found wallnut logs how do I keep them?

[jason lambert]

onw of my neibors cut down a wallnut tree about 4 months ago and had teh logs laying in his log non are bigger than about 15" in diameter but will still be nice to turn. The troube is they where laying on the ground. They all have started to crack on the ends but when I sawed off about 2" from one end the wood is good had some water stains which I do not know how to get out.

My question how do I store this for turning? Since my wife had a baby yesterday, I will not get to it for several months at least. Do I seal the ends even though they started cracking? Do I cut the cracks off and saw the logs down the pith and then seal? Will the waterstains go away or am I just stuck with them?

[Jim Underwood]

The water stains you may be stuck with. Some folks have bleached the wood, but I've not tried it. Perhaps you could bleach it only on the sapwood?:confused:

Whatever you do, seal it as soon as possible, and rough turn it as soon as possible.

For longer term storage, splitting it down the center may work, but I've found that leaving the wood in long lengths and sealing the ends seems to work the best for me. The shorter lengths you cut it in, the more you lose to cracking on the ends.

Of course I don't seal it up all the way around and I don't have any AnchorSeal. I use leftover Latex paint and slather it all over the ends, and try to rough turn it as soon as possible.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Jason - Congrats on your new baby!

If it were me - I would cut about 2" off each end of the log and then seal with anchorseal - or latex paint if I didn't have the anchorseal. Leave them in full log form - bark and all - until it's time to rough out your blanks as that will help slow down the drying process.

[Jim Underwood]

Steve,
Can you explain why you'd cut off 2 inches from each end?

[Bill Bolen]

I'm sure the ends have some cracking, just can't stop it unsealed. If you seal them with cracks present they will just get bigger. Cut down to solid un-cracked then seal them...Bill...

[jason lambert]

I can see that once a cract starts it will continue also getting sealer into the cracks would be impossable or at least very tuff.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Sorry guys - I missed Jim's question until just now. William pretty much covered my reasoning. It has been my experience that once the wood has cracks/checks - the damage has been done and there is no way to seal the wood effectively. By cutting off 2" or so - hopefully - the small cracks were removed and the sealer can be applied to solid wood.

Also, for a long time I used latex paint cause that was all I had. Last fall I finally picked up some anchorseal and it does a much better job of sealing the wood. The latex - being a water based paint will dry and then crack once the wood starts to dry. My fix action was to go back and reapply more latex paint. With anchorseal - one coat and the job is done.

Hope that helps.