Thread: Drying over a long time (years)

Hi everyone,

My mother in law just had a couple of trees felled on her 5 acre block that were a bit too close to the house. One of the trees was an Ironbark which I expected to be firewood but ended up having a lovely colour and grain pattern to it. So rather than cut it up, I thought I would try and keep the bigger bits for some tables or benches or something down the track.

What I have currently is a 3.5m trunk section from about a meter above ground level and approx 21" in diameter. I also have another slightly shorter section from just above it. I also have a limb off a jarrah that would be more like 12-15" thick and probably 1.5-2m long. The guy who cut the trees down said to just paint the edges to prevent the end grain drying out too quickly and store them laying down, as logs. Everything I have read online since seems to indicate I should slab it and stack with stickers rather than leave it as a log. What is the best way for long term storage?

By long term storage I mean that I currently live in the UK, and plan to for another 3-5 years, so the wood would be stored in my mother in law's shed in the hills outside Perth. What are the slabs (or logs) likely to be like at the end of this length of time? Am I wasting my time?

Appreciate any advice you guys can give. Looking forward to doing something with these trees if I can save the timber!

Thanks,
Michael