Turning green wood

[Mr T]

I am developing a design that uses ash thinnings turned to about 75mm dia and about 375mm long, but I have no experience of working green wood. I have a couple of queries. How long should pieces of this diameter be left to season from cutting down and should the bark be removed first. I suppose another question is, is it posible to dry stuff of this diameter in the round without it splitting.

I hope there are some green woodworkers on the forum that can answer my questions?

 

[Rich]

Try the wood turning section Mr T, you'll probably get a very quick and knowledgeable response from the members there.
regards,
Rich.
ps. and yes I am a green woodworker :lol:

 

[Mr T]

Of course! Silly of me!

 

[CHJ]

Mr.T If you are talking using ash thinings in the round you are going to have to wait sometime for them to dry out and take the risk of them either splitting or warping considerably.

My advice would be to make sure that they are big enough diameter to allow them to be riven along the length into quarters and allow to dry in this state. You will still get considerable movement but should get away with them, at something in the order of 100mm cross section they may be dry enough if stored in a warm indoor position in something like 3 months,.

If you turn green then at 75mm diameter over that length using whole branch or sapling material I would expect them to be some very interesting shapes when they dried out even if you can dry them slow enough to avoid splitting.

 

[Alan Smith]

One other point about using ash is that there is a wood beetle that is attracted to the bark whilst the wood was still wet. It was traditional to bury ash poles under soil until they had dried a bit to protect them from this beetle. Otherwise the bark was removed as soon as possible.

 

[Wanlock Dod]

Mr T,

I'm with Chas, split the timber first down the middle if it's big enough (or quarters if you can, but it would need bigger timbers). I expect that it would greatly reduce the risk of splitting ater turning (assuming that you will turn them wet, or at least not dry).

Cheers,

Dod