from my previous thread; i have a 1/2in x 4 tooth bimetal blade ordered. on this thread the question is: is there a faster way to season short pieces of crabapple trunk that i want to "sort of" carve.?? the pieces are 6-9 inches in diameter and10-15 in long. other than painting the ends with water base paint and waiting a couple+ years; is there anything to quicken the process. don't have access to a kiln.
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Faster wood seasoning
- Thread starter porthos
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- Sep 5, 2013
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- 3,207
Quite some years ago I used the microwave method to speed up the drying process on some bowl blanks. It was written up in a Fine Woodworking magazine of the time (I'm going to say 1980's here) but the basic idea was to bag the blank (brown paper bag = lunch sack) and give the subject repeated shots of low power in the microwave. A lot like defrosting a frozen food item, actually.
I can't say the results were stellar -- I seem to recall a great propensity to scorch depending on the wood type thus imparting a lovely odor of singed wood to the kitchen for several days/weeks after. Maybe with practice one might get the hang of it? I didn't test it a lot of times, mostly I just coated my green blanks with either wax or paint and let them sit. For short billets I still do the same thing and just coat the ends with a few liberal coats of good acrylic paint, sticker them well, and let them dry naturally.
-frank
I can't say the results were stellar -- I seem to recall a great propensity to scorch depending on the wood type thus imparting a lovely odor of singed wood to the kitchen for several days/weeks after. Maybe with practice one might get the hang of it? I didn't test it a lot of times, mostly I just coated my green blanks with either wax or paint and let them sit. For short billets I still do the same thing and just coat the ends with a few liberal coats of good acrylic paint, sticker them well, and let them dry naturally.
-frank
I strongly recommend you split the rounds in half (or smaller) before they dry and seal the ends. The slower they dry, the better chance of drying without cracks BUT whole rounds of crabapple have a very low chance of survival.
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2021
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If you want to stabilize highly tensioned green wood (like crab apple), polyethylene glycol is your friend and probably only hope. Soaked in PEG for an appropriate (long) period, then dried (for an appropriately long period), the PEG replaces water molecules in the wood and prevents shrinkage. (Doesn't work on humans.....) It essentially plasticizes the wood and splitting does not occur because shrinkage forces are eliminated. It affects some finishes, but oil, shellac, and lacquer work fine. I've used undiluted engine coolant (ethylene glycol) to similar advantage, though it's not as effective in general.
I usually let the wood split where it will and I work around that which is left. I've yet to paint the ends, dry in a bag, accelerate drying in any way. The wood will do what it will do sooner or later (before or after working it) and trying to hustle it leads to a lot of work with high expectations being ruined. If you can't live with the cracks that will inevitably develop, then plan the work so tension is relieved. Bowl turners turn green wood to rough shape and after appropriately dry, they remount and turn again removing the oval that the tension created. The wood doesn't (usually) split in that case because the shrinking had no way to create enough tension. There are great numbers of bowls that were turned green and used that way right off and the oval shape became the trademark of many a bread bowl. Woodworkers of yore deliberately tensioned glued up panels by planing the middle of the pieces slightly narrower than the ends (~1/32" per 4 ft of length leaving 1/16" gap between pieces, depending upon species) so that over time the tension gets relieved instead of splitting the large panel. Consider also that some woods are inherently stable and naturally quite tension free. Sycamore comes to mind.
The moral of 60 years of woodwork is that we are wise to work with the natural and unalterable properties of wood. You can try contrary, but....good luck.
DanK
I usually let the wood split where it will and I work around that which is left. I've yet to paint the ends, dry in a bag, accelerate drying in any way. The wood will do what it will do sooner or later (before or after working it) and trying to hustle it leads to a lot of work with high expectations being ruined. If you can't live with the cracks that will inevitably develop, then plan the work so tension is relieved. Bowl turners turn green wood to rough shape and after appropriately dry, they remount and turn again removing the oval that the tension created. The wood doesn't (usually) split in that case because the shrinking had no way to create enough tension. There are great numbers of bowls that were turned green and used that way right off and the oval shape became the trademark of many a bread bowl. Woodworkers of yore deliberately tensioned glued up panels by planing the middle of the pieces slightly narrower than the ends (~1/32" per 4 ft of length leaving 1/16" gap between pieces, depending upon species) so that over time the tension gets relieved instead of splitting the large panel. Consider also that some woods are inherently stable and naturally quite tension free. Sycamore comes to mind.
The moral of 60 years of woodwork is that we are wise to work with the natural and unalterable properties of wood. You can try contrary, but....good luck.
DanK
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I take that to heart myself. The parts have been sitting ~20 odd years. A pecan tree had gotten too big and split off branches. All I had was a "casual use" chain saw, maybe a 16" bar. Most of it went to friends for firewood. But I kept a few round slabs, burls, yokes. and whatnots. I put them in the barn to season and life got in the way. I did keep one section of a limb to make a stand for an anvil. Now it's covered up with "stuff" too. The anvil is on a 'temporary" steel stand. That was one of the smaller limbs, maybe 18" diameter. One piece is cut on a diagonal, maybe 1-1/2 by 2-1/2 feet. It's still solid, maybe the species. I figure to make something out of it before I die, maybe. . .
Should the situation arise in the future, I will give PEG a shot. I still have a half dozen pecan trees intact. They do bear, but squirrels get most of the fruit. The dogs get the rest. But none of them is near as big as the "grand-daddy" tree. The limbs I cut up from that one had 80 growth rings. Give or take a few. . . The trunk is getting hollow now. I patched up where the limbs came off, but the patches didn't hold. They fell out in around 10 years. . .
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Miralax? Give your wood a colonoscopy! Ha
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- Dec 27, 2014
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I found three trees, maybe 6 or 8 inches in diameter standing dead in my 'woods". The cherry had rotten sap wood, but the pretty stuff is fine. The other two, hickory, the sap wood has worm holes in it, but is sound. they were each in the 30 to 40 foot range. I've got 30 pieces, from 10 to 40 inches stacked under the eaves of the house. They get tiny cracks on the sawed ends but are cured.
Green wood, Japanese cherry, Golden Rain Tree, I've split, some pieces I've band-sawed into about .5 inch widths, they dry standing on edge in a couple of weeks in an unheated room in the house. Yeah, some curl lengthwise, but I'm jointing (would you believe "Thickening?" them down to 3/8 or 5/16ths anyway.
The teak, mahogany and walnut are all so old they've been dry for decades.
Dunno what I'm going to do with them, a couple have turned into Cell phone holders.
Green wood, Japanese cherry, Golden Rain Tree, I've split, some pieces I've band-sawed into about .5 inch widths, they dry standing on edge in a couple of weeks in an unheated room in the house. Yeah, some curl lengthwise, but I'm jointing (would you believe "Thickening?" them down to 3/8 or 5/16ths anyway.
The teak, mahogany and walnut are all so old they've been dry for decades.
Dunno what I'm going to do with them, a couple have turned into Cell phone holders.
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- Mar 22, 2023
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- 129
I am new , Not sure if this the answer your looking for.
Your my first thread I replied to.
From being cut down to fully cured/seasoned wood is 17% shrinkage.
Anything under 5 years of being dried in a controlled environment would worry me.
Wood moves ...
Cue makers core the forearm of the cue and put a maple dowel for weight balance control and to keep the cue's forename from warping .
I bought out cue makers wood stock when he went out of business so i have seasond cured wood.
As I buy new wood for projects I am buying the wood years before I plan using it.
Wood needs to dry slowly if you don't want to crack , 17% shrinkage is allot.
When Wood shrinks its stressed from shrinking, Everytime turn a piece of wood even .015 cut it relieves a little stress in the wood.
Good luck hope this helped a little