Thread: Ironbark Logs

They are likely to spilt even if they are sealed and strapped and there is very little you can do about it.

Some techniques used to reduce the splitting are;

- dig a 1m hole and line it with a 250 mm layer of wet sawdust, pack in the rounds up to 250 mm and cover with a 250 mm layer of wet sawdust cover with a 250 mm layer of soil . Saturate the whole thing with water and keep it damp for a year - dig them up and let them dry slowly out of direct sunlight and medium light ventilation.

- put then underwater for a year and then do the same as above.

Some will still spit but hopefully not as many as otherwise might. You might also get some interesting fungal patterns with the first method.

I would be inclined to mill all the back-sawn/rift-sawn boards oversize,this way it will ensure that you are left with the desired thickness,after dressing them.Being small logs,good chance that some boards WILL move during seasoning..do the logs have much sap? If so,get stuck into 'em before the borers do...good luck with 'em...MM

Originally Posted by MAPLEMAN

I would be inclined to mill all the back-sawn/rift-sawn boards oversize,this way it will ensure that you are left with the desired thickness,after dressing them.Being small logs,good chance that some boards WILL move during seasoning..do the logs have much sap? If so,get stuck into 'em before the borers do...good luck with 'em...MM

MM my understanding is he's talking about making cookies or 50 mm thick discs of timber and how to hold them together while they dry.

Originally Posted by BobL

MM my understanding is he's talking about making cookies or 50 mm thick discs of timber and how to hold them together while they dry.

Oh...Cheers for that BobL..MM

Thanks for the advice lads.

I've attached a few pics of them. I was hoping to make lazy Susan's/serving boards out of them. I have heard ironbark is notorious for checking so I don't think i'll have much luck with them. I might experiment with a few and see how they go.

Red Ironbark? Talk about heavy, it took two of us to lift them!


Ironbark02.jpgIronbark03.jpgIronbark04.jpgIronbark01.jpg

I tend to agree with Bob. You could try slicing a few at 25mm thick, then store them in a large container with 50/50 detergent (cheap stuff will do) and water for around a year, way down the back yard (it will not look or smell pretty ). Then bury the blanks in sawdust in a hessian bag, down the back again out of the sun, and hope the termites don't get it.

Ok cheers, thanks for the advice

Bit late to the party, but there's a trick you can try for small sections, if you're so inclined. It would be a bit much to try doing it for large volumes, but this used to be done for wooden plane bodies and similar things.

Basically, you replace the water with something else. This can be paraffin or whatever is suitable. Method is to immerse the lump of green wood in your whatever, and have that inside a container of water. Heat the water to boiling point. Heat will transfer to parafffin/whatever, and then to the water inside the wood, which will slowly boil out and be replaced by the paraffin.

Result should be a perfectly stable piece of wood, without incurring any checking or other distortion.

Just threw my 2c in because I saw "ironbark", which has long been one of my favourites (even if it is a bit of a mongrel to work).