Thread: Fresh cut hardwood log to boards

Originally Posted by Redgy

Hi all,

I recently acquired a small log of possibly alpine or mountain ash (some kind of Vic cold climate hardwood)....approx 1mtr long by 250 diameter. It was cut within last few weeks. I want to make a box or 2 from it once dry. So my question is do I store it as a log for several years or resaw it now and dry as boards?

My thinking is to resaw it now,

Correct. It is quite small and if a high proportion is sapwood it could warp/bend etc quite a bit during drying.

stack and stick the boards under the carport with some weights for a year or so weighing the stack every month or so to monitor progress. What do I put on the ends....paint? Wax? Glue?

Any of those will work. If you use PVA glue you can water it down by 50%. I use a home brew of 4L of turps and 4 paraffin wax candle all melted together in an old paint tin heated in an old electric frypan (we have a gas stove).

Resaw the log as thick as you consider useful. Air dried, under cover, expect the boards to dry to a nominal moisture content of 12-14%. The usual here is 25mm/yr drying time. So a 50mm board would dry from both sides in approx 2 years. Put 10mm sticker pieces between the boards in the stack for air circulation. Evenly distributed weight on top is good. Wood "dried in service" should warp/cup/twist less. Every time you move the stack, change the positions of the stickers (2 months?) so you don't get "sticker shadows" in the wood.
Paint, glue or wax as a sealer on the ends is meant to even out the rates of water loss from the cut ends of the cells to the flat sides of the board.
OTOH, with an Adelaide summer coming up, you just might make a crop of bananas.