Letting wood dry

Hello Moggy,

Split the logs in half to remove the pith, paint the ends with green wood sealer or latex paint, and stack them out of the weather with stickers in between each layer of wood. If you don't seal the ends, you will loose most of the wood to cracking. The object is to slow down the drying process so that the wood can reach the moisture level of its environment without splitting wide open. If you don't remove the pith, it will certainly crack even with end sealing.

I generally saw up some one inch thick boards into square strips and use these for stickers. Generally one inch will be sufficient to allow air flow between the pieces so that they can dry.

Fred Holder

If you can halve the logs in their present length, or if they have firm bark, don't bother with end coating. If you must reduce them in length to halve them, take at least an inch and a half off the "old" ends - more if the checks extend deeper. Way to tell is to do a split of the wafer and make sure that you have unoxidized wood on the end of the split, not old, oxidized. If left long, cover the fresh ends as created.

If the bark is loose, slab them quickly to avoid radial checks and store. I store on end, on pallets, though flat shouldn't hurt, as long as they're off the ground.

I have some stored in my unheated garage like that. How long would I need to wait for them to dry out-months, years? Check my most up to date email address at:

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Best to say never, because there will always be a difference in inside/outside moisture content based on the seasons. Turn a bit oversize and let it stabilize before you try to turn for true circular. How long to wait? Depends on how long and how thick the pieces are, what wood they are, whether you sealed the endgrain, etc. Old year per inch of thickness rule of thumb is one way, but since you can't screw up by cutting oversize and drying in the rough, have at it as you care.

If you don't have a meter, you can just measure your deformity - along versus across the grain - to give you an idea when it's stable, or weigh periodically until it's no longer losing.

oops, guess I shoulda included that info. They're maple logs, about 6~8" in diameter, about 10" long, the end slopped over with latex paint. Hot/humid summers & dry/cold in winter here (sw Ontario). About 6~12 months ought be to ok? Check my most up to date email address at:

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Makes 'em still wet, but not "green." Firewood. You can take reasonably straight soft maple at 10" and leave it 1/2 to 3/4 thick for a month, and have at it. Or at least you can up north. I whipped a couple of chunks of soft maple about 5" thick off the woodpile on Saturday - about the same age, stored outdoors in the firewood stack. Didn't feel wet, but I'm going to let the pieces adjust for a month. Red oak down a year and a half still threw moisture at me!

Start turning now, when you get the advantage of wet wood's ease of turning, but without the long lead time of green.

these logs are around 6-8 inches diameter, so removing the pithe wouldn't leave much for turning. The latex paint that you mention, what is that exactly, and would pva glue do the same job?