I wood like to know how you gut the middle of a log lengthwise

Lisa Nunez
by Lisa Nunez
For instance to make the candle holders or a wooden barrel
  11 answers
  • Candle stick holders and barrels are two completely different animals. On candle sticks usually are made on a lath with a drill bit being pushed into the end of the candle stick. You can do this yourself with drill paddle bit and something to hold the wooden stick firmly so it will not spin. On the barrel however, if you want to hollow something out that large, you would begin using again a paddle bit and make several holes into the log that are very close to each other. Once that is done a chisel would be used to break out the remaining wood. Once that was done, a round sanding disk would be used to smooth out the interior surface. Time consuming. But it can be done.
  • Spheramid Enterprises Spheramid Enterprises on Jun 18, 2013
    barrels are made of staves or individual slats held by hoops. Back in the old days logs were used as water pipes by long drills with T handles and a spoon end to begin the small dia. then reamed with larger and larger spoons to the final hole size. I once hollowed a tree hunk when I was kid, a whole summer with a hammer and a chisel. Made a planter for mom, come winter it filled with water, froze and split. The next summer rotted. I was 10 but learned a lot..LOL
  • Lisa Nunez Lisa Nunez on Jun 18, 2013
    Thank you both for your responses. I have thousands of logs and was looking for crafty things that I could make and sell and somehow got routed to pinterest, the pictures were great but I can't figure out how to get to the tutorial. So here I am. Thanks again! And I appreciate any/all ideas you may have on the subject. Have a WOODerful day!
  • Larose LoganOakes Larose LoganOakes on Jun 18, 2013
    Hi Lisa! My husband had to take down this giant old oak tree in our back yard because it was dead.I wanted him to cut up some pieces for me to work with but he said " No!" because the tree was rotten and it had termites so I couldn't bring any of it inside of the house.I don't know if this was true or not but better safe than sorry.I would recommend that you have someone that knows more about trees and bugs than I do to take a look at any wood that you want to use before you actually take it inside of your house.
  • Lisa Nunez Lisa Nunez on Jun 22, 2013
    We own property in the Zuni Mountains and we actually thinned about 17 acres of land so these trees are green and beautiful(I haven't come across any rotten ones yet) I have been selling them to the locals for uses such as horse corrals and hogans and vigas. Meanwhile, in between peeling them I am trying to get creative....so far I have made 1 planter. Gutting them takes a chainsaw so I was looking for other alternatives and of course Ideas! Thank you Larose for your insight, much appreciated!
  • Larose LoganOakes Larose LoganOakes on Jun 22, 2013
    Hello Lisa! I admire your ambition!That must have been a lot of very hard work thinning out all of those trees.Have you thought about birdhouses (I like it when the birdhouses are not just square boxes. The wackier the better!) squirrel feeders, deer feeders( I have 3 that I bought at K-Mart and right now there are 10 squirrels enjoying the generosity and kindness of my husband who loves to feed them sunflower seeds. I think that these are made from cedar trees.) ,candle holders,tool boxes, picture/mirror frames, cabinet pulls/handles,lamps,and I know these might seem creepy but also cremation or burial boxes for animals ( they sell some of these on ebay and they are gorgeous) and of course furniture?I have a girlfriend that collects crosses and the more rustic they are the better she likes them. She has all shapes and sizes.If you like I can keep my eyes open and send you any ideas with instructions that I can find.
  • Lisa Nunez Lisa Nunez on Jun 25, 2013
    Hello Larose! I didn't actually thin the trees, the forestry dept. did! That's awesome that you thought that though! I did see some birdhouses on this pinterest but i thought i pinned it, I really am just learning how to use all this internet stuff! I thank you and appreciate any and all ideas! Thank you. And I am open to any ideas, thanks again, I look forward to your replies!
  • Larose LoganOakes Larose LoganOakes on Jun 26, 2013
    I find Pinterest to be a little confusing myself. I like to share things on Facebook on my home page so that way they are always on my home page if I want to look them up.I use it as a library sort of.I will keep looking for ideas for you. I didn't know how involved you wanted to get when it came to projects.I am not into using power tools but I do like to paint and I sew and make jewelry.I find painting to be very relaxing. I call it paint spreading as what I do is more like that than anything else.I started out painting outdoor statuary and that is still my favorite thing to paint.I am currently painting terra cotta flower pots for the 4TH of July and the rest of the summer.I recently remodeled my bathroom and kitchen and I did a lot of the work myself. Or rather I helped. I did most of the creative ideas. I have pics that I could show you if you want to see them.I haven't posted them on HT or FB or Pinterest. I basically just sent them to my friends via cell phone pics.Let me know and I will send you the pics.Take Care!
  • Lisa Nunez Lisa Nunez on Jun 26, 2013
    Larose that WOOD be awesome! If I could figure out how to post pictures I could show you the planter that I made! Next I want to make a bird house that I seen on here, and the projects on the board how to re use your Christmas tree. I still can't find the tutorials. I keep getting back to a page that says I have to buy instructions or something like that.
  • Larose LoganOakes Larose LoganOakes on Jun 26, 2013
    Hi Lisa! First off, what do you take your pictures with? If it is a cell phone you can send it to yourself in an email then open up the email and hit save to your computer. It will ask you how you want to save it and I just name mine silly names.There are a million ways to do this but this is how I do it.If it is a camera just save them to your computer and if you aren't sure how to do that then we can figure it out together. When you write a post or comment on HT on the bottom left it asks you if you want to add a photo.Click on it. Go to your stored pics and find the pic then click on it and it will automatically load into your post. Does this make any sense? If not call me at (571) 246-5654 and we can go through this together. If you can't call me you can email me give me your # and I will call you. Otherwise you can email me at femail911iam@yahoo.com. Let me know what you think. L:)