I just loaded up my car with broken trees

Woodshop
#1

I couldn’t help myself… there were all these chainsawed tree branches and trunks sitting on the curb for months, so I finally broke down and wanted to try the reclaimed wood/urban lumberjack thing.

Now I need to figure out what to do with them!

How large of a circumference and length of a branch do you need for a small bowl? How about a pen blank?

This is going to be so much fun - and so much work.

I figure the trees have been down since that big storm in June, so they’re less than a year seasoned.

I know for sure some is oak and some is magnolia, but the others are a mystery. I saved some leaves, but don’t know if they go together.

Anyone else want to play?

#2

First thing you need to do is seal up the cut ends.

I couldn’t tell you exactly why or what to use though. I just remember my wife being told that when we got fresh cuts.

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#3

Anchor seal is your friend!

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#4

Elmer’s wood glue and water.

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#5

Doesn’t it stop it from drying too fast and cracking?

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#6

A lot of the wood that’s still out there is cracked. I just saw on YouTube that sealing the end grain can prevent cracking by 90%. The video was sponsored by a sealer company, so I don’t know if it’s an accurate number, but better than nothing.

#7

You’re going to get cracking on the ends but with the sealer you can mitigate the depth to which it cracks.

#8

Holly, anchorseal does a pretty good job, but…to work properly, it needs to be put on fresh cuts, meaning if it is already really cracked it may or may not help. Anchorseal (or whatever rockler sells) is only abut $20 a gal. and I still have about 1/2 after a year.

The truth is you have to experiment with whatever wood you get. For instance, I have had access to several local woods - ash, bois d’arc, and some oaks are fairly stable - local elms (cedar elm and american elm) go crazy, as do some other oaks…

Just don’t get over invested in wood not cracking - it is its job to move :)… Here are a couple of articles that may (or may not) be of interest. the best thing you can do is have fun with it!

different people.pdf (583.2 KB) got wood now what.pdf (3.4 MB)

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#9

Anything which retards the transfer of moisture out the end grain will work. AnchorSeal is a commercial product. Some folks use a couple of layers of latex house paint (oops paint from Home Depot is cheap). You can use a different color each year (or by species) as a memory aid.

I use a mix of beeswax and boiled linseed oil (Stuff I make up primarily as a finish for Blacksmithing). I’d not heard of using PVA glue and water but that should work as well.

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#10

I’ve used the following successfully.

  1. Anchor seal - you can get it at a number of places, especially woodworking shops
  2. Wax - either paraffin or bees wax. (Bees wax is expensive so I just melt old candles.
  3. Latex paint - this was suggested to me by another woodworker because it is relatively inexpensive and because a lot of it goes unused. Any color works.

Pretty much all you’re trying to do is prevent moisture from escaping more rapidly from the end than from the remainder of the log.

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