Any good local Timber merchants should be able to supply you with waney edge boards. Hope this helps.

house signs usually have the bark al round and are cut at about 45deg to the trunk. Try asking a sawmill or tree surgeons who will be able to slice up some small trunks or branchwood.

Your biggest problems will be stopping the disc cracking and keeping the bark on as the wood dries out.

Jason

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Don't waste wood, it doesn't grow on trees you know!

I'd have thought a medium sized bandsaw and and a couple of logs and you could make them very cheaply. From what i remember they are diagonal slices of logs around 5-6" diameter?

Quoted to show the link-

Edit- Link removed!

Yes, I would be looking for 6-10 inch in diameter, and dryin them is a pain, I already cut them with a chainsaw, but if the business takes of i'll need a more regular supply.

Buy a decent sized bandsaw and get cutting them. They should dry quite quickly due to the amount of end grain exposure- how you stop them cracking though i have no idea.

Post the link to your web site again

Http://www.handmade-signs.co.uk

I think they are lovely mate. The paintings are really pretty.

I very much doubt that you will find an actual supplier of these. You might find a tree surgeon or small saw mill that might be able to do them for you on special order, but would someone actually have them as a stock item? I doubt it. As others have said, the best way in the long run will be to cut them yourself with wood bought or scrounged from tree surgeons.

Try 'interesting timber's' (west country way), theyve been very helpful to some odd wood requests of mine in the past

the key to not cracking is not to dry them too far - they are going to be in an outside environment after all so they'll be fine if you dont store them in a heated environment - also several coats of clear varnish helps slow the water loss.

by the way all though the others are right about the bandsaw do be careful - you need to build a sled for cutting round things on the bandsaw as if the log rolls whiole its being cut it will jam and potentially buckle the blade

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Real men don't read the instructions
After all they are only the manufacturers opinion of how the produict is to be used.

I have a pretty good understanding of timber technology- not to the extent of Richard Jones but still ok.

Whilst i agree that slowing the rate of drying is important and there would be little point in drying these to a low moisture content, the fast remains that the op is trying to dry a slice of log, which in it's very nature is nearly impossible to do due to how timber shrinks.

All timber when drying shrinks along the length of the annular rings and thus if the timber in question is a slice from the end of a log the outer rings are shrinking much more than the inner rings thus the slice will split. This splitting can be reduced using various techniques and if the slices are very thin (such as oyster veneers) then the timber can be stabilised.

If the slice is at an angle say 45 degrees rather than 90 degrees then the splitting whilst drying is greatly reduced, and this is the type of wooden external sign that i have commonly seen.

You are correct about cutting logs on a bandsaw, they can easily twist and wreck the blade, this is easily solved by cutting the log in a cradle or other similar holding device.

I`d go for PVA as a sealer to slow the drying process rather than varnish.

I use PVA as an end grain sealer for all my planked boards & turning blanks, the added bonus in this case is that a couple of coats applied copiously will aid in keeping the bark attached during the drying process.

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Alcohol does not solve any problem.......................then again neither does milk .........