# Apricot Wood



## W.Y. (Mar 13, 2010)

A friend in town asked  if I wanted to cut an old apricot stump  down for him in exchange for the firewood. It was green  wood  full of sap yet but hollow and decayed in the center. It is such pretty wood so I sorted out these few pieces that I thought  might have possibilities  as turning wood. 







Then I started  dissecting it with the chain saw working around the hollow center   and came  up  with eight  pieces of beautifully colored solid pieces about 16" long each.
Will  anchorseal both ends today and store them between stickers in the garage until they are dry enough to make all kinds of turnings.


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## Pioneerpens (Mar 13, 2010)

very nice, should make some super pens!


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## Russell Eaton (Mar 13, 2010)

Mr. Young as crafty as you are I look forward to seeing your wood projects that come from that.


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## toddlajoie (Mar 13, 2010)

I'd like to know where you found a cinder block made of purpleheart...:biggrin:


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## DavidA (Mar 13, 2010)

Apricot is a wonderful wood to turn, very unique colors. It is also very difficult to dry without twisting and splitting. I would cut the blanks over-sized and coat the ends up about 1 inch with Anchor seal and let them AIR DRY!!  If you hurry the process, expect to loose 50 to 75% of them 

DavidA


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## W.Y. (Mar 13, 2010)

Pioneerpens said:


> very nice, should make some super pens!



None of it will be for pens . Every body and his uncle  and aunt and sister and grandmother in my part of the world  are making pens  because they think that is all a lathe is for  or else they have not advanced any farther than pens with their turning abilities   so it is hard to get a decent profit after buying the hardware kits  with so many discounting pen sales. . 
It is even hard to get enough  $ $  for pen blanks on the buy / sell boards  from nice wood like that anymore to warrant cutting them to that size. .

That wood should be dry and ready to turn in about a year and I will be able to make a few  choices   of the other thousands of different fast selling items that can be turned on a wood lathe. I will be making lamps , boxes, potpoorri bowls, T lights  , candle sticks , bottle stoppers , ring holders , small bowls  and a whole host of other things. I might even re-saw some of it  to make some cool looking segmented vessels.   :wink:


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## W.Y. (Mar 13, 2010)

toddlajoie said:


> I'd like to know where you found a cinder block made of purpleheart...:biggrin:



What . .  you like my pretty pink concrete block ?


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## JerrySambrook (Mar 13, 2010)

As David said, I would also cover a great deal of the wood with anchor seal, or whatever you coat with, and probably be longer than a year before you can turn it.  The wood is pretty as heck, but it is difficult to keep from twisting and splitting. Almost total coverage is needed to reduce the chance of this happeneing,  I also agree that it would be a shame to use this for blanks only.  Thanks, cause YOU can make some real nice things from this.

NIce find
Jerry


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## W.Y. (Mar 13, 2010)

DavidA said:


> Apricot is a wonderful wood to turn, very unique colors. It is also very difficult to dry without twisting and splitting. I would cut the blanks over-sized and coat the ends up about 1 inch with Anchor seal and let them AIR DRY!!  If you hurry the process, expect to loose 50 to 75% of them
> 
> DavidA



Yes, I agree David.
Any of the  fruit bearing  orchard woods can be a challenge but after many years of using different kinds of them I am having a lot better sucess rate. 

I just got a  bunch of orchard cherry wood cut and sealed and put away  about ten days ago . I don't think I posted that on this site because at that time this site would not remember my log on info but now it does. . 
I am also doing a almost day to day comparison  and experiment on my own site  with  both  a  boiled and a  DNA treated bowl from it. I have a lot of experience with DNA  for having green wood ready for  final  bowl turning with a couple weeks  but none with boiling so I was asked to do the comparison for some where DNA is not available to them.


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