DRYING REALLY WET WOOD

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
keithkarl2007

keithkarl2007

Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2008
Messages
1,727
Location
Ireland
so there's a huge log of bog oak on our bog, the ends aren't cracked yet. I was wondering how best to mill it for turning, maybe bowl, pen, vase and stopper blanks. If it was cut wet to smaller sizes, would it reduce the drying time and if it was cut wet would sealing the ends help or prevent it from drying out
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
You may not live long enough for it to dry if you leave it whole! If it was me, I'd cut it up into a bit larger sizes that I'd want for bowls and what not, and then either seal it or if the pieces were manageable enough, I'd soak them in Pentacryl. That will draw the water out quicker while preserving the "straws" inside, inhibiting cracking.

Guess it depends how valuable it is to you...

Dale
 
Letting it dry as slowly as possible will reduce cracking. That is what end sealer does. Avoid direct sun (maintain even temperature throughout if possible) and allow for air movement.

The smaller the piece, the less the possibility of it cracking...however, you cannot make big things out of small pieces (unless you want to glue them together). Cut them to your intended sizes.

Good luck!!!
 
yeah i thought that, cutting blanks oversize, dip the ends in wax or something and stack them allowing air to flow between them.
 
Yer both as wet as the wood, send it to me in Tennessee, it get's dry here, all I have to do is plant a garden, we won't get any rain until next October.
 
You state, "I'd soak them in Pentacryl" ... IMHO that stuff causes wayyyyyy more finishing problems that it is worth.

Cut the ewood to whatever dimensions you want it to be later on and allow a bit for shrinkage, say maybe 15% in size.

Get yourself some pure alcohol and let the cut wood soak in it for a good long bit of time. The alcohol will replace the water and it also will'dry' much faster. Be sure to keep the wood completely covered all the time.

ust my 0.02 worth.

If this works for ya, be sure to post your wood here for us to drool over!
 
Fred said:
You state, "I'd soak them in Pentacryl" ... IMHO that stuff causes wayyyyyy more finishing problems that it is worth.

Cut the ewood to whatever dimensions you want it to be later on and allow a bit for shrinkage, say maybe 15% in size.

Get yourself some pure alcohol and let the cut wood soak in it for a good long bit of time. The alcohol will replace the water and it also will'dry' much faster. Be sure to keep the wood completely covered all the time.

ust my 0.02 worth.

If this works for ya, be sure to post your wood here for us to drool over!
Click to expand...

He could, but then he would have to dry it all over again.:biggrin:
 
If the posts here is any indication...I really think it is worth investing into and have the wood kiln dried. :wink:

That or send it to PA, OH, TN, etc. and they will take care of the drying for you. :biggrin:
 
The "murican" oaks tend to fall into groups of white oak (those with the closed tubes) and red oaks (those with open tubes). For flat work, both work well. For turning, the white oaks are better as they are not as stringy. There are a number of species of oak that do not respond well to drying -- they check, twist, and deform. Commercially the last group become pallets and such.

If you have a white oak type, it will decay very slowly and you have a long time to work on getting the wood out. Red oak species rot fast. Spalted white oaks can be spectacular so you may get good products in a few years as you keep working on the tree.

The good news about your intended uses is that small pieces are likely to be recoverable regardless. The bad news is that there is a ton of sweat equity cutting and packing and you do not know what you are likely to get for a while. Bowls and platters can be turned green and will give insight into how the wood will respond.

Big bandsaws are good == best is a friend with a big band saw who will let you resaw for a share of the wood or a 6 pack of good beer. Paint/coat ends, turn green wood, sweat hard while packing, expect branches to be brittle and have reaction wood, and have fun experimenting with low cost wood that has a story.
 
If your bog oak log is one of those thousands of years old treasures, I believe the first thing you should do is put in storage out of sight. It may be extremely valuable. As for drying, you have a unique situation with that. My thought is to have it milled into 2 - 2 1/2" slabs of lengths you can handle. Then stack and sticker. (stack with something in between to allow for air flow) Put into dry storage, seal ends and wait. I use an old house fan to keep air moving. But, where you live, this time of year, that may not help much. In warmer weather the fan is a big plus. For pens, maybe cut some 6" lengths, mill into blanks and stack in the house and wait, and wait.
Send us updates, you have something special there.
 
so i went back down to the bog today, turns out its not bog oak but bog yew, :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin: the outside of all bog wood is black, i pulled back some grass growing over the end and the end of it was dark purple :biggrin:
 
Im not sure if polyethyleneglycol is the same as pentacryl but PEG is used to cure difficult splitterymercated timbers just cut your blanks out pop them in the solution wait a bit depending on the size of the blanks and use the timber perhaps you could do half peg and half slow drying method

Can I have some please........ o please .... pretty please....???
 
keithkarl2007 said:
so i went back down to the bog today, turns out its not bog oak but bog yew, :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin: the outside of all bog wood is black, i pulled back some grass growing over the end and the end of it was dark purple :biggrin:
Click to expand...

Now, you seriously need to invest on milling and kiln drying for that! :eek:
 
i know, spoke to a person about it last night and he said i should get it off the bog before someone else gets their hands on it
 
ok so anyone i'm sending bog yew to, you know who you are :biggrin: this stuff is supposed to be quite rare. I'd recommend keeping whatever pen you turn from it for yourself cos next year Irish bogs are gonna be preserved, no more turf cutting and probably no more scanning for bog oak, or yew or pine or willow .... although you should see the pine. I assumed it would be really soft but no its almost harder than the oak and nearly blood red
 
not at the moment, maybe in a fortnight, i'm meeting with a person next wednesday who has wrote many articles on bog wood and has been making bogwood sculptures for almost 30 years, I've an appointment at my chiropractor next wednesday and this person is only 5 mins away from there.
He is keen to show me his collection some of which are bog pine, oak, yew and willow. I've heard of bog ash, he might have some of that also
 
My brother found some bog oak and hickory both are very rare for the state that I live in WV. I have found that drying is best done very slowly in a cool dark place. I use the closet in my basement works nicely. I would like to add to my collection if you get any other [FONT=&quot]Species[/FONT] and would be welling to part with them. Thanks
Travis
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom