Bodrighy
Established Member
Catch 'em. Taste really good. like rabbit.
Pete
Pete
storing logs
- Thread starter stevebuk
- Start date
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greybeard
Established Member
Don't worry too much about the exact nature/type/form of your chosen sealing agent - what you're trying to achieve is a balanced water loss. So anything that restricts the water loss is good!
The actual rate varies from wood to wood, but as a rough guide, water loss through the bark is between 10% and 20% of the rate at which it runs out of the ends.
The free water - naturally! - leaves first, followed by the water contained within the cell walls, and that's what sets up the shrinkage/cracking/splitting behaviour. The area of greatest proportion of water loss will potentially suffer the worst - which is the pith and the wood imediately around it, which is why folk say remove it if you can....or at the very least de-stress it by halving logs.
All of which is fine if your wood is large enough to still afford some potential turning from the split logs....!
The expected shrinkage rate is another variable you may like to consider - it'll tend to shrink up to 15 times more across the grain than it will lengthwise!
You still want it to lose the water (unless, as Cornucopia says, you're going to turn green), from a relative % by weight of in some cases over 50% down to somewhere between say 12%-15%. Much less than that and the wood will promptly soak up available water when it can, to take it back to the 12%-15% range.......
Which, at the end of the long woody day, is why a lot of folk say, "that's not for me, I'll buy it!!"....
Good luck, but be prepared for high "casualty" rates!
The actual rate varies from wood to wood, but as a rough guide, water loss through the bark is between 10% and 20% of the rate at which it runs out of the ends.
The free water - naturally! - leaves first, followed by the water contained within the cell walls, and that's what sets up the shrinkage/cracking/splitting behaviour. The area of greatest proportion of water loss will potentially suffer the worst - which is the pith and the wood imediately around it, which is why folk say remove it if you can....or at the very least de-stress it by halving logs.
All of which is fine if your wood is large enough to still afford some potential turning from the split logs....!
The expected shrinkage rate is another variable you may like to consider - it'll tend to shrink up to 15 times more across the grain than it will lengthwise!
You still want it to lose the water (unless, as Cornucopia says, you're going to turn green), from a relative % by weight of in some cases over 50% down to somewhere between say 12%-15%. Much less than that and the wood will promptly soak up available water when it can, to take it back to the 12%-15% range.......
Which, at the end of the long woody day, is why a lot of folk say, "that's not for me, I'll buy it!!"....
Good luck, but be prepared for high "casualty" rates!
Lightweeder
Established Member
Thanks to all for your help.
