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YosemiteSam

air drying wood for self

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There was some post I saw about air drying wood, where somebody did their own, then took it out, sanded it and the ends then suddenly developed cracks. I wanted to address that and maybe someone knows even more than I do; but I know that when a bowyer (traditional archery bow builder) cures a stave of wood, he coats both ends of the wood with paraffin/wax. The moisture seems to dissipate generally from the broad mid-section of the the wood. Maybe this will prevent cracking on the ends. Just a thought.

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If you are going to air dry wood, get big limbs or trunks, split them in half and put them away in a cool, quiet place to dry. Don't cut short sections. Make them at least 3 feet long. The end checking will occur about 6-9 inches in from each end. Once the chunk is dry, cut the ends off and you still have 2 feet of solid wood left over.

Peel the bark off while it's still green. Dried bark is hard to remove from some species. I have done this for 25 years with birch, box elder, chokecherry, willow, black ash, etc. Drying time is 1 year per inch of thickness. If you split out 2 inch X 2 inch chunks now, they will be ready to work in about 18 months (depending on how dry your winter is).

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