Seasoning yew log

[DrPhill]

Hi all,
I have a fresh yew log from a friends garden that I want to carve. I have done this previously and have seasoned the log with its bark on. It works and I have had minimal splitting, but removing the seasoned bark is a lot harder than removing the unseasoned bark. My cautious self says leave the bark on, but my lazy self says take the bark off while it is still fresh. Which of me is right?

I have sealed all cut edges with pva, and sealed the area where some bark fell off during trimming and transport. Log is max 335mm circumference.

Any and all opinions welcome.

Phill

 

[Roland]

Taking the bark off will reduce the risk of cracking because moisture can then escape from the sides, not just the ends.

 

[stuckinthemud]

No, that will lead to surface shakes as the dry upper layer can’t contract over the wet inner core. The point of seasoning is to lose moisture as slowly as possible so the log contracts the same amount all over, surface contracting as close as possible to the same speed as the centre minimises splitting

 

[stuckinthemud]

Apologies, 33.5 cm circumference, so 10cm diameter- 4”? Bark on yew tends to be pretty ok to remove after two years of seasoning. Leave it on. It is going to split for about 8” from each end, regardless of how well you seal the ends though. Hopefully the log has plenty of length

 

[DrPhill]

Apologies, 33.5 cm circumference, so 10cm diameter- 4”? Bark on yew tends to be pretty ok to remove after two years of seasoning. Leave it on. It is going to split for about 8” from each end, regardless of how well you seal the ends though. Hopefully the log has plenty of length

Yes, about 4". I measured circumference as it is easier to repeat, and mm as I am weighing it in kg. I am hoping that repeated measurements will let me track the drying out and tell me when it is time to start carving.
The log has plenty of length - about 2m but it tapers. It is almost straight which is unusual for yew. The thinner end has side-branch nodes which may reduce splitting. I think that the thinner end is straight enough for long enough to make a long walking stick with a carving on top. This could leave a chunk of the thicker end for a carving. It would be a shame to lose 8" from either end, but tish happens.

I asked becuase I read some threads in the wood-turning section where the recommendation seemed to be to roughly prepare the blanks, then coat in pva. I thought that this might be a way of removing the bark early. Most of my previous yew branches were seasoned for longer than 2 years, and the bark was hard to remove.

I will leave the bark on. the last section of the thin end lost most of it's bark, but has be liberally coated in pva.

Phill

 

[stuckinthemud]

If you are making a walking stick, just get on with it, the stick will be thin enough not to check, the handle can be kept wet, or oiled, or wrapped in cling film to slow down the drying. When not working, cover the whole thing in any of the above or paint it all over in pva. You can do like a turner and rough it down to a slightly over size blank then pva the whole thing and put it somewhere cool to season for a few weeks, but I would just carve it, green wood is MUCH easier to work with

 

[DrPhill]

Hmmm, tempting. Roughing out the shaft would simplify things quite a lot. Though my walking sticks end up about 30mm diameter as I find that a much more natural size to grip. So I would slim it to maybe 40mm?
Since that is the least interesting part of the process it might be good to speed it up by doing it on fresh wood.

 

[stuckinthemud]

40 is bigger than I would go, I’d be nearer 35

 

[DrPhill]

40 is bigger than I would go, I’d be nearer 35

But since I am using a hewing axe (something else that I learned about on this forum) 10mm margin for error sounds safer to me!

It certainly is easier working green wood (is that the correct term?). If the timber doesn’t split then it will have been a good choice.

 

[stuckinthemud]

Axe work is good fun, switch to a plane and/or draw knife when you get to 40mm

 

[DrPhill]

Axe work is good fun, switch to a plane and/or draw knife when you get to 40mm

I checked, and my most comfortable stick is 1.5 inch diameter. To leave enough margin for removing divots and allowing for raised detailing, I slimmed the shaft to ~2" and shortened the stick.

 

[DrPhill]

Here it is coated in pva and awaiting the arrival of a concave spokeshave:

 

[DrPhill]

I am not an expert by any means but would this interest anyone if I did it as a work in progress thread?

 

[stuckinthemud]

Yup