Shopsmith Forums

Over the last year, I've gathered a number of Mesquite and African Sumac limbs from trees trimmed in my yard here in Tucson. In my "I'll get around to it mode", they never got bagged or end sealed. As a result, I have a lot of them with splits on the end. I'm thinking I can still use the smaller sections that now occur because of this. Just wondering if I'm on the right track.

Depending on the diameter of the limbs, you should be able to cut the ends off and find usable wood. The checking normally only goes so far. Make sure that when you do cut them, you seal the end grain with anchor seal. If you don't have that, a couple of coats of latex paint is a substitute. Anchor seal is much better. Good luck.

Be careful. Limb wood has a lot of stresses in it and therefore is kickback prone. I'd try cutting it on a band saw.

Lol, I so read the topic on this one in a different way. Glad you still have your limbs.

Ken, There's a guy up here (Snowflake) that owns a few rental homes down there. When he trims the mesquites he brings the limbs back here and slices them into cookies, drills a hole near one edge and adds a piece of twine. Sold a bunch (around 400) as tree ornaments this past Christmas season.

So, even if you can't get slabs, you can still get cookies.

Snowflake Az. haven't heard that name in quite a few years. I use to live in Showlow Az.
If you cant use the cookies for anything, you could use some to BBQ with.
just be careful of the popping embers.