Thread: Fresh cut wood help

The first thing I'd do is cut the heart out, as that's where most checking starts.

A rough guide to what I'd do after that...

For small(ish) blanks, I wouldn't bother slabbing per se. Instead I'd just use a chain/band-saw and rip the tree down the middle, then rip the two halves and finally the four quarters, so I ended up with 8 wedge-profiled boards. I'd let these dry out before I cut them down any further into blanks, although I may dock them to shorter lengths for ease of storage.

If I wanted the option of getting larger peieces out (eg. for furniture) then I'd go the route of slabbing the trees instead.

Either way, I'd finally seal at least the ends and stack them with stickers to allow air flow while they dry out. Stacked somewhere they could sit for around a year or so per each inch of thickness.

Oak, hickory & fruit trees are all fairly straight-forward to dry, although the redgum will probably move and warp like a cut snake. It is what it is.

Kris

Much depends on how large the trees are. If they are saplings they may have too much spring in them, which will produce timber that wants to move around: Unstable in other words, but if they are a reasonable size and if they are threatening the house and tanks they may be, you could mill them up. However, this also depends on what equipment you have. You could consider getting a miller in with a portable mill if you don't have a suitable chain saw.

As Skew has said the heart, of hardwood trees, is always discarded (not the case for softwoods) and he has mentioned the standard for air drying being one year for each inch of thickness. Hickory is uncommon in Oz, but just happens to be the best timber for impact handles (hammers, axes, block splitters and chisels etc.). The other issue is how much room you have to store the timber until it is dry.

Some pix of the logs would be helpful and then Forum members could offer suggestions as to what could be done with them. Apple is a little unusual too, but for a long time was the preferred timber by our American cousins for saw handles. Cherry, Oak and Red Gum are all very useable timbers.

At the very least there is an awful lot of knife scales there.

Regards
Paul

PS: Welcome to the Forums.

As said by those who are in the know depends on timber size.I live in Shepparton and have a chainsaw attachment that may be of help, drop me a line on my profile and I will give you my phone number. Because you are not in my phone contacts you will be rejected as spam so message is the way to go . welcome to the knowledgeable forum.