Drying wood--
 

I have some white birches i need to take down. Diameters run from about 6-12 inches. What lenghts should i cut and how long to dry before i rip them down for plugs?
Thanks.

rip while green and sticker stack them and air dry for 2 years maybe less depending on where you dry them.
6" is kinda thin but usable.

if this is for plugs you are gonna need maybe 1-3/4" thick slabs.

you will have better luck if you saw them now while fresh, round logs don't dry well.

If you do dry the logs round, be sure to either cut the bark lengthwise in a few places or else they will rot from the inside. Best to dress them down in as large pieces close to the size you will want for the plugs you will be turning.

Good luck - nothing like the feeling that you get turning your own wood. :drool:

Dave ,,,if you change your mind and decide to build a guitar instead you have to dry about 7 years.. :laughs:

Thanks to all for the info.:btu: Tagster, LMAO, i'll be lucky if i can still see a guitar in 7 years, let alone make one. :laughs:

Sometimes a limb will do if it's dried right .
Here's something that started on the kindling pile and ended up in the tackle bag . The wood is Madrone , don't think it grows out east but it's a hardwood that's really very pretty but doesn't grow very straight in fact it tends to corkscrew looking for Sun among the Redwoods.

the apple wood i chose was already dried (dead on the tree)
wood is supposed to have 20 % moisture in it to prevent dry rot.

I have tried to dry blanks in a home made kiln, with not much luck. When I used a moisture meter, they didn't show much improvement. My friend Thom got some white cedar blanks that work great. I was surprised that the demonstrators at the show were using plain old pine right out of Home Depot.

does ash work well?

ash is used quite often for tool handles and can be found for free if you look for broken tool handles in the trash on the side of the road, and in that case its long since been dry.

I once read that Stan Gibbs worked in a shipyard during the war. His plug making was in its infancy, and he used ash from tool handles. The article said all the shovels, rakes, etc were best suited to very short people because Stan confiscated the first two feet from each. His turned out OK, so should yours.