'Preparing' freshly felled wood.

[BearTricks]

A family friend has recently cut down a sycamore and saved the entire tree for me. He brought round a sample log, and by looking at the bark (smooth) its a young tree, however he brought a section from the smallest branch he had and it's at least 10" across. He warned me that we might have trouble getting the larger sections to my house.

Anyway, most of it will be used for turning but I would like to keep the pieces as large as possible in case I need large blanks. What's the best way to prepare the wood aside from sealing the end grain? Where should I store it etc? I've never had green wood before aside from a few limbs I lopped off an apple tree so I'm not sure what I need to consider.

 

[stewart]

This should help -https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/freshly-cut-sycamore-t48902.html

My own experience of wet wood doesn't include sycamore so I've no first hand experience to pass on.

Good luck

 

[blackrodd]

That's a new one on me, air drying sycamore vertically. ( Oops, page 13 it's called end racking!)
All ours was dried flat and in (1"x1") stick, as the norm, It needs to be well covered and not against a wall as the air must pass around and over it but not allow rain, sun on it.
Stood up in the garden, it will bow, spalt and rot before being dried, very much worse than sticker marked.
I don't know where my night school and college books are on this, Here's a link, quite detailed on air drying.
Regards Rodders

http://www.chilternsaonb.org/uploads/fi ... Timber.pdf

 

[custard]

A family friend has recently cut down a sycamore

Not a good time of year to fell a Sycamore. Best time is January or February when the sap is really low, with the trunk raised off the ground quickly before bugs from the soil contaminate the timber and begin the "greying" process, and with the boards "end reared" to prevent stickering stains.

What the market generally wants is clear white Sycamore (some timber yards call it Arctic Sycamore), unfortunately unless a rigorous procedure is followed you end up with a yellowy/grey timber that's streaked through with darker grey discolouration where microbes have eaten the sap and discoloured the wood.

Maybe as a turner there'll be something "characterful" that you can salvage from this tree, but it's unlikely to interest a furniture maker as the poorer grades of Sycamore are just so cheap to begin with.

 

[BearTricks]

I don't know, I've had some terrible sycamore in the past. There's a fruit bowl in the kitchen that's still there because it was one of the first things I made, but the spalting and 'character' in it have gone so far that it could be made of cork. I have some black walnut that's waiting to replace it.

I'll take the wood anyway and see what I can get. Worst case is that it helps the BBQ get started or keeps us warm in a few years time.