Tips for newbie on seasoning wood ?

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DeadeyeLefty

Joined
Jun 2, 2007
Messages
610
Hey guys,

I've got some juniper that I cut way back a while ago. I saved a piece that was about 4" diam and a couple feet long. It's a pretty old plant with a tight, dense grain and a really white wood. I'd like to use it for scales, but I'm not sure how to go about drying it appropriately.

I sprayed the butt end with some lacquer to slow drying and keep it from checking (the bark is still on). Because juniper grows with so many twists and turns, I'm concerned about it distorting from the irregular grain as it dries. Otherwise, I would have just peeled it, ripped it to 3/4" or so strips, and stacked them in the basement to air dry.

I'm not sure about stabilizing it afterward either, but I doubt know if that makes a difference at this point. I think I want to lightly stain it to differentiate the grain before getting it stabilized, depending on compatibility between stabilizing resin and the stain.

Anybody worked with juniper ? I haven't, so it's a learning curve for me. All thoughts are greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
I have cut quite a bit of wood for bows including Juniper. The bark comes off easer when the wood is green. Mite not matter if your cutting it up for handles. seal the ends up like you did with lacker and put it in the rafters of your shed/barn/garage or any place that is dry and leave it alone for a year. I like to put a date name tag on mine so I remember what it is and where I got it.
 
Time is the best tool to season any wood, drying slower is the best for less splitting , checks and warping.

Saying that, time and again I find myself curing wood in my kitchen oven by baking at the lowest setting. There is a pleasing smell that seems to diminish as the wood drys (expelling less moister)

The old Smithy trick was to hang cants from the ceiling for a few years (like 4 for Oaks and Hickory) before made into tool handles.

If your having fun, how can you make a mistake?
 
So I went downstairs today to dig this piece out and see how it's doing, mostly to get the bark off it. Apparently, in a moment of clarity, I marked the date with a sharpie when I stored it: Mar 07 !! I had absolutely NO idea it was that long ago ('early-onset alzheimer's' maybe?...)

Anyway, based on the timeline of a year to dry, I milled up a test piece. After a quick sanding and some olive oil to bring up the grain, wow...here's a link to a scan of it. For a sense of scale, the piece is about 3/4" X 8". I think it's going onto this (6" Damascus dagger) blank with copper guard, pins, and pommel, but I'm not sure yet.

CrowValleyForge said:
If your having fun, how can you make a mistake?
Click to expand...
Words to live by ! I'm looking for a sig anyway, so I might have to steal that...
I hadn't thought of oven drying but it makes sense because that's basically how mills do it. I can imagine how great it must smell (seriously). Most of what I make in the shop is sawdust, I guess because I like the smell.

bikermike, have you found juniper to have any eccentricities in working that might help ? It seems to be really fibrous, but otherwise 'behaves' like a hardwood.

Thanks for the tips, gentlemen - I'm stoked now. Time to source some copper ! Not to mention the aspen and linden 'green waste' I stored at the same time...
 
DeadeyeLefty said:
bikermike, have you found juniper to have any eccentricities in working that might help ? It seems to be really fibrous, but otherwise 'behaves' like a hardwood.
Click to expand...
There are apparently quite a few varieties of juniper. What I have used was a California mountain juniper and a Japanese variate. The Ca.juniper was the most knotty piece of Wood I have ever tried to make a bow out of. Very hard and stringy But I work with the grain when making bows. The Japanese type juniper was very soft and I decided it was a better walking stick than a bow.
 
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