pic of the osage I got

[nsherve]

I said I'd put up a picture of the tree I cut down...

[Morgan]

Well, I’m green with envy! Very nice haul!

[osage outlaw]

There's some bows in there.  Nice haul.  Did you seal the ends yet?

[nsherve]

I haven’t...I’ll need to go get something at the store for that. They were closed when I got there.

[osage outlaw]

How can I say this politely.....SEAL THOSE ENDS!!!

I hope you cut them long.  They might not look like it but I am sure they are checking.  The moisture has to leave the log somewhere and the ends are the only place it can go right now.  Do you have any old paint?  That will work.  You can also use wax, polyurethane, shellac, wood glue, etc. 

[nsherve]

Haha...got it. I may have some old paint. Most of them are over 6ft. A few are short. The bigger logs started to split as soon as they hit the dirt.

[Eric Krewson]

Paint over the skinned up place on the logs as well as these might check without the bark.

What you do is split wood until you pass out from fatigue, and resume as soon as you come to.

Believe it or not, someone actually took my picture seriously one time and got alarmed. In this case I cut more than I could handle, there is a lot more not in the picture. Working lots of overtime I didn't get all this wood properly taken care of and lost about half of it to checking. I left it in the sun and it turned into a pile of snakes, badly warped.

[nsherve]

I found some anchorseal I had forgotten about. I painted all the ends this morning.

[bjrogg]

Eric and Clint are right. It's a pretty big job that can very quickly become overwhelming preparing staves for storage and curing. They really don't care if you don't have the time or energy to get the job done. Lots of things can happen to ruin your wood. Some of them very quickly. The best method is how Eric discribed. If you leave the bark on the bugs can ruin it. If you just take the bark off and leave sapwood on, even with multiple coats of shellac it still can get deep drying checks. Even after you have it dried for years with bark and sapwood removed and back sealed. If you chase a ring seal the back right away. Then seal it again. The closer you can get the stave to bow dimension the more evenly it can dry. You want the stave to dry through its belly. It wants to dry anywhere it can. If the back or ends dry faster than the core they will shrink and cause deep drying checks and do it very quickly. You've got some very nice looking logs there. I can see a lot of potential in them. I'd try really hard to take care of those before I cut anymore
Bjrogg

[DC]

There is a Clay Hayes video in which he sprays the bark with diesel to kill the bug/eggs. I have no idea if it works but it seems quick and easy.

[nsherve]

It seems I've heard something about storing some wood under water. I know it wouldn't dry out under there, but I'm thinking it would prevent splitting from the drying stress until I'm ready for them. Any thoughts on this? Also, you think this would keep the worms in check?
I am also thinking it would rot the bark and sapwood, might make it easier to get it off. I have a fish pond on my property, so the water is available...

[osage outlaw]

I would not put it under water.

[nsherve]

Can you tell me why you wouldn't?

[bjrogg]

I've seen and heard that to. Never tried it but thought about it. I brought it up in a different thread once. I would also be interested in how this works if anyone has tried it. It seems to me that the video I saw they just left staves underwater for a few months but that might help spread out the workload. I also saw the Clay Hayes video where he soaks bark with diesel fuel. It probably works but I'm thinking you'd want them stored somewhere you wouldn't have to smell them.


quote author=nsherve link=topic=64572.msg907866#msg907866 date=1542544943]
It seems I've heard something about storing some wood under water. I know it wouldn't dry out under there, but I'm thinking it would prevent splitting from the drying stress until I'm ready for them. Any thoughts on this? Also, you think this would keep the worms in check?
I am also thinking it would rot the bark and sapwood, might make it easier to get it off. I have a fish pond on my property, so the water is available...
[/quote]

[nsherve]

Yea, part of the reason would be for the workload. Also, to keep the bugs at bay and it seems it would be easier to take the bark and sapwood off (not that they're hard right now). Since the osage heartwood take a long time to rot, I don't think I'd need to worry about that.
I've heard of the diesel fuel method for bugs. But we have bass and blue gill in our pond, so they'd eat up the worms if they didn't die...