Harvesting some mesquite

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A friend offered to take me to his property and let me cut as much mesquite as I want, both green and 'not-so-green'.

I've done this before with lesser woods and just let them air dry in the garage with the bark in place and no seal on the ends. Some of the wood is 6 yrs old now and is as dry as anything else in the garage. Whenever I want a blank, I just bandsaw it down to the size I want and use it. I've had fairly good success, but do have a number of cracks that have showed up.

I want to do a better job, and hopefully have a higher success rate this time. What do y'all recommend? Should I keep the bark on and just seal the ends (with what?) or cut them down to oversized blanks, seal the ends and edges?

I appreciate any guidance,
Lee
 
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Sounds like you have had OK success with your method. But, no doubt, sealing the ends and removing bark is the best way to go. Leaving bark on invites insects and rot. Where you are, it may be dry enough that rot isn't an issue. But sealing the ends will save wood, I'm a big believe in sealing with Anchorseal. Not expensive and it keeps well. BTW, lucky you. [:)]
 
I have some Mesquite logs that I harvested two years ago that I've done nothing to and they still look fine. Only about half of them have very small checks and they only run an inch or less. Mesquite tends to be very stable. You can seal the ends if you wish, but I haven't found it to be necesary. While Anchorseal is better, I use plain old white latex paint (b/c I'm cheap), and have fairly good luck with it.
 
Here is part of my mesquite log stash. There is over 2,000 bf in this picture alone, (40,000+/- pen blanks!). All of these logs are over 4 years old with some of them 7. They all have the bark still on and some do not have the end painted. I have not really seen any difference in painting the ends or not. Mesquite heartwood WILL NOT ROT in normal cirsumstances. The sapwood will but that is all. Bugs will not really mess with the heart either. They might venture into it a little but not very far.

I also safely make pens and other turning with completely green mesquite right off the sawmill. I have had no problems at all with shrinkage. Mesquite is the most stable wood in the world according to Texas A&M University which makes it the perfect wood for turning finished pieces right away. No need to dry first.

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I just love mesquite! Most of the logs in the picture will be cut into lumber on my sawmill to be made into flatwork for my house. The scraps will be saved for pen blanks! That is 2/3 of my stash! I got most of it when they widened a prominent road around here and all I had to do was show up with a trailer and a case of beer and the crew even loaded it for me! Oh yeah, did I mention that I love mesquite!
 
Oh yeah, Lee...Do you do any flatwork? If you do and you want to bring some of the logs up here to San Marcos, I would be happy to mill them for you just for gas and a couple of $20 blades. I do that quite often for fellow woodworkers who plan to use it for their own personal use.
 
Thanks for the offer and the great info Mr. Seebeck. I don't know how much I'll actually cut the first time - probably enough for a decent load in the pickup - maybe more if I get invited back a second time. I get the impression that he has a lot, but nothing huge. He has it leased out to a rancher who tries to keep it clear - that and the cactus [:(]. I'll see.

We do make it up to your neck of the woods every once and a while - the inlaws are at Canyon Lake and we love San Marcos. My wife graduated from (then) SWTSU.

Nice stash, BTW.

Thanks again,
Lee
 
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