Quote Originally Posted by Bob Bouis View Post
Splitting at the center is expected with logs. Hopefully you can cut through the splits when you cut up the logs. Center splits tends to be quite deep [and quite inevitable], so you're just wasting wood by cutting them off.
That's a good point. I plan on losing the pith either sooner or later so the cracks and checking I am most concerned with are away from the center, often in the sap wood. It is best to cut through the pith and along the longest cracks. If possible I do this with my large band saw or sawmill instead of the chain saw. When I was sawing a lot of logs I bought Anchorseal by the 55 gal drum.

Some species are much worse than others. Dogwood is one of the worst in my experience; a round will probably develop a wide split all the way from the bark to the pith.

And I found that some individual trees are worse than others of the same species, perhaps due to the growing conditions. For example I've had cherry from some trees start to crack very quickly but one big tree was the most stable cherry I've ever seen - I had rounds laying out is the sun uncoated for over six years with only minor surface checking. I cut some big chunks to dry and none of those cracked either. That wood was amazing to turn as well - I wish I had saved more.

JKJ