Center cut wood drying

[Ron Bontz]

Ok. I obtained the center cut of a walnut tree about 7 feet long and about 8" square. It is well over 100 lbs. I saw it at a mill nearby me and for some reason saw a heavy duty turned hall tree in it. I have to make a couple this winter if I can muster up the time. Question.. with this being the center of the tree subject to twisting etc. does any one have a fool proof way to dry it better and prevent this? I haven't checked the moisture content yet but the tree was just milled. A very nice chocolate indeed. All the lumber he has is air dried of course. He was a super nice guy by the way and only 5 minutes away. And to think I have been here 7 years and did not know he was there.:o

[William Bachtel]

Dry it s l o w l y.

[Walt Nollan]

I would be concerned if you have all the pith. No tell how much movement that will do.

Walt

[robert hainstock]

CRemove the pith. and follow the advice others have given here. Although, I had a similar piece yers ago, and never had any problem with it. I didn't know about the pith then. :eek::)
Bob

[Bernie Weishapl]

I am with Walt on this one. If you leave the pith in I am afraid you will get a lot of cracking on each end even with it sealed. IMHO if it is 8" X 7' long it is going to take maybe years to dry.

[robert hainstock]

Bernie,
Years ago I obtained a 4ft 12-14in log. I had it milled into 2and 3in planks on a bandsaw mill. I used the piece with the piith in it in an urn that I posted last november. It nevar presented a problem. Maybe there is some truth to the saying "Ignorance is bliss" because it never presented a problem.
I think maybe Black walnut is less problamatic for the splitting problem.
Bob

[William Bachtel]

Boy thats good to hear, I am thinking on making a Walunt bowl with the pith in it, why? because I want to see if I can do it without any checking or problems, I am up for the challenge . I will turn it from green to finish, and flood it with oil to replace water loss, as it dries I will keep flooding it with oil. I am worried about stress in it, this I can't control.

[Matt Hutchinson]

I have had some huge walnut logs sealed for over a year now. The logs I left exposed to the sun had checking issues, especially in the sapwood. (I realize you don't have to worry about sapwood.) But out of the sun they are doing great, and this was after several heavy coats of sealer. Also, they have their bark on them, slowing the drying process even more. Walnut is so extremely wet (is carries boat loads of water) that you may have trouble preventing checking. If you cover it with plastic you may be able to control the moisture evaporation effectively, cuz with plastic you can release moisture a little at a time without having to seal the whole bloomin' log.

So to sum up: seal the snot out of the endgrain, store in the shade (but raised up for even evaporation, and you may want to rotate it periodically), and cover with plastic to control the moisture evaporation. I think this may be the only way to have a fighting chance at keeping it in good shape.

I don't know if this helps at all, but good luck! I hope you meet with success!

Hutch

[Jim Becker]

Hutch, you're a turner...sapwood in walnut is actually desirable in some cases for effect. There are no "rules"!! :D I know a guy who did a whole series of vessels that looked like a chocolate ball of ice cream with whipped cream on top... ;)

[Matt Hutchinson]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I like the sapwood. It just dries differently than the heartwood, and is even more prone to checking. Believe you me, I am leaving it on the bowls in most cases! :D

Hutch

[Ron Bontz]

Thank you. With some help today, it was carried out of the shop and put under my deck..8 ft. ceiling. out of the sun. I will seal all 6 sides, place it about 12" off the pavers and let it sit for now. I considered building a box slightly larger filling the space with some type of oil. Then sealing the box and applying some pressure. Pressure sealing. If it twist and bends a lot I can always cut it into sections and turn some type of bowl or vessel. (Providing I ever get all the tools together). The down side today was when I took it off my unisaw I realized a big ooppsy. :eek:About an eight inch wide rust stain the length of my saw (27") I had to get out the WD40 and scotch brite pad for that one. :o

[Paul Downes]

Ron, I turned a 12" dia. walnut end grain bowl a month or so ago. I alcohol soaked it and am waiting for it to dry to finish turning. It was quite a challenge and I had to quit turning pretty quick because of the catches I got with my cheap gouges. (there is a lot of wild grain in the piece) I decided to make a heavy scraping tool and left the bowl chucked up for about a week. That was a big oops!!:( The moisture and tannic acid in the wood rusted the chuck pretty good. Heck, even while turning, if I left the curlies on the ways they rusted quickly. The jumbo tool did the trick and I was able to finish the bowl with ease.
Post mortem, I decided to upgrade to a couple of Doug Thompson's gouges,(love them) start saving for a bigger lathe, and make some more HD scraping tools. The scrapers are cobalt enhanced HSS. metal lathe tooling, held in place with set screws in 5/8" x 1-1/4" bar stock about 2 ft. long. The mass helps tame end grain real well.