[rtindell]

I was just wondering about how to go about turning parts of a trunk...I have some big sections of maple trunk..one of them split into 5 limbs in one spot I know you guys turn crotch wood..how does that work with 5 piths meeting in one spot? Just turn it and pray? Any ideas would be great. Honestly not sure how I should hack these things up...lol

 

[john lucas]

Very carefully. Crotch wood can often have bark inclusions that run through the joint where the limb came out. These are very weak and can blow out if you don't see them.

 

[Dave Paine]

How about a picture.

The pith areas will check/crack if they have not already done so.

They will be dense, so sharp tools are required.

You could try hogging out most of the material with a grinding wheel, arbortech if you have one, several holes with Forstner bit.

I have a similar piece of a black locust log with several branch sections. This was so tough, I stopped at the stage of roughing down the outside. Likely can be done, but it would take a lot of work, lot of sharpening, etc.

 

[Bonanza35]

I've gotten some of my prettiest wood from crotches with multiple piths. I've also seen a few with too many bark inclusions like John said. My approach has been to try to access the wood just above the intersection of the piths. It's not a big area in relation to the trunk section you start out with. You would have to visualize the piths running diagonally from the cut off branches down to the center of the trunk. Then try to cut away everything outside of the piths. It's not as easy as it sounds, at least for me. The inverted cone shaped core you end up with can be spectacular. Or garbage. If that makes no sense I can try to draw a picture to explain it better.

 

[rtindell]

This is a bad pic..but I can trim a lot of the limbs off yet...but was curious about the main trunk. Will try to get a better view the garage is a mess right now..lol