Patience, anybody got any to spare?

[CHJ]

The Aylesbury Cherry, been in dry and at times quite warm storage since Oct 17, 2006, and it's still at about 18%

Torn whether to leave the logs alone or slab them up to speed up the process and await them dancing around in humorous mood as is woods want.

 

[Paul.J]

I tried/experimented cutting some large logs of Cherry up of various sizes some time ago Chas,i think you saw some of the larger pieces on my rack.
The thin slabs all split and twisted still,and when i cut one of the larger slabs up which looked fine on the outside it had a big split in the middle which just wasn't showing on the outside.It did smell wonderful and sweet though and lasted in the shop for a few days,a lovely aroma.

 

[CHJ]

I think I will slab this small one to see if the moisture is low enough to get away with it Paul before I touch the remainder, seem to have got away without any massive splits so far in the logs.
Started on a concerted effort to try and reduce some of the volume in the log wood pile today and this is the first stash that has shown a need to think about the moisture level after I'd dispatched the spiders.
Did get away with slabbing some of it a couple of years ago that has survived, but that was main trunk wood not branches so maybe not so stressed.

 

[procell]

could try playing whale song tapes to make it less stressful for them

 

[Paul.J]

You might get away with it Chas as yours has been drying a lot longer than what i tried,mine was pretty green still.
I also cut up some nice large Holly logs at the time which mostly split but the odd thing is the piece out the middle with the pith which was about 1-3/4" thick that i just left on the side and eventualy under the bench on the floor didn't split at all,just twisted slightly,so i cut that up into pen blanks a few months back.
Whale songs might work though :lol:

 

[Frank S]

Don`t bother with the whale songs, tried it , and the timber turned out to be as deaf as a post !!!!!!!

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

But the furniture beetle seemed really chilled out

 

[andersonec]

Cut them thicker than you need because they will shrink, sticker them and pile loads of weights on top, when you think you have enough weight,,,double it, doing them at this time of the year will be good because of the lack of sunshine and the moisture in the air, stack them somewhere in the shade and cover. If needed now, sticker and place battens every 600mm across top and bottom then clamp across the battens, stack somewhere dry with air flow if possible.

Andy

 

[jurriaan]

And remove the bark so you can at least see that all kinds of interesting wildlife is claiming living space inside your precious cherry. I had to throw mine away, after 3 years it was more dust than wood....

 

[CHJ]

And remove the bark so you can at least see that all kinds of interesting wildlife is claiming living space inside your precious cherry. I had to throw mine away, after 3 years it was more dust than wood....

That's the reason it's getting the once-over at the moment to check that it's not infected.

Have kept the bark on to date to help control the drying gradient and relied on it being in a dry location to discourage infection.