OT--"curing" wood

firkin

firkin

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Jan 26, 2002
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Somebody came and did some long overdue pruning on a really old, knarled hedge--left some 2"-3" diameter braches behind. Mostly dead stuff, some occasional termite damage. Looks like tight-grained, fairly hard wood with with some burl potential here and there. Doesn't seem cracked or checked, even where the termites got to. Don't know what the bush/tree's name is.

How to cure this as potential handle material, or is it worth it with this degree of ignorance?? I was thinking to make clean cuts on the ends and store it covered for a few months. If it doesn't crack, then cut it up and see whats there. Should I seal the ends with something? Will painting on some melted wax do?

Wish I knew what the wood is...but I don't.
 
Anything that will seall the end grain & basically slow it down absorbing moisture will work. Some people use melted bee's wax. I work with a feller that is a craftsman of period antiques. He works in exotic woods, along with a lot of walnut & knock-your-eyes-out maple & his favorite thing to use when he is air drying lumber, or logs, or etc. is the cheapest exterior paint he can get at Wally World, since it is not going to be a part of any finished product. He told me that he would sometimes have to repaint end-grain several times to make sure the grain was basically sealed up, but once done, it can be forgotten until the wood is dry. Small pieces that you are drying indoors might be sealed with 2 or 3 coats of shellac at a 2 or 3 lb. cut, as well as paint, varnish, or polyurethane. Hope this helps.
 
firkin -
DKP has it. Cut your pieces, seal the ends, and put the pieces in a place with still air, low humidty, and constant temps. I use a shelf in my hall closet, and 1/2" blocks between the wood and the shelf for air circulation. Sounds like most of the curing is done in the weathered wood you describe, so all it should need is a week or four, to lose whatever moisture it has retained from recent rains, dew, etc. A now-departed friend used to cure some very fancy to plain grained woods for his custom grip making business. His explanation for sealing the ends was that escaping moisture, forced to leave through the grain, resulted in less warping, and acted as sort of a "stress relief" in the heavily grained and burled woods. Some of his burled Circassian stayed in his drying room for as long as seven years, before he would trust it not to crack when it was shaped. This was before the internet, when rare woods were sought out by mail and 'phone, paid for dearly (that hasn't changed) and could mean a severe loss of profit if it split while carving a pair of $300 grips for a fancy collectors' gun. Still,he treated his plain, straight grained woods the same, except for time in the kiln.
 
Thanks, guys that's just what I needed to know!

Couple more questions--should I remove bark??

How about live, green layer of wood under bark??

Sounds like slow migration of moisture is desired, so leave on bark and live layers?

Yes, the hedge-stuff has places where a lot looks pretty dried out, but there is till a thin live laver under the bark, and one side of green heart-wood. I cut into one piece a bit and my khuk really went through the live and dead stuff. Might be a little soft, I rethinking this wood.

But...I have a chunk of loquat trunk with the top of the root ball-- a small healthy tree had to be taken out. This stuff is very hard and fine grained but checks and cracks badly if it just sits out side in San Diego coastal weather, as I found ot from previous experience. Sounds like I want to leave all the bark on, paint all endgrain of roots and trunk, then keep it in as constant temp,and fairly low humidty (that's a little tougher here!) as I can manage, then check it in a year or two??
I think this stuff could be pretty nice if it doesn't crack. Very fine-grained and dense. It's a good test of khuks.

I also might be able to get a chunk of pomegranite trunk, I think most of the cross section of that will be healthy.

Thanks, sorry I forgot about the bark question.
 
Shouldn't hurt to take off the bark, but I would leave the green wood layer. It will dry, and can be sanded/scraped later, but as it dries it will help "wick" moisture from deeper inside.
 
Thanks Wal!!

I'll just get a stiff brush and scrape off any loose bark--it's pretty thin on what I've got, trim things off with a finer saw, paint it up, stash it away and try to forget about it for a while.

I have managed to get a couple of small slabs out of the older loquat and carve/sand them into a sheath for a JKM-1 (soaked and re-stitched part of the original leather sheath to shrink onto part of the top so it hangs onto most of the handle too) and it's survived a few months, so I think if I can get this wood dried properly, most it will be usable and stable. From this quickie job, it looks like it will take a very high polish just with wax--the grain is very close.
 
Nothing much to add to the excellent advice posted above, except;

(a) small pieces of wood can be seasoned instantly in the microwave. Yes, it sounds dumb, but it works. I've turned a number of small bowls, cups &c from green apple wood, given them 5 minutes at full power (ten 30 second bursts with 30 seconds intervals between each treatment; time obviously depends on size, thickness &c of material, which will burn if overcooked and may screw up your oven fatally; suggest that if in doubt,you start with 15-second bursts and work up carefully from there) Apple wood turned green will usually crack, shake and distort unless force-seasoned in some way. This method works for me, and the finished pieces hold their shape and don't split. No kidding.

(b) one I haven't tried for myself, but it's vouched for by Texas bowmaker Jim Hamm, editor of the Traditional Bowyers' Bible. Simply cut the wood and leave it in the cab of a pickup for 24 hours with the windows shut. I suspect that this one may be Texas-specific; doesn't work in the cold, foggy, rain-drenched UK...
 
Texas has its' own weather. Anything left 24 ours in the closed cab of a pickup down there could also turn into dust:rolleyes: There is an old tale about the cowboy who was caught in a sudden and very rare rainstorm, down in the Big Bend country. He was found, unconcious, with the reins still in his hand. Rescuers had to dig down three feet, to get dry sand to throw in his face to wake him up :p
 
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