Thread: Working big piece of wood - cracking help!!

Yup.. A piece of wood like that is going to split
If you are planning on having the round of the log as a table top, it's basically doomed. If you are thinking of a rectangular table from 1/2 a log, then it's more likely to succeed. What I have done in the past is split logs using a chainsaw and made 2 'D' logs. Cut the pith out completly, dont leave it in either board as it will crack around the pith 100% of the time.

What species is the wood and what are you carving out of it? Some species are quite forgiving and may not split as badly, others are basically impossible to dry intact if they are over 2" thick.

I would suggest that you will have the best results from rough carving the wood now while it's green and then letting the wood dry.

I doubt you will find any one that can commercially dry that sort of item anyway. Any conventional kiln wont handle it beacuse of the thickness, and even vacumn or microwave drying would be a problem. Thats probably why it was sold 'green', make the drying / cracking your problem.

good luck, but if you can provide some more details of your design we might be able to help you more.

Cheers

Ian

As Ian said you need to hollow it out, ideally no more than an inch or two wall thickness

PEG .... Poly-ethylene-glycol (PEG).

It is great wood preservative. Soak green wood in the stuff and it prevents the checking that occurs when drying wood or working with green wood.

A bunch of year ago I was in the Cincinnati Carvers Guild of the National Woodcarvers Assn. And there was a project to carve a Totum pole of Buckeye (Horse Chestnut) State Tree of Ohio (the Buckeye state) Anyway it was so green the bark slipped off like a wet sock. The fellows soaked the log in PEG and then commence to carve, As they finished for the day they wrapped it in a wet towel soaked in peg and then plastic and made sure it stayed wet. They carved every few days till it was done. The piece did not check or crack and dried excellantly.

Might explore such.... By the way PEG is almost the same as Antifreeze (ethylene-glycol) some folks substitute Automobile Antifreeze for the PEG solution.

Hello!

Thanks for the replies! You have been very very useful, and I will try and use all suggestions given.

A little about the piece - I aahhh was kinda intending to make the top of the table the main slice through the trukn - have seen that once or twice before and was very impressed by how nice it looked. But the top is horrendously cracked, and I guess I am going to have to change that plan.
The initial idea was to make the main of it very much organic and tree looking - ie having 3 root like legs coming out at the base, coming up into a thick trunk, which then split off into either general or three main branches with lots of smaller branches coming off, all supporting the flat cut through the section which was going to be the top. But obviously from what I have heard I am going to have to make modifications to that, especially gien how badly cracked it is already. It would be nice to salvage the top like you say Kickory, but its really badly cracked already. I will however use the solutions you suggested on the rest - as long as they it doesnt stain!
So now what I think I will do, is the keep the outside boundary of the trunk but remove all wood further than about 30-50mm from the edge and instead fit a piece of glass as the main table top - if possible, cracks have spread around one old branches on the top to the outside of the trunk, not sure what to do about that, clamp it together perhaps and glue it together once I have most the wood off and near completion. Then I will have the branches coming down, to a wide hollow trunk section, with holes cut in the side to form fake "knots" but also to relieve some of the pressure from drying and hopefully minimise cracking.... Will try make that about 10 - 15mm thick walls, with a trunk of about 120mmish outside diameter.
The wood is elm, and its absolutely beautiful. it twists all over the place, and is covered in burr!! Its just a shame so much of it will have to go.

Thanks again for the help!!

Rob