Old birch tree stumps

[spader]

Hi All

I am just wondering if it is a good idea to carve on a couple of large birch tree stumps, which have been sitting in the garden for a couple of years now.

When I looked into them last week, the barks were lifting, peeling off, and under the bark were a lot of insects munching and feasting away the barks and woods. I peeled the bark totally off the stumps, and cleaned badly rot parts using my Fiskars X10. Inside the stump when I peeled off the barks, I could see beautiful birch patterns in white wood. I could also see some cracks and parts of the wood were crummy - not sure if this is the sign of decomposing or just character of birch tree woods, because as a whole the structure is still quite solid.

I am wondering if they can still be carved into something, and can be made of any use, or are they likely keep rotting away. What would be the best methods of treatment, if they are kept outside as something useful?

Or would it be best just to process them into fire wood for the stove? Thanks for your opinions, info and advice. cheers.

 

[User3326]

Do you mean its started to spalt? If it is, you have to stop the spalting by drying it out properly. Loads of info about spalting on the web.
If its big enough for what you want, the section you want hasn't been bored into by to many bugs and still has some structural integrity I'd dry and use it. If not firewood

 

[spandit]

Birch rots really quickly but does provide a good habitat for invertebrates so why not just leave them?

 

[Robson Valley]

If the spalting has got to the log core, the wood can't dry fast enough to stop it.
Had some birch for carving = spalted until all was gone but the bark!

 

[spader]

They have been left in the rain, humid, heat and cold in the corners of the garden for 2 - 3 years, and rotted a lot, now the barks are totally peeled off. Certainly there are some spalting in the wood. I am not sure whether the spalting is still going on, or stopped. Also I cannot be certain how dry they are. I have used them for chopping woods and branches on it as chopping boards, as they are solid and heavy.

 

[Robson Valley]

In all the years that I have lived in the central interior of BC (43?) I have watched the sweet wood of birch
simply rot away (spalt is a 5-letter word for rot).
I don't want to eat or drink off some fungal-infected, dead and dying, rotten piece of birch.

 

[spader]

Just will hang fire with them for now, and use as chopping boards for woods. When they keep rot, and get more crummy, maybe chop them off for fire woods.
I also have a couple of huge Ash tree stumps somewhere in the garden, but they seem far too tough to carve with gauges and whittling knives.

 

[spader]

This evening I have split the stump into two using the Fiskars X25, and these are what it looked like.

 

[Robson Valley]

Yeah, that's old birch all right. If the spalting is still hard and not gone punky yet (it will), you might as well stick a gouge
into it and make some chips & shavings. The rest of it, bust it up and burn it.

 

[spader]

It was really really soft. When the X25 hit, its head was totally buried into the wood in one hit, and I am sure some kind of liquid (either oil or water) spurt out. Still it needed some 10 hits or more for split due to sheer size of the stump.

It looks like, it will burn very well in the wood stove.

 

[Robson Valley]

If it was that wet, a great deal of useful heat/flame energy will be used to boil the water out of the wood to get it dry enough to get the temp up high enough
to get ignition. All that energy necessarily goes up the chimney as steam/evaporated water.

 

[bikebum1975]

Yep sounds and looks like ya got yourself a mess of tinder there my friend. If it feels mushy she's gone. That would have made some purdy spoons to

 

[mr dazzler]

Birch rots really quickly

LOL That is an understatement....
Its fascinating that 2 of the most useful woods (birch and ash) are both very poor at resisting the onset of rot if left out. I have seen birch start to go in just a matter of weeks if its left out in the weather, especially if its left resting on the floor. I call it "crunchie" wood, it gets that cinder toffee texture in no time....