Preserving wet wood

[Tom Godley]

So far I have not had to do any of this but I have a question.

I have just been taking sections from some long popular trunks I have -- they are in the shade and I have been spraying them with water and I put some bags on the ends -- this is just to play around with. I have had them this way about six weeks.

But - When you pick up a log from a friend or one from the roadside - what is the best practice -- I know that you coat the ends. I tried to the coating product from a local store (Woodworkers Haven) a few weeks ago but the store was all out.

Due to the weight -- the size of the section would need to be small -- how quickly do you need to get to it after it is cut??

[Gary Max]

I bring the sealer with me to the cutting site and seal the log as soon as the log is cut---so the sooner the better.

[David Walser]

Tom - What's best practice varies greatly by type of wood and area of the country. What I might do with a hunk of mesquite here in Arizona might be inappropriate for what you should do with a chunk of ash in your neck of the woods. Having made that disclaimer, here are some general rules to consider:


Keep your logs as long as possible. In general, wood checks from the ends, so you may need to cut a few inches off each end of a log to get down to solid wood. Besides, length equals flexibility. You can't make a tall vase out of a short log. You can make a small box out of a soon to be much shorter piece of wood.
Split your logs as soon as possible -- taking out the pith. Wood shrinks more around the circumference than it does from outside to inside. (And it shrinks hardly at all from end to end.) What this means is , in general, wood HAS to split as it dries if it is kept in whole log form. A half log, with the pith removed, need not crack as it dries. Naturally, if you need the full log for whatever you plan on turning, don't split the log! (Duh.)
Unless you want spalting, keep the logs up off of the dirt.
Unless you want spalting, allow air to circulate freely around the logs.
Seal the ends with wax, anchor seal, or similar product. Wood loses moisture more quickly out of the endgrain. Sealing the endgrain helps to reduce end checking. I put this last because, if you've split the logs and kept them long, sealing the ends is usually the least important thing to do. Of course, that depends on the type of wood and your climate. Here in Arizona, eucalyptus will start to check before you've finished yelling "timber".

Hope this helps.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Tom I could repeat what David said here, word for word, as that's exactly my advice also.
You are lucky that it is Poplar for the splitting/checking, as it is very forgiving and doesn't split easily, on the other hand it is soft and stringy wood and not an easy wood to turn cleanly.
One more addition here, the wood if let sit like this horizontally for any length of time will have the sap concentrate on the lower side, so it could be very off balance when turning, depending how you split the log, so keep that in mind, for this reason some turner will set their logs on end.