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This past spring I picked up a bunch of relatively straight branches from a guy trimming his Japanese cherry near my home. I decided to make them into mountain walking sticks–something I’ve never done–, so I’m sort of waltzing in the dark with how to go about it. They’re mostly about 2-3 inches in diameter and about 5-6 feet long. I stripped the bark, painted the ends and set them out to dry; they took on some mold (mildew) during the humid summer months, and seem to still have quite a bit of moisture in them, but I’m willing to wait. I tentatively plan on using a draw knife and planes to cut them down to proper size when they’re dry and do a bit of carving before finishing.
How long you reckon it should take for raw branches like that to dry sufficiently? Is the drawknife+plane idea the best way to trim them down? (I don’t have a lathe, and they’re not large enough in diameter anyway, so don’t even suggest that). What about a finish? I just started “serious” woodworking a couple of years ago and I’m okay with seasoned woods, but never done this kind of thing… Any help appreciated.
Thanx.
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Norm,
It should take 1 year for every inch of thickness to air dry. You can make a solar kiln to speed up the drying process. You can also make a small kiln with a light bulb to dry the wood. However cherry and other fruitwoods do not season well in the round and you might have checking and splitting problems as the stuff seasons. A drawknife or spokeshave should do a good job at shaping the walking sticks. I would use boiled linseed oil (applied and allow to dry) followed by an exterior grade marine spar varnish would be a suitable finish. Good luck
Stephen
*Thanks for the reply, Stephen. Your advice about drying (1 year per inch) was about what I basically expected, and I guessed something like a spar varnish would be appropriate--since I've got a bunch of the sticks, I may give them different dressing treatments and see which comes out best. Thanks again.Visit Virtual Fujino, Japan! Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
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