How do you find your wood

[minowevie]

HI all how do you find your wood for resawing. and how do you keep it from splitting. your friend Evie

[lucky788scroller]

I tell the farmer who I worked for as a child that he needs to save me a few nice logs when hes cutting trees. He watches for good lumber trees and calls me when hes dropping them. Then, I haul the logs to Petersons Custom Lumber to be milled and dried. But, believe it or not, I never seem to have the wood i need, so I then buy some of their scrollsaw ready wood! So its a win win win situation for me i guess!!! Dale

[CanadianScroller]

I have a friend who helps me there, He stacks the wood in his workshop with stickes between the layers of wood.
If we are impatient we put fans on the wood to draw the moisture out a little faster.

I also have a friend with a wood kiln, and he does tons of woodbut thats really not fair.
The funny thing is when drying wood yourself it would be nice to have a moisture detector. I cut some maple, stacked two peices together and predrilled the wood for scrolling, the wood had a little too much moisture in it and it warped slightly.

A couple of months later I checked and everything was fine. I can now cut the stacked wood.

[Gill]

I also put my wood in sticker unless it's been kiln-dried and is ready for immediate use. I've been told that wet lumber needs to be seasoned for one year per inch of thickness, and that seems to work for me.

I also paint the cut ends of the wood to reduce the rate at which moisture evaporates through the end grain. It's uneven evaporation that causes the wood to split.

Gill

[Jediscroller]

I buy rough lumber that's been dried. I resaw it and plane it to the thickness I need. I don't have to deal much with splitting (if the ends are checked they get cut off and tossed in the kindling pile). I just go one of my local lumber yards or to my local Woodcraft store for small quantities. There hasn't been a wood yet that I wanted that the lumber yard didn't carry.

Kevin

[gmackay]

During the past fall I got some black cherry logs from a neighbor that were about 12" in diameter. I painted the ends of the logs to prevent splitting, then resawed the wood to 1" thickness on my bandsaw. I placed the wood stickered in my attic over the garage. It has good ventilation up there and gets consistantly over 120 degrees in the attic all summer long here in South Carolina. The wood should be ready in August, although I don't have a moisture meter.

Just a good experiment, we'll see how the wood turns out. It doesn't appear to have split any more at the ends, as the wood has been in the attic 3 months.

[Old Mooner]

I gotta say this. It is funny reading the comments about letting wood dry "one year per inch" of thickness, etc. I keep thinking that at my age I better find darn thin wood! Ah, youth.
Moon

[CanadianScroller]

I actually find my wood somewhere on the floor of my shop under a shroud of sawdust.

If my son gets finished cleaning the shop I am sure I will have a better handle on it.

[minowevie]

Originally Posted by Old Mooner

I gotta say this. It is funny reading the comments about letting wood dry "one year per inch" of thickness, etc. I keep thinking that at my age I better find darn thin wood! Ah, youth.
Moon

ubove all Moon. I would like to know how you handale your wood. in Calif. they cover the wood with some parifaine or wax of some sort. small stuff I meen. I bet you do something , and I would like to know. do you stack it. or stand it up. or put in a shed. or what. do you space it. or what do you do. I know you have alot to teach us. do you leave it thick. or what. ????? I am your student. and I wont to learn from the best.
Ok say I just cut down a wonderful tree. what do I do now. lieve it alone for a year or two. or do I cut it in smaller workablae sizes. or what. do I cover it with something. or let it air dry. your friend Evie lol Ps or maybe I could smock it. lol

[Rolf]

I was helping setup for a 40's dance the other night and this guy brings in 4 planks of 5/4 x 7 inch x 3 feet long mahogany. I asked him about it and he said he uses it for kindling. Needles to say that wood went home with me to a much safer place. I have already re-sawed one plank and planed it down to 1/4 for a tissue box cover.