The GnATTERbox

[Steve Bennett]

Thought I would highlight this as there must be many layouts on which the use of firewood either as a wagon load or a scenic item could be used. It is really quick, easy and free to do, seems ideal . Here's a couple of wagons all loaded up, one random and the other a little more organised.



It just so happens that in the northern hemisphere, this is the ideal time of year to harvest material for doing this, while the trees are dormant and the sap is not flowing. I generally collect a load at this time and keep it in the shed to dry out before using, but that is not essential. The following pic shows the simple procedure better than trying to put into words.



It is a simple matter to cut into short lengths, about 12mm or so, then using an old knife splitting it along the grain. In the above pic, the wood on the left was cut from the tree today, while the stuff on the right was from last year and has dried out to a lighter colour and the bark has gone a bit more shrivelled. Hopefully this will be of use to some.
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Steve Bennett
Sidelines
http://www.pepper7.co.uk

[Sir Briand]

Any particular sort of tree Steve?
The bark on the samples looks nice and fine.
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Sir BRIANd
Paint your people to look like they belong!
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[Steve Bennett]

I'm not completely sure what species it is Brian, it grows like a weed in my garden, but no idea where the seed comes from. I think it is a Dogwood or Cornus species, but wouldnt swear to it. What you see in the pics is a single seasons growth, it grows long and straight, 3 to 4 feet a year. It does have a good bark, you are right, that combined with the straight growth and little in the way of knots, makes it a really good material for modelling.
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Steve Bennett
Sidelines
http://www.pepper7.co.uk

[michael]

Hello Brian I dont know about what wood Steve used but here are a couple of types common on this side of the pond.

The lighter greyish bark is common aspen very fine grained and dries qite well easy to split. and the darker couloured bark is from saskatoon berry saplings. this is a harder wood to work.



here is a stack of prepared ties for some larger scale track. note that the beer glass is empty.



here is a little jig for flattening the rounds could work for any gauge of twigs



Michael
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Regards Michael
If you believe you can make something, you can make it.

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[Christoph]

Hi Steve ,

looking very good
I have splitted the firewood with my boring machine using a fixed chisel .



But the pieces of the wood are larger .

Christoph

[DCRfan]

And here are two I prepared earlier



The wood is Kanuka, a native bush. It was split with a modelling knife although a small hammer was occassionally required as its pretty hard.

The picture is not forced perspective, I was trying to figure out if I could recycle these 1:43.5 scale DCR models into Gn9 wood wagons on a garden firewood line. I decided not

Paul

[Steve Bennett]