Best Time To Cut A Tree For The Burl?

Forgive me jumping in with a couple questions.

When you say “put them on stickers.” What does that mean? Do you put stickers on the wood with date/info?

Also, why do you paint/anchorseal the end grains or exposed cuts? If it slows the drying process, wouldn’t that be undesirable? Wouldn’t you want it to dry out as quick as possible? Of course without it being too quick, like with a kiln, which would cause checks and cracks.
 
JG, the paint helps prevent the wood cracking as it dries.

the "stickers" are a reference to stacking the wood in a particular way.
you stack so that the wood is in alternating layers with space between each piece, or with "stickers" (sticks long enough to reach from one side of the stack to the other) separating each layer.
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And, to add to that, the stickers allow air to circulate evenly for uniform drying. You want to paint to slow down the drying out process or the wood could/will dry too fast creating splits, cracks and warping (trying to minimize that).

Hope I got that right.

thanks for the sticker photo!
 
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nateman_doo said:
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you like what you see when you open it, then you are good to go.
See the sprouts that burl source was talking about at the base of the tree?
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I think this is the most beautiful wood I have ever seen, but again thats just my personal opinion.
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First time I had the chance to look at this on the computer, that is some beautiful wood!
Question; Will the tree survive with that type of harvest (I'm thinking it should)? That would be great if I could use that method, and would save me a lot of work on that 3 footer right on the creeks edge.
 
Drying wood loses moisture from end grain much much faster than through face grain. When you don't slow down end grain moisture loss, the ends dry out rapidly leading to a moisture imbalance relative to the middle of the wood. This leads to twisting, checking, end shakes, cracking, and splitting. By sealing the ends with AnchorSeal or paint, end grain moisture losses are slowed down to approximately the same rate as the face grain, leading to uniform (-ish) drying of the wood. "Stickers" are small pieces of wood used to separate drying boards to allow uniform air circulation and, again, promote uniform moisture loss.

Wood drying can be sped up by using a kiln, although this can washout/muddy the grain on some species (notably walnut). Alcohol drying as mentioned above is another option. For the truly adventurous, microwave drying of wood can be done but must be carefully watched so that you don't set the piece (and yourself) on fire. Basically, you use an old microwave oven (which will end up stinky afterwards) to steam all of the moisture out of the wood. You weigh the piece initially, seal it in a plastic bag, microwave, cool, drain liquid from bag, re-weigh, microwave, cool, etc. until it stops losing weight. At that point, it's either on fire or dry.
 
I used to work for a company building spiral staircases. We went through a lot of wood. The wood was stored outside due to space concerns, and we would have the bottom guys on the totem pole do the "stickering" before it was put in a kiln for drying. I never knew that stickering was a well established term outside of the company until this thread.
 
Randy3000 said:
I used to work for a company building spiral staircases. We went through a lot of wood. The wood was stored outside due to space concerns, and we would have the bottom guys on the totem pole do the "stickering" before it was put in a kiln for drying. I never knew that stickering was a well established term outside of the company until this thread.
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I'm an old termite. Stickering or sticking have been familiar terms to me all my life both in Vermont and Florida. Sometimes I hate to think how much Time, $, sweat, and broken equipment have been expended by us termites trying to get some huge piece of wood out of some inaccessible place just because we knew it would "look really cool if I made it into a ___________." That is supposed to be why I now try to make knives. The basic ingredients are supposed to weigh a few pounds at most. Not supposed to tackle things that weigh thousands of pounds anymore. (But I have a Barko log loader that can pick up anything a truck can bring to it.)
 
Great time of year to cut/split trees. I was always told an inch thick per year air dried (and stickered) so the sooner down
and sawn into the lumber you require the sooner it begins to dry. If you bring it indoors immediately it will dry AND it will check - crack
and split. Cut the length and thickness you want - paint the ends to reduce the moisture loss - keep it out of direct sun
and let dry in barn or exterior garage. Kiln drying changes the character of the wood and its strength but will hasten evaporation.
 
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