Hi all. I haven’t been around much lately but I have an interesting project in the shop that I need some advise on. I have 4 approx 54″ diameter slices cut out of a tree that was planted by the founder of a local law firm. The intent is to mount one of them on the wall at the firm with dates on the growth rings corresponding to different events throughout the years. A couple of the sectons will also likely become tables depending on how flat things are after they dry out a bit.
There are two pieces in particular that are destined for the wall hanging. I have flattened them with a router setup and they are approximately 1 1/4″ thick. I am looking for any input as to how to keep these thing relatively flat and to limit the amount of checking that occurs over time. Mounting advise would also be welcome. Of course this project is on a compressed time frame. They want to hang one in mid February. I have advised them that some major cupping and checking may not be avoidable but I would like to minimize it as much as possible.
If anyone has dealt with this before I would really appreciate your input. Moisture content of the pieces is currently about 18% at the edges and over 25% at the center. Seems like a disaster waiting to happen to me but there may be some tricks out there.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
Tom
Douglasville, GA
Replies
Being that the sections are thin with lots of end grain you might be able to just brush on lots of PEG, or one of the other stabilizers, on both faces and saturate the wood quickly enough to prevent radial checking.
If you don't stabilize the wood then some radial checking will form. If you make a saw cut from the edge to the heart you can relieve most of the stress and be left with one wedge shaped split as the cut opens up. The wedge will probably open up several inches at the outside edge. Depending on the wood a single sawn split may not be enough to prevent all checking but it will probably allow you to have a useable piece when it is dry.
Being that the wood is thin and has lots of end grain exposed, the section could be fully dry in just a few weeks if both faces are exposed and there is good air circulation around the slab.
John W.
If you have any extra cross sections, you may try sawing one into four pie shaped quarters. After drying, the pie shaped quarters (that will probably deform) could be put back on the saw to get the cut surfaces straight and square. The "pie shapes" could then be glued back together with no major splits. I think the anual rings would probably line back up pretty well.
By the way, what is the wood specie? The amount of checking and cracking is very different depending on the specie.
Ridge
I had pretty good results on a smaller cross section of cherry by wrapping the entire 'slice' with a band clamp, and tightening it to a very snug fit. I then stored it vertically to allow for maximum air flow on both sides. Like John said, it dried out very fast, I think it only took 2 1/2 weeks to get down under 10 %.
It was used for mounting a very large fish.
Jeff
http://www.preservation-solutions.com/faq-pentacryl.php?pssessionid=b37738dd514d89a1da32fb7eb46baf18
I've been hearing good things about Pentacryl. It's a relatively new product compared to PEG. Michael Dresden (spelling) suggested Pentacrly in an exact similar application. The PEG gives a waxy finish to the wood and takes longer and a big heated soaking vat. The Pentacryl is supposed to be a lot faster and can be applied easier by soaking, brushing or spraying.
Edited 1/27/2006 4:06 pm ET by RickL
Looks like we are going to give pentacryl a try. We have a few pieces to work with so hopefully we will have some success with at least one.Tom
Douglasville, GA
I would completely incase the wafers in epoxy. Used in thin coats, it actually looks pretty decent as a finish if a person buffs it out with steel wool to take the high glossiness off. Every square inch of the disks need to be covered. The downside is the cost. I use System Three epoxy for alot of things including a scenarios like yours. It comes in gallon, quarts, and pints. It is very effective at making a barrier to moisture. You can brush it on, or as I usually do, scrape it on with a scrap piece of wood. It is self leveling, so you can also just pour it on, but then the thickness of the finish is unappealing to me.
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