[norson]

There was a time when out driving around I'd be watching for fishing holes...and our son-in-law watches for used cars (but that's another story) - but these days I'm looking for piles of tree limbs sitting along the curb waiting for THE CHOPPER.

Yesterday I found some nice maple and then a red maple and managed to sort through and bring home 6-8 rather nice sticks that some day might make decent canes or walking sticks.

But hoping I could find more I went back again this morning - and beat the chopper again! - and brought home two items that intrigue me...to say the least. IF I were a carver - and I'm NOT!!!! - I know there must be something beautiful - spectacular - inside these pieces waiting to be released.

Picture 1 is the Red Maple - has two smaller "branches" forking off and it's MEAN and UGLY. Not certain what I'm going to do with this but thought I'd show it here for your input. Picture 2 is Maple - and it has three branches.

IF all else fails I MAY just begin slicing off some hand-made coasters. I want to think there's some fantastic grains near the union portions of these pieces.

Your thoughts?

 

[MJC4]

Difficult to assess the pieces from a pic. Perhaps some sort of thumbstick topper from gnarly A?

 

[norson]

what's a "thumbstick topper"?

 

[gdenby]

My guess is that if you cut gnarly b down to just where the branches separate, and then filed and/or carved the edges away till you had a knob, the grain and rings would be complex, and probably very interesting, maybe even beautiful. Then use it as a more or less spherical handle like you've been using with the pre-made dolls heads.

 

[norson]

Now that we're up and running again (WHEW!) here's the Red Maple piece as it looked when I brought it home. It appears to me that the "right" branch was at one time stuck by lightning, for it has been split apart and the bark is gone. Yet the tree obviously survived and continued to grow, but there's a clear indication of "healing" scars around that damaged limb/branch and that was one of the features that "spoke" to me... "take me home....take me home."

 

[norson]

I have no idea of knowing now how long that piece laid on the ground but it was covered with mud inside and out. It took some doing but I flushed all the mud away and cut it to length with my power saw. It then became a doorstop.

 

[norson]

Here it is after six or seven coats gloss polyurethane - applied with a brush, some of it dipped and a lot of it poured.

 

[norson]

Finished and in place. And to think, there's only one like it in the world and it's holding our door open.

 

[MJC4]

You have a good eye for the unique and a good imagination as well! :thumbsu: :thumbsu:

 

[CAS14]

If it's not cracked much and looks very strong, there are also possibilities other than a "thumb" stick, depending on your personal interests.

The designer and funder for this forum is Aaron. He built a site called the slingshot forum (slingshotforum.com). His father was interested in walking sticks, so he built this for his dad, although for reasons I'm not privy to, his father may not yet be on board. In any case, I'm thankful that Aaron has maintained this, despite that.

And so, from the slingshot forum I've been exposed to several possibilities. Of course, a slingshot could be made from a stout fork topper. The other possibility that I saw there is a very old application, a support for a firearm. I suppose that the latter application may interest some hunters, depending on the length of the stick.