Pear tree- suggestions on preserving for turning in a couple of months

[Mike Heaney]

Hi there,

hurricane sandy just removed about 1/2 of a 100 year old pear tree in our garden. The limb is about 16" -18" at widest. Unfortunately, I am in the middles of a major workshop rebuild so will not be able to do anything with it until after then. Could you give me some pointers on best ways to keep fruit wood in a usable form?

thanks

mike

[Ted Calver]

Mike..i salvaged a lot of pear from a hurricane a few years back. So much so that I couldn't process it all. I split the logs in half and sealed the ends with Anchorseal and put them in dense shade with a piece of plywood covering them. After two years I got some beautiful spalted blanks from them. YMMV

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree with Ted. Cut them in half making sure you are at least a half inch on either side of the pith to get rid of it. Seal the ends and keep out of sunlight/weather.

[Peter Blair]

Mike the best method I can think of is that you ship it to me then you wouldn't have to worry about it!!!!!

But really, what Bernie said, but I then store the pieces in large plastic garbage containers with lids. I keep them out of the sun, open occasionally, very successful for my wet coast area.

[Brian Ashton]

My favourite method is to freeze the wood. It will keep forever that way, and actually dries out over a couple years. I used to have an old chest freezer that had only about 10% food and the rest was wood.

[Fred Belknap]

It seems that freezing could cause the wood to crack from the moisture . Water expands when it freezes. I do quite a bit of wet wood turning and most of the time I cut it into blocks, then split the blocks on each side of the pith about an inch. I then Anchorseal and store in a unheated dark place. They generally are good for a year +. If I don't have time to do a log right away I block it up off the ground and seal each end with Anchorseal. It would probably help to cover them but I seldom do and I usually have to cut 3 or 4 inches off each end of the log to get to solid wood.

[Dennis Ford]

I think just making a clean cut with a chainsaw and then sealing that with anchorseal will take care of it for a couple of months (might not work in the summer time).

[Peter Blair]

Hey Brian. Any chance you would like to respond to Fred's comments. I generally boil my blanks after rough turning but the freezer thing sounds very interesting . . .

[Brian Ashton]

I guess cracking could be possible if it was cut within the hour and during the time of year when the tree was pulling in the most water... but it's never happened to me in the 20 years or so I did it. I suspect there's more than enough air in the fibres to allow for the expansion. The hard fruit woods and gary oaks would start cracking if i didn't get them in the freezer within a few hours of harvest. I've frozen holly, yellow cedar, white oak, gary oak, dogwood, arbutus, fairly fresh cut coco bolo (that was a story, bringing back 150lb coco bolo slab as luggage on an airplane from Mexico... LOL), all manner of fruit woods, acacia, pretty much any sort of wood you can find on the west coast of NA. My brother was a tree surgeon so I had access to some vary rare pieces such as holly and dogwood logs riddled with burl that were 20" in diameter... Because i would store them for years freezing is the only reliable way of preserving them. You can seal the ends but over time they dry out and crack and or rot. Salting can be nice but some of these pieces were so rare and exquisite I wasn't going to take any chances with them by painting them and throwing them under a tarp... Been there done that and much of the pile ends up being burned. Living in Australia at the moment and things are much more cramped so I only have a fairly hard to get piece of ringed gidgee that was fresh cut sitting in my fridges freezer, sitting next to the ice cubes and frozen soup containers.

PS I guess the biggest benefit to freezing is there is no need to slab a whole log - at least I haven't and never had a crack. That way you can take your time to decide on what you actually want to turn rather than racing against time and cracking. I used to take a piece out of the freezer, cut off what I wanted to use and put it back again...

As I was winding up the whole thing in preparation of moving to the other side of the globe I found most of the woods that were at the bottom of the freezer (those that were there the longest) were for the most part bone dry and crack free - freezer burn can be a good thing i guess. The 5" thick by 13" wide slab of coco bolo was in perfect condition and never cracked after I thawed it out (8 years later I still kick myself for selling it instead of bringing it with me).

[robert baccus]

All the above techniques are good and work. Here's another---wood in water never rots. Buy a few home depot buckets or Wal-nut storage boxes and they keep for years if kept outa the sun. Old forester

[Dan Hintz]

wood completely submerged in water never rots.

Fixed that for ya... ;-)

[robert baccus]

Actually all the sawmills in the last 40 years have gone to piling the logs under sprinkling systems which I have seen preserve logs for years. I am unaware how long this could work but I have seen it used sucessfully for 2-3 years with no harm to the logs. In storage boxes I mash then down with a lid if they try to float.

[Mike Heaney]

thanks everyone- lots of interesting and creative ideas- I am intrigued by the freezing idea, think I will give that a go for some pieces! In the meantime, I had to order Anchorseal, and is should be here by the weekend, so will saw things up then. Keep the ideas coming- and I will let you know what I find when I start cutting it up into manageable chunks

[Peter Blair]

Hey Brian. Did you cut the wood or treat it in any way prior to putting in freezer?

I'm all over Craig's list looking for a cheap freezer!!!

[Robert Henrickson]

Actually all the sawmills in the last 40 years have gone to piling the logs under sprinkling systems which I have seen preserve logs for years. I am unaware how long this could work but I have seen it used sucessfully for 2-3 years with no harm to the logs. In storage boxes I mash then down with a lid if they try to float.

The Royal Navy used to have mast ponds for storing stock for making masts. "Fir logs were seasoned by immersing them in salt water while the sap died back." [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_Dockyard and photo of pond http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Mast_Pond,_Chatham_Dockyard_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1152734.jpg ]

[Brian Ashton]

Hey Brian. Did you cut the wood or treat it in any way prior to putting in freezer?

I'm all over Craig's list looking for a cheap freezer!!!

Most pieces went in strait off the back of the truck unslabbed and untreated. We would cut logs down to manageable lengths but thats it. Most of the pieces were of a quality and rarity that I didn't want to cut unless I was absolutely sure of what I was going to do with them.

One thing about a freezer also is that the more its filled the less it costs to run - so if your wife complains just tell her you're saving money by taking up all the empty space.

And frozen wood cuts on the bandsaw very well and turns well I might add.

[Brian Ashton]

The Royal Navy used to have mast ponds for storing stock for making masts. "Fir logs were seasoned by immersing them in salt water while the sap died back." [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_Dockyard and photo of pond http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Mast_Pond,_Chatham_Dockyard_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1152734.jpg ]


I've often wanted to experiment with salt and see how well it will dry wood out. The next time i get a piece worth trying I'm gonna chuck it in the salt water canal for a few weeks and see how it dries out. I might also try smothering a piece with a bag of pool salt and see how it goes.

[Dan Hintz]

Actually all the sawmills in the last 40 years have gone to piling the logs under sprinkling systems which I have seen preserve logs for years. I am unaware how long this could work but I have seen it used sucessfully for 2-3 years with no harm to the logs. In storage boxes I mash then down with a lid if they try to float.
I believe that's used more for keeping the logs from drying out and splitting while baking in the sun under those huge tarps / lean-to's... I could be wrong, but a log that stays in one position and only partially submerged (like stuck on a river bank) will quickly begin to rot.

[robert baccus]

Actually the logs are stacked in the open under bridge cranes and rotated usually for 6 months or so but when demand for lumber falls and inventories go crazy they get sprinkled for several years without significant loss to rot. I was a management forester for 30 years--when I started all the mills had finished converting from pond storage to the much more flexible and cheaper stack/sprinkler method. I agree that it looks like it would all rot down.

[Peter Blair]

I put an add on Craigs list for a VERY cheap or free chest freezer and sure enough a fellow called me, said all I had to do was pick it up.
I am now set up to try the freezing method but don't have any green material right now.
I am planning to rough turn and then freeze.
I currently am working on some cherry that I waxed and bagged about 8 months ago and have some checking and cracking especially in the feather areas from crotch cuts.
Can hardly wait to see if this method will produce better results.

[Brian Ashton]

I put an add on Craigs list for a VERY cheap or free chest freezer and sure enough a fellow called me, said all I had to do was pick it up.
I am now set up to try the freezing method but don't have any green material right now.
I am planning to rough turn and then freeze.
I currently am working on some cherry that I waxed and bagged about 8 months ago and have some checking and cracking especially in the feather areas from crotch cuts.
Can hardly wait to see if this method will produce better results.


I'm not sure about the results I think you looking for. As a method of preserving whole wood pieces so they doesn't crack before you get time to work with them I'd say it's the best. But for drying out wood, especially rough turned pieces, it would take a relatively long time so I don't see any advantage in it. A roughed out bowl has had 90% of the material removed so the only real need now it to slow down the rest of the drying process enough to let the remaining material dry uniformly - thus eliminating the cracking due to the stress created by uneven drying and shrinking. That can be achieved by putting the piece in a plastic bag to allow the moisture to equalize and then open the bag for a few hours and close up again for a day... I certainly did find most, if not all, of the wood in the freezer was bone dry after I unloaded it but it was never the intended result and I don't really know how long it would actually take.

You'll have to report back after you've dried a piece out. Maybe weight it out over time and let us know how much water is lost over a given time...

[Peter Blair]

Thanks again for the comments Brian.
Not sure of the logic that would suggest a log would dry better than a prepared rough-out but I usually get sooooo much wood I can give it a try anyway and will be sure to post what happens.
I have tried boiling, steaming, bagging, placing in garbage cans, waxing and every conceivable combination of. I have some luck depending on the wood, time of year it is cut how quickly I can get to it. I think the most successful has been with boiling and then bagging BUT mostly with woods that have no special characteristics. Lately I have been trying to find more 'interesting' pieces and my luck is hasn't been so good.
I'll try putting in some whole, some roughed out chunks some blanks etc and see what happens.