i am making a board out of century plants, a few questions that i cant seem to find answers to. 1. after removing outside bark, when do they get cut into usable strips? a two foot diameter log dries in about 4 weeks. dont want cracking?
How are you dealing with the sap? In my experience, that stuff is caustic! Cutting off a 5ft. “leaf” left my hands & forearms very raw with blisters on the more tender spots.
Cut it in half lenthwise, stand it on end with a plastic bag over the top and an old towel under the bottom. make sure it is in a dry area like in your garage or under the eves of your house. Don't let the sun shine dirrectly on it..
thank u very much, its done. will probably have more questions later. thanks again.
left the leaves stay, only took the stock.
More trouble than it’s worth, lots of pithy sections to all out rot. Make sure to ALWAYS were a respirator. The fibers a real caustic. Good Luck. If the stalks are still green, I’d leave them alone or at least skin them to square off. If you rip them in half there may be little or not enough left to work with.
I agree with tblank more trouble than it's worth , caustic,wear respirator. If the stalk is green it is not ready to harvest. Never square off any log and expect to get an useable wood. Radial shrinkage will spit every which way. Cutting through the midle of the pith will let the wood shrink without radial cracks. Take my word for it I have milled thousands of feet of every kind of wood you can imagine. I never use agava wood myself ( once was enough) but sometimes I mill it for those who want to try it. They never come back a second time for agava but will come back with something else they want to try.
Roger that Wood Ogre, But I don’t think Agave grows true rings like a hardwood. The leaves grow in layers and build up thickness. No? Is my memory wrong? With normal growth I like to saw the log into quarters.
Make a dartboard and/or tequila out of it.
Otherwise weave it into a glass substitute?
Fun to play with, the stuff is tuff as hell as a fiber but you’ll want to spend cold winter nights weaving it if not otherwise engaged in things best done with the frau on cold winter nights when White Christmas is on and the wife and I are getting back to our dance routines.
Agava does not have growth rings but does have a pith and does shrink thuse you need a way to control the cracking.. I don't have to think how to cut Agava , I dont have to guess, I don't have to assume. Cause I have cut so damn many kinds of wood for so damn many years I know how. I have made all the mistakes ! I don't make mistakes anymore. Been there don that and all that crap! As I type this I am sitting in my shop with a wood rack behind me that has about 30 kinds of local wood in it some where around $50,000 worth of wood and got another three wood sheds full of wood, I don't even know how much wood I have ! I have nothing more to say about Agava!!
Wood Ogre relax. My friend took a picture a Gary Linden gluing up an 11’6’’ agave gun. Appears to me like he has a grasp on what he is doing. I can not wait to see the finished product. But since you guys know more than him, give him a call and tell him to stop immediately!
I'm with G-Rat,
Bogardus, please check the archives on this subject. I and others have talked adnausum on this topic. I have cut, dried, milled, shaped and glassed a few agave boards...It's all in the archives. And it is one big pain in the ass to do it.
Harvesting alone will turn you into a bloody mess. If you slip and fall into a plant you will die. If you catch a corner of the dried wood and get splinters...they will stay under your skin for months until they fester and puss out. The wood has lot's of pith, and dry rot. The deeper you get into the stock the softer the wood gets.....they crack, they warp, they laugh at you...and when you are sleeping they haunt you.
Go for it and report. But look in the archives for all the info.
George Downing made a beautiful Agave gun a couple of years ago. I told him that when I asked if he would ever shape wood boards again years ago, he said no. He shaped it in California, and did it because someone wanted him to do it, so he told the guy he wanted 2 blanks, and kept one of the boards. He said he kept his solid, no chambering, likes it that way.
I have 2 pieces of Agave stalk I cut several months ago drying in my back yard. I was thinking about making a couple of really fat slices and mixing that with Wiliwili I still have for a solid wood board, or ripping it into 1/8" veneers for a compsand. The bottom half is probably 8 inches in diameter, and the top is about 4". I got 2 9’ long pieces from one stalk.
Seen all the posts about how much of a pain in the butt it is to work with, but this thing was in my neighbors yard and they wanted to get rid of it. It’s amazing how quickly the stalk grew. I may get another chance if it blooms again because we left the leaves and roots.
George’s blank was made at my shop, but the wood was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo rotten, that after it was shaped, I had to go in and replace the bad wood for him, another wood board by the “master” wood board guy, Larry, Surfer’s journal did a pice on him, but left out ALL the info that was true
There is no reason you can't properly dry the agava and make beautiful surf boards from it. Its just that it i not very fun to work with agava.
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I like potato salad.
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I like potato salad.
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With pickles?