Uses for lime?

[Man of Tanith]

Due to being an opportunistic so and so I've got the chance to get hold of a substantial amount of wind felled lime tree.
Its a real beast (its in a church graveyard-dont ask)
Its not the time of year for using the bark for making cordage (I believe correct me if I'm wrong by all means)
What else can I use it for?
I know its meant to be great for carving but is it traditionally used for anything?

 

[Mesquite]

It's good for fire by friction

It's also used in musical instruments. The lyre and the shield in the Sutton Hoo burial was made from it

 

[Toddy]

If you can get the bark off, then it can be soaked until the fibres come away and seperate into sheets
It'll stink like the worst anaerobic stuff imaginable, but it makes brilliant fibres

Lovely stuff to carve, makes great hearthboards too I have a couple of wooden plates made from it and some rather fancy inlaid woodturning.

Nice find

M

 

[British Red]

It was the classic material to make a shield Sam...there are metal shield bosses available quite cheaply....would make a fun project to rip the planks and make a shield

 

[Harvestman]

Carve it, turn it. It makes perfectly good wood for all sorts of applications, including furniture. Lime is a bit of an all-rounder: if you can make it from wood, lime is suitable.

 

[Man of Tanith]

Some good suggestions there thank you everyone.
I'll try and get a photo of it today as I'm going to have another look at it (when I'm not at a funeral and somewhat occupied)
From the look I did get at it in passing I should onky be limited by A imagination B how much I can fit in the old mans trailer and C how much I can chop up

 

[mountainm]

The inner bark can be used as a hot infusion to counteract diarrhoea apparently. Chopping blocks as it doesnt blunt knives. Makes good charcoal (which was also taken as a cure for flatulence.)

 

[Graham_S]

Is it a bad sign that my first thought on seeing the thread title was "Make a Gin and Tonic"?

 

[Man of Tanith]

Is it a bad sign that my first thought on seeing the thread title was "Make a Gin and Tonic"?

Yes yes it is.
Because gin is foul......

 

[sasquatch]

Makes for a great hearth as Steve mentioned. I struggle to find it as they all grow in residential areas around me.

 

[Man of Tanith]

I can out some aside for you if you want Chad?
I dont think I'll be short of it for a while.....

 

[sasquatch]

A piece would be great Sam, i'm nearly out of lime. Cheers reels

 

[Goatboy]

Yes yes it is.
Because gin is foul......

Cast out this heathen... Gin is the liquid diamond of drinks

 

[Man of Tanith]

Cast out this heathen... Gin is the liquid diamond of drinks

I do live near sandy heath.....
As for gin? Rather drink diamond white. Both nasty

 

[didicoy]

You can have it milled and store or sell it to all the desperate wood carvers out there. Did they used to make butter pats out of lime?

 

[tombear]

Uw, Lime. I'd have to make a shield if I could score some lime, its the sort of project I'd go all AR on, sourcing the right rawhide for the covering, getting a boss forged (the cheap ones are spun, the one the lad got looks perfectly good, i think it was £12). Then I'd hang it on a wall and squeal if anyone so much as touched it with greasy hands like a big Jessy.

ATB

Tom

 

[Macaroon]

Lime is the very best material of all time for handles on any tool that may need to be used wet, traditionally the wet trades like plastering, stonemasonary etc., and the extension to this is handles and chopping/cutting boards for tools that'll be used prepping fish and game, and stainless steel knives used by fishermen, especially filleting knives. It has the strangest-feeling property of appearing to feel bone-dry even when soaking wet, so you'll never have a slippery grip on your tools and never any water damage to the handles.

My father always made a new Lime handle for any of the tools he would need to use in the rain, e.g. hedge-laying stuff; the only exception would be for striking tools, axes, hammers etc., which were always Ash.

 

[Angst]

its great for dissolving bodies.