CTValleyRR Brent, Nicely tapered, but no tree I've ever seen is that straight. What do you do to overcome that problem?
Brent,
Nicely tapered, but no tree I've ever seen is that straight. What do you do to overcome that problem?
In the west, particularly along the coast, we get Sitka Spruce, Douglas Fir, White and Yellow Pines, Jack Pines, and such that reach vertically to several hundred feet. They are very straight, just like the dowel. Many are co-dominant partway up, splitting into two main vertical components at a crotch. But once this split has occurred, the two components continue to rise straight and true.
Crandell
Funny you should ask. My brother inlaw and I had the same conversation. Steaming over the kettle worked wonders. We even achieved the floppy top of a hemlock tree.
More experimentation is warranted, but progress is being made. I also used the Dremal to give the bottom a rootier look on one. On another I dipped the trunk in a very soupy tub of plaster of Paris three times and ended up with a rather gnarly look.
Trees can be very straight though. I have a 140' Fir in my back yard that goes up straight as an arrow. Most of the big Fir and Hemlock grow pretty tall and straight in Western Canada. That is the look I am looking for with my large 5/8" dowel.
This dead Deciduous tree is my first attempt at a Deciduous tree. It is five sizes of copper wire wound up in the drill and dipped several times in the soupy Plaster of Paris mix.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
I have been trying my hand at making various kinds of trees from scratch. One thing that always bugs me about so many trees I see on layouts, be it store bought or home made, is how the trunks are the same diameter up to the top and the last inch is tapered down to some extent. Trees should get narrower throughout their entire length.
My solution to this started with me taking my drill and some chopsticks and dowels out to the bench in the front yard. I sat down, put the dowel in the chuck of the drill, put on a leather glove and with 40 grit sandpaper began to taper down the dowel to a fine point. It took a while, but I achieved what I wanted to. The process took longer than I thought it would though. I needed a quicker way.
I then went up to my brother inlaws house and tried the same thing on his drillpress at 3000 Rpm. All of the tree trunks in the picture were done in ten minutes on the drillpress and they look great.
I had two different qualities of sand paper, the $1.00 a package sandpaper was twice as fast as the cheap stuff and lasted a lot longer.
If you try this, be sure to wear a face shield and gloves. It works well though. The smaller trunks in the photo are chopsticks. The larger ones are dowels up to 5/8".