A buddy who is renovating his house had to remove an old pear tree, probably 70+ years old, and I managed to get all of it. The pieces are of various lengths and range in diameter from about 6″ all the way up to 2′! From the ends that I can see, the wood is solid, no sign of rot, bugs, etc. The wider pieces are reasonably knot free too.
Anyway, enough gloating – what I really want to find out is when should rough cut my lumber out of it? The tree was cut down a couple months ago, and has been sitting out exposed in the Pacific Northwest winter. I ran a small piece through my bandsaw when I got it home, and it is utterly soaking wet.
Should I dry it first, then cut it into the pieces I want, or should I cut it first then stack it and let it dry after it is cut? Also, should I paint the ends to prevent splitting? My thought was to rip it into one inch thick slabs on my bandsaw.
As for drying, I have a dry garage that gets pretty hot in the summer, or I could store it in a spare room in my basement, which is also dry, but will not be nearly as hot in the summer and has hydronically heated floors in the winter.
Any suggestions?
Dan
Replies
Dan,
Coat the ends of the logs ASAP or you may not have any usable wood. Being it has been cut for two months some damage has probably already been done, but cold wet weather doesn't dry out the wood too quickly so the chances are that there hasn't been extensive checking.
The wood should be sawn into boards fairly soon, nothing is gained and much can go wrong by leaving the logs whole. For drying, the basement sounds like the better location. Sticker the wood with dry stickers and weight the top of the pile. Many fruitwoods warp as they dry, weighting, or clamping, the pile can reduce the warping somewhat.
John W.
Dan, as John has pointed out, it's best to mill the logs and get the end grain coated as soon as possible after the tree has been harvested. The end coating helps prevent end checking and the thinner thicknesses allow the wood to season more quickly.
Also, in the case of pear, you what to make sure the stickered drying pile is exposed to good air flow early in the drying process. Pear has poor decay resistance and it bluestains very quickly, if the surface is allowed to remain moist (above 20%MC).
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