Need a little advice here, but first a mini-gloat. There’s been part of a maple tree down on the next-door property for over a year now. Never really started wondering about it until recently. Yesterday, I grabbed up a short round and spirited it into the car. Split it open today, and low and behold, it’s spalted and yet sound! So cool! There’s a piece at least 6′ long, maybe 8′, still down there, Nick’ll help me with tomorrow!
So, on to the drying process. This wood’s been down on the ground, covered with ivy. Who knows what the moisture content is. Should I sticker it under a shelter outside, inside my shop (humidity 50-60%) or in the house? Or start one place an end up in another after a few weeks? Whad’ya think??
forestgirl Another proud member of the “I Rocked With ToolDoc Club” …. :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the girl 😉
Replies
Sounds interesting.Are you going to plank it or turn it? Either way seal the ends and leave it sheltered out side.To help further we need more info as to your intended use.
Good questions, all. I won't be turning it, for sure. Am envisioning cutting it into 6/4 or 4/4 stock. Won't know until I see the log out from under the ivy how long the pieces might be, but I'm hoping a minimum of 2' long. Would be surprised if I could get a whole 6'-long piece out of it though.
My first thought was to bring it inside as soon as it's cut down, but our house humidity is very, very low and I'd be afraid of the moisture change being too drastic. I'm sure it would "eventually" dry if left outside under a sheltered spot (Pacific Northwest), especially if it were close to the house or shop, but am thinking now more of setting it up in the shop on the far side from the wood stove, which is also far away from my other well-dried lumber. Let it sit there for a month or 6 weeks and then bring it into the house for final drying.
I have plenty of paraffin for the ends.forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Forestgirl,
The mold creating the spalting will continue as long as the wood's moisture content is above about 14%. That means if you don't get the log sawn into boards for drying, the wood will rot away.
VL
IMO if you plank green lumber you are looking at ! year per inch of thickness.What you have is not green but probably very wet. Don't dry it in the round as any radial checks will get worse. at least cut it into 1/2 rounds down a check or plank it.I would leave it sheltered outside for a month or two then move it in to a cool spot .You have to dry it as slowly as possible.The other most important thing to remember with spalted wood is that the spores from the fungus can make you very sick when they get into that warm moist lung and sinus so wear a mask. Remember that you can make your own spalted wood if this does'nt work out
>> You have to dry it as slowly as possible.
I disagree. I would say you have to balance the possible losses from drying too fast, like spontaneous splitting, with the possible losses from drying too slowly, like continued decay while the moisture content stays too high. Once you decide where that balance is, you want to dry the wood as quickly as you can without overshooting the balance on either side.
Taken literally, "as slowly as possible" is a prescription for letting the whole log rot.
IMO, if it's already spalted, you want to get it dry as soon as possible, which I assume would mean in the house.
You don't mention sawing. I think you either need to saw it into boards or into transverse slices short enough that it can dry through the ends before the decay goes too far.
And a question: where you live, do you have any firm reason to believe it would ever dry if stacked outside?
as a log, it probably contains enough moisture to keep decaying - better get it sliced up and dried out -
Clarification: I've no intention of leaving it in the round. Will be cutting it up as soon as my new resaw blade arrives (end of next week).forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Forestgirl,
Let us know how it turns out. Are you using Timberwolf blades?
VL
Hi Venicia, yep I'm using Timberwolf. I almost picked up an Olson blade at Woodcraft the other day, but I'm sooooo happy with the other TW resaw blade I have, I just didn't want to take the chance. The new blade will be 3 t.p.i for the wide stock. I tried using the 4 t.p.i. on some alder, but it just bogged down too badly. I have some 6" wide cherry I want to resaw too.
Congrats on getting all your framed pics delivered!forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I cut some bowl blanks from Green Sycamore on my Delta bandsaw be sure and blow the saw out when you are done the dust is wet enough to rust things.
The dust from Spalted wood doesn't taste very good "nasty" and not very good for the lungs.
Be careful that log is slimy and heavy it will be hard to handle on the saw.
Did you see the chest in the gallery from Spalted Maple?
Ron
Thanks, Ron, for the reminder about cleaning the wet stuff off. I'll be conscious not to push it into the late hours when it gets hard to "motivate" about clean-up.
I will definitely use my respirator (not a mask) as mold, fungus and I do not get along well. I think I'll scrub the outside of the log a bit to make it easier to handle, and probably anchor it to some kind of a carrier.
I saw a chest made of spalted sycamore in the gallery. Is that the one? Yep, it's very nice! Can't wait to see it when he gets it finished. I suspect this maple I'm harvesting will be reserved for much smaller pieces, boxes for instance. Gotta be pretty lucky to get the size wood to make a chest like that!forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I have just been given a cherry log. It has splitts on the end and I was wondering about the drying. I figured I should get the log cut in to boards before the whole log rots and was wondering if you are talking about using a band saw. Any advise would be appreciated.
Charlie
Yep, a band saw is the ticket, although a table saw can be used for some operations. What type of advice are you looking for? Have you resawed before? Do you have a band saw, and if so , specifics? (size, types of blades)?forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Jamie,
I had picked up a 1/2" 3 TPI Olson blade at Woodcrafters for resawing green cherry and it bogged down terribly. When I called Timberwolf, they recommended a 3/4" 2 TPI blade and it has a lot of tooth set. Cuts a much wider kerf than the Olsen.
Does a much better job resawing the cherry than the first blade.
Good choice not to go with the local blade.
Bill
Hi Bill. I hope the TW blade works. I think i's 3/8" (3 tpi) for my Grizzly. They assured me it would. I need to check and see how wide a blade the 1019Z will take, and then probably put an Iturra spring on it before getting anything wider. I'll try the TW on this maple before tackling the cherry.
Happy New Year!forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Hi Jamie,
I found that with the 3/4" blade that timberwolf recommended for me, I have to crank the tension so that the spring is almost completely compressed to stop fluttering. I should place an order for the Iturra spring and tension crank.
There is a lot of tension cranking, even with the tension release lever to load up or unload a 3/4" blade.
I would think that you could do well with a 1/2" blade. Their statement to me was basically "you want as wide as your saw can handle" for resawing, but the 3/4" is pushing the limit with the original spring.
Bill
One problem with putting aftermarket springs on a bandsaw is that the bearings are then overloaded.
Iturra is very careful to caution users about possible damage, and the catalog provides steps and precautions.
carefully inspect the saw for any pre-existing problems prior to installing the springs (warped wheels, bent axles, etc.)
Always release tension at the end of the work-day (I do this anyway)
Use the "flutter test" to set the blade tension
For stock 2" or thinner, set the tension slightly below the gauge mark
Use higher tension only for resawing
forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Well, we took a good look today -- stripped away some of the ivy, thunked and plunked around. The "log" is much longer than I thought and it's pinned between two big branches that fell next to it. Plus, right now everything is frozen (literally). So, we're going to tackle it in two weeks when Nick comes back home. I suspect we'll cut it at about 8', chain up one end and drag that biggest piece out, the pull away one of the branches (turning, anyone?) and then drag out the other end of the log.
I may have to scare up someone with a bigger bandsaw and some muscle to mill this thing. I guess it depends on how many branches were on that trunk and where they were located. I'd like to keep the pieces as long as is sensible, but the anatomy will dictate what those lengths are. As far as diameter or height is concerned, my bandsaw doesn't have a riser kit, so I'm stuck at 6". If I were to get the riser kit, it would increase to 12" which will work if I split the log first. At the biggest end, it looks to be about 14"D.
forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Forestgirl,
Wow. This sounds like it's becoming a BIG project.
If you can actually saw this log into boards, I hope you'll give real consideration to getting it kiln dried if that's even remotely possible. I think that's the only way you will wind up with useable wood. If you let it air dry in the shop, the mold is going to have a feast on the wood at your shop's temperature for the next year or so. If you let it air dry outdoors, it will take longer to dry, remain above the moisture content that supports the mold for a long time, and the wood is just going to rot.
To boot, air drying can result in significant case hardening because the exterior of the wood dries much faster than the core. With good kiln drying, including adding moisture in at the end of the process, moisture release is controlled, balancing out almost any possibility of case hardening. Most importantly, the wood will rapidly come down under 14-15% and the mold we be made dormant.
VL
Hi Venicia. Well.....it's "big" in the sense of that one log being pretty darned heavy, but not in any sense of many, many board feet of lumber in the end. Not owning a tractor, anything over 100 lbs or so is difficult to just move around the yard! let alone the bandsaw.
I went back and found Jon Arno's info on spalting wood. Here's an excerpt:
Another post in that same thread [ http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=13882.1 ] mentioned a beech board that came from a log that was left for 4 years to "ripen" before being milled. I need to look at the 2 rounds that are laying next to the tree and try to determine if the log is really ready to be milled yet. Or, I may go ahead and slab it out, in 3' lengths or so, and if it's not "ripe" enough, put them in plastic bags for awhile. Sounds like there's a somewhat fine line to walk.
Kiln drying isn't really an option. I'll take a stab at air-drying. Right now, and through March probably, the shop is cold enough to keep further progress at a minimum. I think I could probably set up a micro-climate around that specific stack of wood that would keep the RH below 50%. Gotta save up for a moisture meter for the lumber!forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Forestgirl-
When you cut the log, check the end. The spalting will apear as small dark rings. good luck.You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
Yeah, I've seen that. Problem is, I have such a small mental database, I don't know how what I see at the end translates when it comes to the milled faces of the wood. Eventually, I'll have seen enough that hopefully I won't have to peer inside to have a good feel for how ripe the log is.forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
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