In Progress Projects

Raw Trunk

This is the raw trunk before it was cut.

Momma Mouse

Momma Mouse had been living in one of the cracks in a nest she built under the tarp. We waited patiently while she moved her babies off the trunk and out to a new location. In all, there were four babies.

Momma Mouse and Babies

Momma Mouse was quite brave. She quickly grabbed her babies, jumped over the snakes that were in the big crack and rushed to her safe house. Back and forth she went until all her babies were moved.

Occupants of the Slab

After the slab had sat over a year, we went back for harvest of the final trunk section. There were several critters that had moved in, including three of little snakes that were prodded to leave back into the swamp before we harvested the trunk.

Snake Departure

Our slithering little friends were sent packing after a few minutes of prodding them to leave the tree.

Final Quarter Sawing

The tree trunk was so large that we ultimately had to section it into five sections. Each section weighed a 'ton' and we spent quite a bit of time working out how to move them onto a trailer for transport.

Bottom Cut

It's super hard to cut a flat cut inches above the ground on a huge trunk. David was a master at getting the cuts straight and parallel.

Loading

We were really grateful when the next door neighbor brought over his tractor to lift the trunk pieces onto the trailer for us. We couldn't have loaded that day without him!

Quartering Trunk

Setting up the cut lines from the top became critical in the processing of the trunk. Straight lines and straight cuts would mean eventual drying and piecing the trunk back together was possible. Unfortunately, not all the cuts were straight but were well defined.

Transport

With the trunk pieces positioned on the trailer, the trunk was transported over for slabbing to our shop.

Epoxy Mix

First round of epoxy mixing for pouring into the Deanin Oak Trunk

First Epoxy Pour Mold

Pre-Molds were built to get an initial coating on the slab pieces. Through time, we were able to get the epoxy set and the bubbles out of the massive pours.

First Pour Piece 3

First Pour Piece 2

First Pour Piece 4 and 5

Outside Pour Review

Post Slab Flatten after Pour

After the first pour, we opted to smooth out the epoxy for the final pour. This allowed us to fill in the many voids and to firm up the damaged areas on the slab.

First Pour Piece 1

First Pour Edge Crinkle

The first pours are always fun as we get to see the colors of the wood as it will show under natural epoxy. This was the edging on our piece and was just fun to see.

Flattening

First Slice

Piecing it all Together

Passes of Flattening

The Two Triangles

More Flattening

The Big Coffee Cup Slab

Repair of a Slab

Damage to the Slab

Flattening the Slabs

Which Piece Goes Where

Slab Thickness

Piece Order

Damaged Piece

Our Slabbing Chainsaw