# A Completely Accidental Find



## jazz (May 15, 2012)

Hi all,

Today I spotted a nice fork on a tree whose English name is Cherry Plum, and US name is Mirobalan Plum and latinrunus cerasifera Ehrh (I found it in dictionary because I knew only name in my language).

Just to avoid possible confusion this is its fruit when it is still green:









And this is it when it is ripe:









I remember that as kids we used to eat lots of these fruit whwn still green untill we got sick and I do not know why because its taste is so acid that you have to make faces while you eat it green.

This wood is everywhere around me in this coutry but it never occured to me that it could be used for slingshot making!

Today I spotted a nice fork and I could not resist. Here it is still with bark on:









And here it is in various stages of peeling:

















This its branch that the fork was on, I liked it and kept it, might be usefull:









Now, I know that this is type of plum so it should behave like plum wood, more or less. However, I have no experience with it: does anyone know how it behaves when drying, when carving, strength, anything?

thanks,


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## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

The wood will be nice looking when done, but it will take a very long time to dry unless you use the microwave carefully.


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## mckee (Oct 28, 2010)

Nice looking wood should turn out great


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## bullseyeben! (Apr 24, 2011)

Looks like a good fork.. haven't used it before, but generaly most fruiting trees have good qualities and strength for slingshot forks..


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## Ordie69 (Aug 25, 2011)

I can't wait to see that wood dry. The natural color looks very nice and it will be interesting to see if it gets lighter or darker when dry. Nice find!


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## Bostradamus (May 15, 2012)

there's potential oozing outta that fork!


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## Bob Fionda (Apr 6, 2011)

My little experience with prunus teached me to be very carefully when you dry it. It tends to crack easily. Finally I remove the bark (if only I have got a big antler, otherwise I leave the bark on) and glue the ends of the forks, then I microvawe it many times to a warm temperature. At the beginning I put it in mocrovawe for no more than a minute and add time after a week up to one minute and a hallf, two minutes. In summer time you could leave it in the trunk of your car for many days, it will dry slowly without cracking. Prunus is beautiful once you carve it even with the bark on, it's colour and grain is amazing. Bob


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## jazz (May 15, 2012)

Hi all,

Thank you for your tips, it really helps.

One question came to me after thinking about all this: is there any rule of thumb or so that would say how much weight loss (say, 10%, 20%, 30% etc) for a given family of threes (in this case prunes) is enough so that we can say this is the lowest limit to start working on it.

The fork I presented above, when I barked it weights exactly 250 grams. To restate my question, when it drops to, say, 200 grams, is that ok to start working, or what?

thanks,


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## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

Jazz, I can help you with that, but I don't use weight. I differ with Bob on the amount of time for each burst in the microwave. I only do it 30 seconds at a time, with interim cooling-off periods of 20-25 minutes. If you put the fork into a sealed plastic bag when heating, you will see the moisture that has escaped on the inside of the bag. When you carefully remove the fork each time, turn the bag inside out and let it dry off.
As you keep repeating this process, there will be less and less moisture on the inside of the bag. When there is almost no moisture, the fork is done.
Btw, if you don't start controlled drying of that for very soon it is going to crack. I'm surprised its hasn't already.


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## jazz (May 15, 2012)

Hi all,

Thank you for the tips, that helps.

I also did some homework in the meantime here in the forum searching old posts and I guess now I have a lot of information about microwaveing, the rest is experimenting, probably both with and without cracks.

Thanks!


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## e~shot (Jun 3, 2010)

Nice looking wood!


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