Kia Ora Trive
How is life in Whakatane ? If I've ever been there it would be just passing through.
I am a JAFFA born and bread myself.

LaV / Tam
That was supposed to read macrocarpa. If I was giving the guy a dozen "bears" as my spelling error suggests, I'd personally have made that trade for a macrocarpa FORREST !
"Beers" are indeed a local currency here, although the commodity attainable with them is generally limited to the life long friendship of a pub going, sad eating, rugby loving, slap stick, typical kiwi tradesman

Macrocarpa is an awesome timber, it is like eucalyptus in that it takes ages to rot outdoors and doesn't need to be treated. It oils and ages up to a nice faun gold colour that deepens with time. The tree can grow fairly massive, I've seen a few that have had trunks about 3 or 4 meters in diameter. It has fairly dense shaggy dark green foliage and has been used by farmers as shelter belts quite alot in the past.

Oh and BTW.. my idea of Pan is not evil, just realy not human which might make him seem frightening to some. I picture him as a powerful gardian of the forrest who could be treacherous if crossed, but only in responce to ones own inner immorality or lack of character.

Lightform,

I picture Pan as a lecherous, long-tongued ravisher of young virgins, but then I read a lot of Greek mythology between age ten and 12 : )
I like the your version of Pan a whole lot better; sort of a Green Man of the Aegean.

You and Trive both dwell in Paradise; wanna move there NOW NOW NOW!

Amazing!!!
That looks like paradise.

Vinny

It is paradise to me, although today it's raining here.

I will post a few of my favorite local photos on my diary thread (Adventures in the Raw Food World) if you'd like to see more.


My favorite raw vegan

Yes post more.
Here in Pa USA its bare trees and winter now,and pics like that are welcomed.

Vinny

tamukha


<<I picture Pan as a lecherous, long-tongued ravisher of young virgins>>

really?
he just seemed like a harmless dude with furry ears and legs
who plays the flute

amongst other things

la_veronique,

He may have furry ears and legs and play the flute, but he plays the flute while ravishing young virgins. You are perhaps thinking of Mr. Tumnus, from The Chronicles of Narnia? He was lovely, but I have to admit, when he kidnapped Lucy, it made me very uneasy because of my preconceptions about fauns . . .

Hey friends..
here is that log that I was talking about before
[photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net]

Sorry to say my table featured on this thread is really cracking.I didnt season the wood long enough.
Oh well.

Vin

Is that because the timber was immature on harvest eagle ?

Have no idea.
I just used 2x12's from Lowes and hoped for the best.

Hey eagle.
I just went back and had another look at your table. I think I know what your problem is as my brother and I had a similar experience quite a while ago when he was learning the carpentry trade.

He reckons that because you have a cap on the end of your lateral timbers ( presumably glued rather than floating ), the cap doesn't allow for the movement of expansion, so the pressure cracks the boards.

Here is a picture of our own table [photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net]

Remarkably similar to your own.

Lightform,
Thanks for your input.
You are probably right about what caused the cracking.I have used that same construction,with the end board cap,on other tables and there was some minor cracking also.The end cap is glued and screwed.I am going to let my table do its thing,then just putty in the crack and finish the area.
I have never used elm in my work.Sounds like a nice wood.
And the pic of your table is amazingly similar.

Vinny

This table has the look of elm? but is not--



I used to use elm for grape trellis posts, not ideal for soil contact but plentiful after Dutch elm disease came through leaving most of them as dead bare skeletons.

Nice rustic table there!
I love the bow tie inserts.

Vinny

That table really is artful, loeve.

Sorry about your table, Vinny : (

Oh, thanks but that's just a nice table from googling around about elm and wood joinery. It reminded me of the grey american elm I used to work with, but is actually a slab from a mango tree. I've never attempted a bow tie insert but made a crude snowmobile sled of elm once, it's such strong wood and there were some arched limbs.

This is the kind of grain that I was talking about.. Just awesome

Waaaaa!

Oh, Vinny, that's a damn shame.

loeve,

Do you mean "snowmobile" sled? Like the kind that is fueled by gasoline? I wonder what that would look like made of wood. Besides like a bonfire, glowing luridly in the middle of a frozen lake at twilight after colliding with a standard metal one, I mean. Not being funny; after hearing Sarah Palin's descriptions of snow vehicles, I realized other regions of the country call these things by other names, and you are probably not talking about what we call a snowmobile at all.

Elms in the US are picturesque street trees and very tough except for that Dutch elm desease... beautiful wood, Lightform.

Vinny, looks like seasonal wood shrinkage maybe? Wood species vary, my spruce floors move a ton. Kiln dried pine? from Lowes sounds high quality and shouldn't be cracking like that unless restrained by glued and screwed end caps, as Lightform pointed out. Are you looking for ideas?

Tamukha, I missed Sarah Palin's snowmobile remarks, she's so witty. My elm sled was simply naturally curved tree limbs with cross pieces with a rope attached for hauling wood out of the forest with my skidoo (snowmobile). And yes those things run on gas and this one did have a firey end in the hands of my nephews (they were unhurt) who inherited it when I moved away.

It looked something like this-- [search.aol.com]

loeve,

Ah, I see now.