will making smaller billets of walnut dry faster?

[Bill Wilcox]

Hi All,
I have this huge pile of Black Walnut that I picked up this spring. I cut the ends off and sealed them with multiple coats of latex paint. The timbers are doing great however I was wondering how I could get some of this wood drier faster.
Would cutting them into billets and then waxing the ends and cut face dry them faster?
Some of the smaller timbers I would love to be able to turn some of these without getting cracks as they dry.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Bill Wilcox

[Bill Bulloch]

Looks like those are already dryed, turned and polished. But I'm assuming that you might have posted the wrong picture.

I use a small bowl kiln that I made to dry mine in. Bowls roughed out to about 1 inch and planks cut 1 inch thick take about three weeks to dry in the kiln.

[steven carter]

Bill,

I have turned quite a bit of black walnut, I leave it in log form until ready to turn, then rough turn and soak over night in DNA. I can usually finish turning in 2 to 3 weeks after the DNA bath. I have also used the bandsaw to cut up billets to use for use in ornaments and finials, and let them sit for a couple months and not had any problems. Hope this helps.

Steve

[Mike Davis NC]

It will pay you to look into the alcohol drying method.

http://alcoholsoaking.blogspot.com/

[Bill Wilcox]

Thanks for the replies.
Bill, these small bowls are in fact green prototypes of some ring bowls I plan on making. The bowls were turned so the crack that appeared are not visible. They are approximately 3 1/2" in dia. and 2 1/2" in height. I used black leather dye on the bowl part and sealed the dyed area with water based poly.

Mike, thanks for the information on alcohol soaking. I am going to review this carefully.

Steven, I am planning to cut some into billets and seal them for turning during the winter. So if I do this now I think I should be set.