging metal than hewing wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 (and then there is the Larch---a deciduous conifer!) Here in the USA poplar is often used to refer to the Tulip Popular rather than something like a Lombardy Popular. If I remember correctly poplar was used for wooden shoes and clogs as it was easy to work yet refrained from splitting when going through wet dry cycles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 the poplar in the uk is more like maybe what you would call aspen?? im not sure but i do know it smells funny when you cut it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Dean Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Luckily I think I should have a nice flat concrete floor to place my log on. If that doesn't prove to be the case, then I will look to cut some 'feet' into it. If none of this goes so well, then I will look to make my own tripod stand. I shouldn't think we would have trouble with termites in England. Think they are rare, or maybe even non-existent over here. Rot I couldn't comment on, but my friend told me that it will lose a lot of weight when it dries out. So I will plan to take the bark off, and treat it. I might drill a few large holes in it to store hammers etc as I work. I can send you some termites to get your very own colony started. You could be the envy of ALL ENGLAND! I can literally throw a piece of 1x4 or whatever out on the ground and in 2 days have termites starting to work on the bottom side...I know this for a FACT, tried it just to see how long it would take. Bad termite, bad. A piece of treated wood will not be bothered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 Well my Dad now lives in Texas, so if I go visit him I could bring some back. Haha. We have enough trouble with Dutch Elm disease over here, so introducing termites would not make me popular. There seems to be a lot of impressive tree knowledge on here. My friend could only guess that it was poplar, as he only saw the wood in the back of my car, and didn't see the tree. I'll see how it goes and then adjust as needs be. What would be the best thing to treat my wood with? I'm currently watching a Time Team special about making a a roman well and theres lots of woodwork going on here. Only a couple of days till I go on my next course to the Blacksith Guild in Exeter, on a tool making course. Really looking forward to it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 While you at it TD perhaps you could send them some fire ants; I'm sure they'd love them! (And please tell the nice SAS men to forward your blacksmithing stuff to me...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Aha so you are involved with some local smiths---why don't you ask them? They might have a better take on local conditions than someone across the pond and 2/3rds the way across the USA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 My friend wasn't a smith, he used to be a tree surgeon (arborist to Americans), so knows lots about tree's but nought about metalwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 "Only a couple of days till I go on my next course to the Blacksith Guild in Exeter" If you are taking blacksmithing courses from people who are not blacksmiths... I assumed that you had managed to make contacts with smiths as this was a "next course" and not a first course... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 It is John B on this site. I've only met him once. But yes you are right that I at least know someone who is a blacksmith. I have also met near where I live as well, quite a character. The first course I went on was very much the basics being covered. Fire management (which I learnt by many mistakes), drawing down to square and round points, twisting, splitting and making eyes. Plus we learnt a bit about finishing works as well. All the other people on the course were just there for fun (as was I - but a litte more), so I guess i'll meet some people that are more interested in practical blacksmith work on the tools course. Beth also lives near me and i'd be happy to go help her some times, as i'm sure i'd plenty. Wife permitting of course! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 I use clear shellac on splits I am curing. I put 2 coats on the end and 1 coat on the sides. It won't produce toxic smoke if it gets burnt either, and since it is a natural wax (in an alcohol vehicle) it allows the wood to slowly dry and shrink evenly and hopefully not check or split. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWooldridge Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Creosote would be a good treatment but I have no idea if that's available in the UK. The stump in my first shop was a piece of Arizona ash and I buried it two feet into the ground (dirt floor). That area did not drain well so the stump rotted from the ground up within ten years. A funny side story is that a knothole at ground level popped out pretty soon after I set the stump and a toad moved in. He lived there for several seasons and got fatter as time went by - I suppose he was eating whatever bugs came into the shop at night. No amount of activity such as hammering, hot scale or pieces falling ever seemed to bother; he would sit stoically in the hole and look out every day except when the weather got cold, when he'd crawl further back and hibernate. My kids were small then and named him "Shop Toad". My current anvil stand is just a concrete block and nothing lives there...sigh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 Thats quite a story about the toad living under your anvil. Could be the basis for some sort of fable. Possibly about making life easier on yourself by managing to ignore the background noise of lifes stresses..... I think we call creosote, coal tar over here. Might be able to get hold of some. I'm sure my friend has used it on his smallholding recently. Thanks for the suggestion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Dean Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 While you at it TD perhaps you could send them some fire ants; I'm sure they'd love them! (And please tell the nice SAS men to forward your blacksmithing stuff to me...) There is a "new" ant invading the South, they are calling it the "Crazy ant" and there is now controlling it! Eats even the fire ants...at least we can do something about them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Nice story; I have shop scorpions and shop black widow spiders and I encourage our cat to discourage the shop mice but no shop toad. (Haven't had a shop rattlesnake---yet!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLMartin Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 We have some of our anvils at school on stumps. After a year or two of constant use on top of a cement floor they stated to wobble. I cut three pieces of 3/16 by 1 1/4 about 2 1/2 inch long. I drilled and counter sunk two holes in each piece and screwed them to the bottom of the stump in a large triangle. This created three little feet and now the stumps sit flat and don't wobble. Pretty simple, pretty quick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 The funny smell is from the salicylic acid that is the primitive form of the pain killer aspirin found in the bark of trees of that family. Bayer just found a way to artificially create it and make it consistently time after time. No more over or under dosing with the pill as opposed to a strip of boiled bark. Enjoyed the "Shop Toad" story in the Arizona Ash stump, Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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