White Oak

[Big_red_S]

I had a white oak cut down from my yard this weekend (by the missus' request) but I kept about 1 foot of the tree.

How do I dry it and for how long?

Thanks.

[Jediscroller]

The rule of thumb for air drying is 1 year per inch of thickness.

[Big_red_S]

So I need to cut the log to one inch thick pieces.

Any idea how I do so?

[greatdane2]

Find someone with a good bandsaw and slice it as thick as you want the boards to be.Stack in a dry and level place, you should put 1x1 stikers in about 6 inches from each end and every 12 inches along the board. this will allow the boards to breath. most people put a thick paint on the butt of each board. this stops the board from drying to fast,and spliting. Also add a lot of weight on top of the pile. I used to dry thousand of board feet of Western Red Cedar, I just put in a small barn and put a small fan to blow the air around each night. I could dry 2x8x12' down to 4% in a couple of months.
So getting back to your question, try getting the rest of that tree and cut it in longer pieces. For what you have you could slice it and use the method above, but any small pieces I have tried hust spit and was mostly junk.
If wood dries to fast it will spit and or warp. The paint on the end stops the water from flowing out of the end. The slower you let it dry the better the end result.
I hear the kiln dried wood is getting better but it used to be a25-30% waste coming out of the kiln. For people buying kiln dryed wood it can have a lot of tension in it,when you cut it lenght wise it can twist very badly. I learned the hard way to stay away from the nice looking wood they have indoors in a rack at the wood stores.
Maybe someone else can jump in with a better answer for your short piece.

[lucky788scroller]

If you havent sealed the ends by now, chances are it wont be of much use once it dries completely. You should immediately wax or heave coat the ends with pentacryl, or a thick paint, or wax.

[greatdane2]

I have 2 logs of Yew that are about 5' long, and 8" and 16"s thick. I cut some of it with a bandsaw into 3/4" thick rounds. These logs have been stored for at leaste 15 years. Anyway I did a couple of fret horses with them, all was fine until I took them into the house to show the other half what I had done. In the morning they had so many cracks it turned them into garbage. took them back out to the shop and they closed up most of the cracks in a couple of days. I did a few more last fall and finished them with 4 coats of marine Spar Varnish. they did not move at all, 1 is still on my wall. So sealing them well worked for me.

[Big_red_S]

Originally Posted by lucky788scroller

If you havent sealed the ends by now, chances are it wont be of much use once it dries completely. You should immediately wax or heave coat the ends with pentacryl, or a thick paint, or wax.

Really, it's been out for maybe two days.

[Big_red_S]

Thanks for the info Alan, I'll try that.

[f250]

I bought a gallon of anchor seal. I harvest all kinds of wood from people/business's cutting stuff down in town. Put the sealant on ASAP. Get it sliced as soon as you get a chance. I've cut slices anywhere from like 2inches to very thin, the thicker like an inch or so tends to work better for me for short boards. I stack it just like stated above and then end up using it like 6 months later (I live in New Mexico). I just used a bit of harvested mesquite, it is beautiful!

Tom