Need advice on green wood for a project.

[Raymond Fries]

Trying to help my brother with a project and green wood is not my area of expertise.

He wants to make a base to display a cool rock he found. The base will be an angled cut from a tree when the tree is cut down. The slab will be 8” to 10” wide and about 18” long. He has a choice of these woods: Silver Maple, Oak, Hickory, or Black Walnut. I think the Maple or Walnut would look the best but he is open to any of them. Also, he was thinking about 1 ½” to 2” thick and he wants the bark to remain when finished.

Please help answer these questions.


Does the thickness matter to minimize cracking?
Are any of the listed woods less prone to cracking?
Can green wood be run through a drum sander?
What is the best way to seal and or dry the wood? Can this be done in an oven? No kiln available.


What would be the best approach for this project?

Thanks

[daryl moses]

You can expect it to crack no matter the thickness. If he has the time cut it several inches too long and hopefully the cracks can be cut away when it has dried. IMO, Walnut seems to check a little less than the other woods mentioned.
I've never run green wood through my drum sander, i don't think it would be a good idea for obvious reasons.
It would help stop some of the checking if the ends were sealed with anchor seal or a homemade concoction of paraffin and minral oil. Still no guarantee that it wont crack though.
All of my lumber is air dried so can't help you with an alternate solution. I have dried small pieces in the microwave but your piece obviously too large for that. There are plans on the internet for homebuilt kilns using light bulbs and small fans, also some using a dehumidifier but I have no experience with those.
If it were me I would cut the piece 12" too long or longer, seal the ends, put it in a cool place out of the sun and give it a year.

[Jerry Wright]

Woodturner soak green wood pieces in PEG (polyethylene glycol) solutions. It displaces the water in the wood cells. Read up on it online. Rocker sells it.

[Mike Cutler]

Why does it have to be green?
You/ he can buy " live edge" in just about any species of wood.
You won't be happy running green wood through your machines. BTDT.😔

[Bill Dufour]

8-10 inches diameter is going to be small tree with noticeable taper. I would cut the blank several feet longer and seal the ends with wax or paint. Store indoors, out of the sun, for a year or two. then cut to near size and let it air dry in the attic.
Bill

[John K Jordan]

This project sounds challenging! It also has a high chance of being a disaster. To understand why, try to get and read the book "Understanding Wood" by R. Bruce Hoadley. I learned so much from that book about the how and why of how wood dries, warps, and cracks.

To best keep the bark on the wood cut the tree in the dormant period in the winter. If cut this time of year it will probably come of quickly.

Some people use pentacryl to help keep the bark on. Pentacryl may also help with minimizing cracks but wood in the round will probably crack anyway. I process a lot of green wood for woodturning and generally start by cutting the log down the pith - the halves will warp when drying but it's less likely to crack badly that way. Perhaps you can design the base from a 1/2 log. Making your angled cut right away may help depending on where the cut is.

The smaller the pieces green wood is cut into the greater chance it has of surviving.

Of the woods you mentioned I've had the best luck with walnut. However, an 8-10" walnut log is young and will likely have a lot of white sap wood and not much dark heartwood. The sapwood is likely to quickly turn a muddy grey-brown this time of the year (and then crack!)

Air drying a 10" log will take years, maybe a bunch of years. (and crack while drying) The "rule of thumb" for air drying is 1 year per inch plus 1 year, but that is for boards, not logs. Drying a log section that big successfully can be very tricky, kiln or no kiln. One way is to cut a section much longer than needed, seal the ends very well with AnchorSeal, then put it off the ground and out of the sun and rain but with air circulation. After a few years cut off the cracked ends, reseal, and let dry some more to see if it is still cracking. It may also help to stand the log on the end which will allow free water to run out. This works better for some species than others.

Perhaps a design change is possible? For example, flat saw it into boards or pieces (with the bark) and dry, and design something to use the pieces, perhaps reassembled into the log shape with spaces between the boards? Boards are far easier to dry without cracking. Could be a striking artistic statement. The tree should still be cut in the winter for the best chance of saving the bark. In fact, I'd probably cut some spare pieces in case of a problem.

Ain't no way I'm going to put a big chunk of wet wood through my drum sander! But I don't understand how you can run an angled cut from a log through a drum sander. There must be more to this story.

JKJ

[Prashun Patel]

I would cut the slab to rough shape. Let it crack and warp and just keep flattening it for the first few months. Big deal. It's not structural. It's a base for a rock. Inlay a butterfly or epoxy the crack after a year.