Seasoning "Green" Wood

[John E]

My father delivered several nice white birch and cherry logs from trees he had removed from his property. How would how go about seasoning them so they could be turned next spring.

My initial thought is to paint the ends with latex paint then stick them in the shed. What would you guys do?

[capesams]

seal ends.paint two coats
air dry....no heat

aleast one year..2's better.

[MAC]

I'd wax the ends. Then like CS said probably 2 years.

[John E]

2 YEARS! And to think I thought it could only be a couple of months.

Thanks guys.

[Pete F.]

This will work better with the birch
Cut off a one foot piece.
split into quarters.
split one quarter into pieces a little bigger than the plugs you want to turn.
Coat ends as CS and Mac indicated.
At the end of two weeks weigh a piece on an accurate scale and write down the weight.
Put it in the oven at 100 degrees for 4 hours, then weigh again and write it down.
Put it back in for another hour, then weigh again, and write it down.
If the last two weights are close to equal then you have a dry piece, if not keep toasting till they stay the same or close.
Then subtract the dry weight from the starting weight, if the difference is around 15% then the pieces that size are dry.
If they are not wait longer.
With 2"x 2" sections you should not have much shrinkage cracking.
If you look on one of the woodturning forums I would guess that you could find information on drying your own wood, almost everyone who turns burl bowls does it.
If you cut up the wood and split it you will relieve a lot of stress from it as it dries and increase your yield.
I want to know how long it takes.
Pete

[Fishpart]

Pete,
Did the same thing with some birch logs two years ago, split in quarters, cut the quarters about three plugs long and dried by my woodstove about a month (I only run the stove about 4 days a week). I got two good blanks out of one quarter, had cracking on each end that cost me about one blank of three. The plugs I made don't show any signs of cracking.

I noticed that when you leave them round they split more, so I suppose that splitting them into quarters relieves some of the stress.

[MAC]

get one of these, moisture meter (Penn State Industries) takes all the guess work out.

[Slipknot]

air dried wood is the best kind for plug building.
2 years is worth the wait, plan for future, have patients.
I'd mill the wood before drying, don't leave it in a whole log form. Like Fishpart said, add length to it because there WILL be checking of the ends even if you wax or prime.

good luck

[Tagger]

air dry seven years if your making an acoustic guitar ... thought i'd throw that in ..

[capesams]

pluck this

[bassmaster]

ouch

[Tagger]

[MAC]

[Water Treater]

Always mill timber before air drying it. Always.

Also, cut the pieces large enough to alow for checking and waste.

[Pete F.]

Google this: woodturning wood drying
Lots of info available on green wood turning and drying wood for turning.