permaculture

["Frances and David" <fdnokes@hotmail.com>]

I'm definitely going to use LL's info as a skeletal beginning for my 
database which I might not start before a few days when I am  back home.
The other category, which I've previously found a link on is burning for 
fuel. Also, by looking into the sites about bird perches, and poisonous to 
birds, I found out about photinia leaves and their poisonous potential... 
So, another area to be aware of. We had not included them in any composting, 
just going by intuition (and the observation that they do not break down).

Here is a post I was working on earlier. Rather than toss or save and 
perfect, am just going to share in its unfinished state, and from here, am 
going to go into some kind of database collection technique.  Have not 
decided whether hard copy or digital.  But, as I type, realizing that 
digital is easier to share with others...  as well as easier for cross 
referencing categories.

Have started my research and found a thread on permies.com about eating 
utensils.
Shall copy and paste some of the relevant contributions:

I agree with the sentiment that apple wood is a great choice for carving 
table ware. I think pear wood would be an excellent choice as well, they're 
both very tight grain, beautiful, non toxic woods. I also would recommend 
black birch, as it is quite a bit harder than other birches in my experience 
and non toxic, as I've heard about folks chewing on the twigs for the 
wintergreen flavor. By the by, would it be improper to note that I have all 
of these woods available? I harvest everything responsibly and am PDC 
certified! -Jesse

Seconding the birch and basswoods ideas, and perhaps ash might be a good 
choice? Tight grain, hard but not too hard, plenty of them...

Thought of hickory in the same light; a bear to carve, but it wears like 
iron, nice straight grain...

Our native Carpinus, called ironwood, falls in this same category; be ready 
to sharpen the chisels quite a bit, but you now have an heirloom rather than 
a disposable spoon...

Hope this helps...

HG

Generally, in spoons you're not so much worried about the strength of the 
wood so much as it's propensity to splinter -- nobody wants splinters in 
their soup, and splintery, fiberous woods (like pine, poplar, or birch) 
sometimes get a hairy texture that is difficult to clean. Because of that, 
some of the more popular woods are actually those that aren't good for much 
else: Beech, Sycamore, and Apple all come to mind. Beech in particular has 
worked well for me -- I even made a spatula about 1/8 inch thin from it in 
college, and it's lasted me for almost 9 years with no rest.

Cherry, plum, apricot and other stone fruit woods do have cyanogenic 
glycosides in them, though not nearly as high of quantities as the pits. 
Since wood utensils rarely come into contact with liquids for long enough to 
transfer significant amounts of soluble materials (remember, wine has to sit 
in oak barrels for months before it picks up enough tannin to taste) you're 
probably fine using these woods, especially for serving spoons (as opposed 
to cooking spoons which contact hotter liquids for longer), and definitely 
for serving bowls.

Some more info on woods that are safe for birds (and by proxy perhaps, 
humans) can be found here:
http://www.birdsafe.com/woods.htm

[note: this is the second reference to a bird safe link, not sure how 
relevant... though I imagine when I have the time, it would be worth looking 
at and picking apart a bit...]
(you can see by my comments -- above -- that I'd already started that 
process and was quickly rewarded re: photinia)

Fran



-----Original Message----- 
From: Frances and David
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 11:42 AM
To: permaculture
Subject: [permaculture] types of woods and their uses

It looks as if we are going to stay settled for now...  And act as if we own 
the place.  By that I mean that we would begin to maximize the space for 
growing.
And do some serious pruning and removal of trees on our property that are 
‘ready to go’ and/or seriously block the sun from the yard as conscience 
permits.
What I am contemplating is that this is a golden opportunity to learn more 
about trees’ woods and what they work well for...
Which ones are good for huglekultur (sp?), composting, fungi/rot barrier, 
carving into eating implements, utensils, buttons, etc. (My mind is a little 
frozen at the moment)

Would anyone have any idea of such a database of information?
Just thought I’d start by asking this highly resourceful group of people.
Other than that, I can start by looking up the individual species as well as 
seeing what resources I can locate on my topic!
There is also a wood turner in our area that I intend to look up when we are 
back home, and he would also likely have something to say on the matter.

Cheers!
Frances
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