Wood drying and preserving questions

[JDieseljoe69]

Please excuse me if this is in the wrong area.

I have a few questions for anyone who has cut, dried and cured/preserved there own wood for handles, pen blanks or gun stocks.

I recently bought a bandsawmill and have been cutting some wood for various things. Besides for putting Anchor Seal on the ends of the logs how do you preserve the wood as it is drying or after it dries?

I have heard Lynseed oil is good, but I have heard of people cutting up there wet lumber and putting it in a brine to soak until they need or use it. The only thing is no one tells ya what they put in there secret preserve brine.

Any help would be appreciated.

[mete]

NO BRINE !!
In the 1960s and '70s the was a shortage of wood for gunstocks so Browning decided to quickly get more by fast drying wood by the use of salts. Nobody seemed to know about this but if they took the barrel and receiver out of the stock where wood and steel touched the steel was pitted !! You can't get all the salt out .
Sealing the ends is very important but patience is the real trick. Good air drying takes a long time .You might also think of having the wood stabilized on the smaller pieces.
Things like gunstocks can be kiln dried BUT you would have to find someone who would use the proper schedule. If it's 2.5" thick it has to have a schedule for that .Sticking a 2.5" in a kiln set for 1" will give you problems of warping !!
For smaller stuff there is a technique for drying using a microwave oven but I don't know the proceedure .

[Tom Lewis]

If you can, cut the tree or limb down in the winter when the sap is down.
Anchor seal is good and will help.
Cut the pith out of the wood. As wood drys it will try to crack from the pith out.
Green wood will probably warp, so allow for that.
As a woodturner, I cut the pith out of the wood, rough turn it to shape, coat with anchor seal, place in a cool dry place and then six months to a year later it's ready to finish. I keep an eye on the wood and if it starts to crack I put super glue on to stop the crack.
You will probably get a lot of different suggestions, but what I have described works for me.

[JDieseljoe69]

mete and Tom,
Thanks for the suggestion's, most of the wood/tree's where cut and harvested last September.
I have plans to build a solar dryer down the line, not sure if you have heard or have any experience with them.

[Tom Lewis]

If you will go to some woodturning forums you will find all kinds of ideas on drying wood.
Boiling, microwave, soak in alcohol, various types of kilns.
For me, cutting out the pith and anchorseal with super glue in any new cracks works.

[kc custom]

I've used the microwave with good results (small pieces), nuke 1 min. at a time anytime you walk by the microwave
for a couple of days. When you suspect its dry put it in a ziploc and nuke again, 0 vapor = dry. Again this is for
handle size blocks. Works better with a small hole thru the center. I'm not saying it can't move, though I have
never had it move after the process.
Ken.

[Mahoney]

The microwave will work well for small/thin pieces, but be careful and don't nuke it too long or too often...internet research shows there are instances where the wood got hot enough to smolder internally and eventually start a fire hours later

Turners sometimes soak the wood in water mixed with a chemical called PEG to prevent checking and warping. That's OK for bowls perhaps, but PEG interferes with glues and some finishes so I'd not use it for handle material.

As a rule of thumb, air drying takes 1 year per inch of thickness, so there's something to be said for cutting almost to size while green. But if you are not in a hurry and have a lot of wood, a crack that would ruin a small piece can usually be cut around in a larger piece, especially if you are looking for pen and handle blanks

[JDieseljoe69]

Thanks for all the replies, there seems to be many methods people use, as of now I probably will try the Anchor Seal and air dry for a while till I can build a dryer of some sort. I know Walnut tends to crank from the ends inward. Mostly trying to prevent that with the Anchor Seal.

Here is a pic of some I cut up this afternoon,

[combs6136]

I cut some Osage Orange and let it dry for a few weeks and then was told to put in a oven at 120 deg. for 3 days...An old wood worker and saw mill owner told me this .............Let air dry in the barn for a few more weeks and have never had one crack..........I have been using home grown Osage for years with zero problems................I have done it with other woods as well.....But, it all started with the osage....................carl..........ps...i have a portable oven just for this.............

[combs6136]

this is with all wood cut to 3/8 in. th x 1 1/2 in. wide x 12 in. long...............carl

[kc custom]

About the smoldering from too long in the microwave. When I first started doing this I had exactly
that happen, where theres smoke theres fire right? I go out and cut the block on the bandsaw and sure enough
red coals inside the block----thats when I decided no more than 1 min. at a time, no problems since.
Ken.

[Tom Lewis]

I used PEG on some handle material and it leached some of the color out of the wood.