A friend had to fell a poplar that was in his garden. I saw it a couple of years later when I was taking my daughter to a birthday party, and asked if I could have a few bits. I ended up cutting it up! My 14" (350 mm) electric chainsaw was not up to the job as the trunk was around 40" in diameter, so I ended up buying a new petrol saw with a spare bar and a few spare chains. And a chain sharpener! A morning's work used five litres of petrol, quite a bit of chain oil, and blunted all four of my chains. It was also quite enough work for me for a day! Slowly the tree was tamed, and I milled quite a few slabs on site about 20" long and 3" thick, plus a few random lumps. Hot tip: Do not cut stones! Hotter tip: Do not cut dirt. The next session the chain got a bit loose and smoke started coming from the cut. The wheel at the tip of the bar was glowing red hot as the bearing had failed.

Poplar doesn't generally have a very interesting grain, but a lot of the pieces I cut were from branch junctions or had some level of spalting, so hopefully they will turn into something nice, and the other pieces will provide practice, and possibly some nice bowls.

I made a mistake with the first batch, and sawed them into bowl blanks too quickly, breaking a bandsaw blade in the process as the unseasoned wood is quite "grabby". Even with a coat of paint around the edge there was quite a bit of cracking. The idea now is to let the slabs season for a year or two and then make the blanks as needed. As a bonus I got a couple of large slabs which let me make a slab table. Quite a lot of wood will be going straight back to him as I turn it, as he can use the shavings for chicken litter (saving £8 per bag). Never has been making shavings been so productive! The offcuts and such will be used in our wood burning stove.