help with cracked wood

[highdarkness]

so a friend of mine was able to give me a bunch of red oak and cherry tree wood straigh from the tree with the bark and all but when the wood drys it seems to slightly crack kinda like a star pattern does anyone know any ways to maybe glue or fiz this so when i cut it it doesnt break any pieces off. it would be a shame to not be able to use it

[lucky788scroller]

Yes! Seal the ends right away! Use either Pentacryl, wax, or a few thick layers of acrylic paint. If the logs dry a couple days after cutting, you may be to late.It loses moisture out of the endgrain way to rapidly, and the checking (cracks you see)you see will make the wood ,once cut into lumber, crumble and useless for much more than firewood.

[highdarkness]

still kinda confused on that some of the wood already has slight cracks in the middle so does that mean that the wood is now useless and what u mean by end grain....and i was hoping to keep the natural wood look so how could i seal those craks without acrylic paint did u mean like candle wax? sorry kinda new with this

[highdarkness]

I know after reading that again understand what u mean but these were already cut into one inch or so slabs so is there any way to help save those pieces

[lucky788scroller]

If I am understanding correctly, you mean you have slices from the tree itself? I was thinking you meant chunks like firewood, but now I am thinking you have couple inch thick slices off the tree, with bark all around? If thats the case, one way to do is put each slice into a paper bag and buried in a bunch of the fresh chainsaw shavings from the tree. The shavings will be pretty damp, and by burying the wood discs in that, it will slow down their drying rate, minimizing their cracking. They may warp, twist and contort themselfs some, and its really hard to control that on slices like this.Yes, you may still be able to use them once dry, even with the checking. Those could be filled with an epoxy resin, but wait until they are fully dry. And by endgrain, I was refering to the grain where they were cut, think of a hunk of firewood. The ends are considered endgrain. The same goes for lumber, the ends + endgrain. The moisture escapes the endgrain very fast, so fast that on some species you can watch them start cracking shortly after freshly cutting down a tree.

[highdarkness]

yes they are approximatly 1 inch think slices he cut with a chainsaw for me im going to go back in the morning and get all the shavings to help with the drying rate is epoxy resin clear? and the cracks are very thin so im guessing this stuff is liquidy to be able to get inbetween those cracks? also is it sandable and is there anywhere i should keep this wood inparticular this is the first time im gettin wood from an actual log instead of from a store and all ur help so far has been great thank you so much