Working with agave

General Discussion
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I recently came upon a piece of land (privately owned, that I have legitimate access to, and no I won’t tell you where it is!) with multiple large blue agave in the twiglight of their time on earth, and would like to harvest them to use for fin and board projects. A friend and I have already expiremented with agave insets and fins (mostly my friend), so we have some working knowledge of the stuff. But after a conversation with a reputable shaper with tons of agave experience at Sacred Craft, I learned that harvesting, drying/curing, cutting, gluing and shaping agave is a little more complicated than I thought.

I guess I asked too many questions because in the end he just told me to forget doing it myself and get an agave board from him…kind of defeats the purpose…

Anyhoo, just casting around the interwebs to see if anyone had advice as to drying/curing agave to the proper level for milling…and how to mill it…and how to glue it up into a blank…and how to…

You get the point…any advice on this process would be greatly appreciated…thanks!

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That stuff is a major pain to work with. Unless you have loads of time, the patience of a saint, and a nice woodworking shop, I’d say don’t bother. (Actually even then I’d say don’t bother). My #1 hint - Wear lots of protective clothing (don’t forget the goggles), starting at harvest time, and every time you touch the stuff.

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get them green, once the flowers have opened and died.

this ensures you get to it before the heart rots out and the wood becomes useless.

the guy you may have spoken to at the show ages his whole in his garage.

to get it ready for the bandsaw, he clamps the log on some sawhorses so it won’t roll side to side and then clamps two boards on either side to act as a guide for a reciprocating saw…in the embedded pic, the red line is the cut.

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this allows you to slowly slice a square edge in to the log.

once you have this flat, square edge, you can run it through the bandsaw to get other three sides square.

from there it’s a matter of bandawing your foil template to the logs to get enough pieces that can be clamped together to match the general foil for the blank.

http://web.me.com/katshultz/JohnCherryWoodcraft/Simmons_Project_2.html#10

from there, you will temporarily glue the pieces up, cut out your outline and then pop it back apart to chamber if you want.

final glue up, finish shaping and glassing.

agave dust can be an irritant depending on how sensitive you are…a little dust on a sweaty brow and you’ll be hating.

it is also a beautiful wood with a lot of color variations and patterns that really light up under resin.

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[img_assist|nid=1030453|title=agave tiki|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=332|height=640]I have been there and done that, I ended up scraping the project. And I would recommend not touching the stuff unless you want lung problems and can work with a stem that is like oak and balsa mixed together. The dust is so irritating and toxic that Gary Linden will now only shape it out doors with full protection gear on.The thin top parts of the stem are strong and light but the thicker parts are like a sponge and the bark is supper hard.

That being said Linden has some good pictures on his web sight of the special jig he made for gluing up agave and shaping it with only a planer from start to finish.

You have to use the rocker of the plant to get a surfboard out of it.

I have six-eight or so stems in my garage that are dry and ready to go if some one in the Bay Area wants to take it off my hands.

Have fun,

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The description of attaching guide boards to it is way too much work, the simple weight of the log, coupled with the additional planking makes it nearly impossible to single handedly work with, I tried this in the begining.

A more simple way is to snap a chalkline, plus the line lets you see how straight a line in the wood there is and how much waste will occur along this cut. At the butt end of the log, I draw 90 degree cross hairs to the max straightness and optimum rocker, then it is saw on the chalkline with the band saw, yes the cut wanders some, but with a few heavy set passes on the jointer, the first side is flattened quickly.

It is then that a fence is set for max yield, now there are 2 parallel faces, do not cut the top and bottom edges off now.

Continue until all the wood is surfaced, then pull out the rocker template, find the pieces that will accomodate the center rocker first, then move on until you have plotted out all the stock.

Agave is so soft that I would NOT ever contemplate chambering a board made of it, I’ve done about 40 of them and I really don’t get much of a thrill doing them, the dust has oxollic acxid in it same as raw rhubard, the splinters will make you grab a nail, piece of broken glass, lobster spine, anything to dig it out right them and there.

The green wood is soooooooooooooo heavy, it is like us 78 percent water, wait for the trees to die and stalks turn brown, the very bottom of the base is where the rot will start first, some of the wood may not even be suitable to use, you won’t know until you cut it open.

I just built an 11 footer for Chris Cravey, his first wood board shape, 16 logs and I used every inch of it to get 24" of usible wood.

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I’ve done it like Jim (based on his advice) - chalkline & long side cut on the bandsaw, not using boards on the side as jigs. A full face respirator all the time when working with this stuff. As LRat said, the bark is like oak but the core is like balsa (if you are lucky, it can also be like balsa pith). I would not cut down green, better to find dead stalks that are falling over but not on the ground (termites) and use leather gloves and a pole saw to stay far away from the leaves (nasty, nasty things they are, spikes like cactus waiting for the unwary). Green stuff is still used by birds to perch and some landowners like the looks of it, until it’s falling down - then they are often happy to have it gone. There is a high waste-to-useful-wood ratio even on the best stalks.

Best use for agave in my opinion: shot of tequila while contemplating your next balsa board.

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I have nothing useful to add but my own agave dust story: Jim had built an agave blank for Toby who was shaping down in the “guest” shaping booth at Channin. I was standing in the doorway talking with them while Jim was helping Toby whittle away a hump out of the deck. Being a mouth breather, within seconds the burrs started sticking in my throat. A minute later it was bye bye gotta go and get a bottle brush, a can opener and a pair of tweezers to get that shit out. Balsa dust bad, agave much worse.

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Harbor freight sells a portable saw mill. it’s about $1,700.00 and worth every penny if your into urban wood recycling.

Portable Sawmill with Carriage

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Wow, thanks for the info guys…I guess I am in for more than I bargained for…I already harvested the 4 best stalks I could find, one was dried to the perfect degree while the others where still somewhat green. Think I’ll get a friend of a friend to mill them for me for a few free stalks. About how many stalks will I need for a 5’10" fish blank?

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So what is the best way to dry green agave? Should I put it in the rafters if my garage where it is dark and dry? Or leave it outside to expose it to wind and sun?

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Anyone got any pictures of your agave boards? They must be really beautiful to warrant the pain, hard work and discomfort you all describe. I’d love to see some shots. (Not that I’m contemoplating trying it myself).

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I have milled agave for others and the fastes way to dry it is to just stand it on end on a brick or something to keep it off the ground. Indoors or out doors but not in the sun. Make sure to protect it from the weather. Standing them under the eaves of your house works and you can hang a tarp to protect them from rain and sun. When I mill it I make my first cut dead through the center of the pith. I don’t much like the stuff and will never bother to make anything from it ! ahui hou- Wood_Ogre

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Hey,

I’m new to the site but I’ve been working on and off on a 9-2. I’m finally ready to glass it up using the Green light bamboo/epoxy kit. Here’s a few pix

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Well, damn. Nicely done. Please tell me that was not easy. I’ve seen some Linden work and have always admired the look and skill it takes to buid one.

Great looking board. Love to see it after you glass it.

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Truly a beautiful effort…can you fill us in on how you got to this point? Did you collect your own agave, dry it, mill it, glue it up, etc? I’m really interested in the drying time, milling, gluing process…thanks!

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I collected 5 or 6 vertically dried stalks from around SD. Used a bandsaw and patient freinds to help plank 'em out freehand and ran through a large planer to true up the sides and get the 4" width set. It’s really tricky since the centers are sometimes spongy and worthless. Matched the rockers as best I could and glued it up with spanish cedar stringers( looks good but no idea how strong it’ll be) and copied the planshape from an old log. Wear an APR or at least a dust mask when planing/sanding this stuff as I had some mild irritation from breathing it…luckily no big splinters or rashes like I read from others.

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Or you can buy an alaskan chainsaw mill, waay cheaper and more portable.

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/alaskan-chainsaw-mill-2-sm.jpg

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I’m in the San Diego area and need to use a bandsaw for a couple of my larger agave stalks.  Anyone have a bandsaw in the san diego area?

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I just grabbed this - only 7 feet left of stalk though.  The whole plant was dug up and dragged to the side of the road for trash pickup. 

Can anyone with agave experience tell me if it would be wise or possible to rough cut some material from this, wax the ends, and sticker the boards for quicker drying?  The core material is perfectly clean now, but I know in this hot/humid environment will begin to rot soon or be infested by any number wood eating critters in no time. 

Oh yeah,  another reason I wanted to cut it while green is to introduce an outline warp into the raw, wet lumber. The natural rocker is already there, and I think I’ve got enough material to make rails for a board in the 6’6 - 6’8 range. 

 

[img_assist|nid=1052703|title=Green Agave|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]

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   Howzit camplus,It even has the rocker in it already.Aloha,Kokua