# Wood drying for an apricot tree



## candy1land

I have a freshly cut apricot tree that will make great blanks...what is the process to chain saw it up and dry it out so I can eventually cut blanks?

Thanks Candy


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## hilltopper46

Apricot splits terribly - I have a piece that a friend gave me and even though I wax sealed it on each end of the section of branch that he gave me, it split and checked throughout.  It is, however, a pretty wood and smells (to me) like anise (licorice) when you turn it.

If I ever get another piece and want to make strictly pen blanks out of it I would probably cut it up into pen blanks on the band saw and completely seal each blank and then sell it to unsuspecting IAP members through the site, here, with the disclaimer that if it cracks when they try to use it that they must be doing something wrong.

Seriously - the piece that I have could still be sawn into pen blanks if it were sawn between the cracks - I would seal the ends and put it in a dry spot and forget about it for a couple years.

If you saw it up into individual blanks, seal each end.  They will most likely warp and shrink so cut them a little larger than you would dry wood.  Cut the middle (the pith) out of the branches and discard it.


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## candy1land

hilltopper46 said:


> Apricot splits terribly - I have a piece that a friend gave me and even though I wax sealed it on each end of the section of branch that he gave me, it split and checked throughout. It is, however, a pretty wood and smells (to me) like anise (licorice) when you turn it.
> 
> If I ever get another piece and want to make strictly pen blanks out of it I would probably cut it up into pen blanks on the band saw and completely seal each blank and then sell it to unsuspecting IAP members through the site, here, with the disclaimer that if it cracks when they try to use it that they must be doing something wrong.
> 
> Seriously - the piece that I have could still be sawn into pen blanks if it were sawn between the cracks - I would seal the ends and put it in a dry spot and forget about it for a couple years.
> 
> If you saw it up into individual blanks, seal each end. They will most likely warp and shrink so cut them a little larger than you would dry wood. Cut the middle (the pith) out of the branches and discard it.


 
Good to know.  I am not going to cut up branches on the tree I am cutting up the trunk itself.  It's about 12-14" in diameter and it's a pretty old tree but very wet still on the inside.  I've read about them warping while they dry if you cut them into smaller pieces and remove the bark.  

I've also heard that you can use latex paint instead of wax to seal the ends of the pieces of trunk that I cut up.  I'm just wondering which way will dry it out sooner.  I do seal the ends of each trunk piece and set them aside....how long will it take to dry out that way on average?  And how will I know?

If I cut them into blanks (a little larger than what I need to accommodate warping) then seal them with wax and set them aside to dry - how long would that take?  And is wax better than paint?  Does is make a difference?  Obviously I wouldn't want to paint the cut pieces - but painting the stumps shouldn't matter.

The tree can yield a lot of blanks I just don't want the wood to crack on me?

And just to clarify - we are talking about parrafin?  Any suggestions on where to buy it - what to melt it in, etc.....

Thanks,

C


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## hilltopper46

Have you seen the page I'm linking to here?

http://www.woodturningonline.com/Turning/Turning_articles.html#drying

There is a lot of good info there.

I personally keep a mix of paraffin and old unwanted candles in a crock pot under my workbench.  It is limited both in the diameter of the pieces that i can seal and in the number of pieces I can seal before I need to replenish the wax. (It smells good though because of the old scented candles I have cooking in it).

For drying, fast is not necessarily better - too fast and the wood will check or crack.  I think the consensus is people who don't have (can't afford) anchorseal are those who use latex paint.

One of the things on my Christmas list for this year is something to boil wood in to try to make bowl blanks.  Google "boil bowl blanks"

Some people soak the green wood in either denatured alcohol or dishwashing detergent. Read through the link I posted earlier in this post.


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## dankc908

Great question here!  I have a friend that gave me some apricot last summer (June).  It was cut into 1" x 1" (approx.) squares - 6-8" + long.  I didn't seal the ends but have them criss-crossed in my garage.  I thought I'd cut them next summer.  Am I too late to seal the ends?  Is this going to work?  I'd love ideas and thoughts!

Dan


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## KenV

Fruit woods are difficult but lovely and apricot is one of the really fine ones.  General rules of thumb is to cut out the pith so the radial (along the rings) movement from the bark to the pith can move without cracking.   Sealing the end grain is intended to slow the drying and allow the wood to move slowly and better adjust without breaking.   So I tend to bandsaw or chainsaw along the length through the pith (ripping cut vs cross grain cut).   Anchor seal is my spread of choice.  One of the wood vendors I use (Gilmer Wood in Portland) uses shellac by the gallon sealing wood.

Branches have reaction wood as does the lower parts of the trunk into the stump and roots.  Harder to work with, but good chance of special wood.  Reaction wood is the result of weight and gravity.   Bottoms of branches compress and tops of branches streach (tension).   Two schools of thought -- one rips through the pith at the mid line (neither tension or compression) and allows reaction wood to move together.  Some advocate ripping vertically.   The engineer training suggest the mid line rip is a better probability call but nothing is perfect.

There is some spectacular wood in stumps and roots.

I had a piece that was garage dried for 3 years and I was making the first cut on the bandsaw and releived stresses and three cracks needed to be addressed in the design.  But spectacular wood.   

Pen blanks because of size are easier to recover than those prized bowl blanks - so you are almost sure of getting something.  

Good luck and show us pictures


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## candy1land

KenV said:


> Fruit woods are difficult but lovely and apricot is one of the really fine ones. General rules of thumb is to cut out the pith so the radial (along the rings) movement from the bark to the pith can move without cracking. Sealing the end grain is intended to slow the drying and allow the wood to move slowly and better adjust without breaking. So I tend to bandsaw or chainsaw along the length through the pith (ripping cut vs cross grain cut). Anchor seal is my spread of choice. One of the wood vendors I use (Gilmer Wood in Portland) uses shellac by the gallon sealing wood.
> 
> Branches have reaction wood as does the lower parts of the trunk into the stump and roots. Harder to work with, but good chance of special wood. Reaction wood is the result of weight and gravity. Bottoms of branches compress and tops of branches streach (tension). Two schools of thought -- one rips through the pith at the mid line (neither tension or compression) and allows reaction wood to move together. Some advocate ripping vertically. The engineer training suggest the mid line rip is a better probability call but nothing is perfect.
> 
> There is some spectacular wood in stumps and roots.
> 
> I had a piece that was garage dried for 3 years and I was making the first cut on the bandsaw and releived stresses and three cracks needed to be addressed in the design. But spectacular wood.
> 
> Pen blanks because of size are easier to recover than those prized bowl blanks - so you are almost sure of getting something.
> 
> Good luck and show us pictures


 
So let me clarify because since this tree is already difficult to dry I want to do this as close to right as possible.  A few questions. 

We were going to cut the tree into sections cutting across the grains making a series of stumps with the bark on them?  

How would you remove the pith?  I am now assuming that cutting it up this way wouldn't allow me to remove that piece?  How exactly do you remove it and with what tool?  

If I cut the pieces vertically in half and paint the ends still will the body of the wood showing crack as well since it would now be exposed? 

This will be my first ever attempt at dealing with a "felled" tree and the wood is gorgeous so I'd like to try. 

I will be buying Latex paint today and Shellac to try both.  Just trying to figure out how to cut it up with the chainsaw and then what would be next. 

Thanks, 

Candy


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## Fred

I keep telling about boiling and following the directions given over at Steven Russell's site. You just might like the results if you use his method.

Go here: http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com/boiling-green-wood.html


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## JerrySambrook

Another thing you may want to try is fully soaking for a day in denatured alcohol, then letting dry for a couple.
Just tried this on two pieces of pear and a fruit bearing cherry branch, and all have held good for the last few weeks.
Jerry


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## candy1land

Well in just one week since I saw them last the ends of this tree had already started getting small cracks in them.  I read as much as I could on all the different methods but I'm just not ready to boil or use alcohol yet on my very first tree. 

I took the stumps to my bandsaw and cut the cracked ends off to start over.  The tree was still very "wet" after cutting off only about 1/2" off each end.  I plastered the ends with Shellac rather than latex paint for now to see if this will stop them from cracking again. 

Some of the stumps had what looked like holes going thru them already by the way tree had grown naturally.  This may preclude me from stopping the cracks over time anyway but not all of them were like that.  

I am going to let them sit like that for about 6 months and try again to see if they crack at all in that time.  The wood is beautiful to me and smells really good so I hope to get at least some usable blanks out of it.  I ended up with about 5 huge stumps that measured around 1.5' tall and about 2 feet in diameter.  I did not remove the pith as that would have required me to expose more of the wood.  

Some of the pieces had to be chain sawed away from other parts of the tree so there were some flat facing cutaways I painted with shellac as well. 

This will be an interesting first time experiment for me as I learn about drying wood.  I would like to try the other methods but I want to see how this one turns out first.  There is mixed feedback on how long this tree should sit in my shop "drying" out on it's own before I cut it up and then wax coat the ends.  

I'll be curious to see how it does with shellac on the ends.

Thanks for the help.  I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them for more feedback so you can see it.


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## arjudy

Just this year I was the lucky recipient of an apricot tree. I cut up the trunk in some large sections for bowls and some smaller sizes for pens and other things like game calls. After cutting up some of the bowl blanks I turned them and finished them with a BLO and wax finish and then let the bowl find its shape as it finished drying. Here is a picture of one. This bowl started out round and ended up oval shaped and did not crack. I made a smaller one for my wife to use to hold her rings and it did not move as much. I'm drying the rest of the wood in paper grocery bags.


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## candy1land

arjudy said:


> Just this year I was the lucky recipient of an apricot tree. I cut up the trunk in some large sections for bowls and some smaller sizes for pens and other things like game calls. After cutting up some of the bowl blanks I turned them and finished them with a BLO and wax finish and then let the bowl find its shape as it finished drying. Here is a picture of one. This bowl started out round and ended up oval shaped and did not crack. I made a smaller one for my wife to use to hold her rings and it did not move as much. I'm drying the rest of the wood in paper grocery bags.


 
OMG that is SOOOOO exciting.  That bowl is BEAUTIFUL!  I can only hope this wood turns out to be that pretty.  It would be such a find.  I noticed when I was putting the shellac on today that it gets darker and much more beautiful as I go.  

So you cut up the wood and turned the bowls when it was still wet wood?  I just want to figure out how you dried it.  

Thanks, 

Candace


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## junosdad

*My vote*

+1 denatured alcohol.

Cut into blanks, then soak for 6-8 hours in DNA, then allow to dry for about a day.  Then load in cardboard boxes with newspaper between each layer.

I had this work with a trees worth of Madrona (another notoriously long drying species) earlier this year.  Lost well less than 10%.

Available by the gallon at your local hardware store.  Can be used for more than one batch.  I soaked my blanks in a 2$ rubbermaid that I could get 70-80 blanks into at a time.

Just my experience.  Worth nearly what you paid for it 

Sam


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## Rifleman1776

The truck sections must be split in half to prevent excess cracking.
Anchorseal is the best (and IMHO, the only) choice for sealing the ends. Unlikely shellac will provide the protection you need.
Give a year, stacked to allow air circulation, before cutting into small pieces. Small pieces will warp like crazy and you will probably get great waste. DAMHIK


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## workinforwood

I just paint the ends with oil based paint, cut the wood into boards extra thick, leave any bark on the edges, cut out any pith wood <the heart of the tree/branches>, sticker and stack.  Basic rule is 1 year per inch of thickness.  I'd go 1.25 inch on the harder fruitwoods like crab apple and apricot.  Because it's extra thick, any checking will be removed in a planer, and any twisting can be repaired with a jointer.  If you plane the wood before you dry it, you will have way less checking because you will have less surface area to dry and the surface area will dry more evenly.  If it is not a monster pile of wood, sticker stack it in the attic with a couple cinder blocks on top.  The attic is almost like a kiln, assuming you have a proper roof system with soffits and ventilation up top.  In the attic you can actually achieve 6% moisture over a year to year and a half.  The wood is easily forgotten up there too, which makes time fly by faster since you can't see the little pile.


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## JerrySambrook

If the wood is still that wet, then shellac will not do very much in helping reduce the checking.
Go with some cheep light/white latex if you are doing it on the cheap,
but anchorseal is a better bet, because it has very little in collorant to impart into the wood.
The alcohol is still probably the cheapest way to go, because it can be reused a few times

Jerry


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## candy1land

junosdad said:


> +1 denatured alcohol.
> 
> Cut into blanks, then soak for 6-8 hours in DNA, then allow to dry for about a day. Then load in cardboard boxes with newspaper between each layer.
> 
> I had this work with a trees worth of Madrona (another notoriously long drying species) earlier this year. Lost well less than 10%.
> 
> Available by the gallon at your local hardware store. Can be used for more than one batch. I soaked my blanks in a 2$ rubbermaid that I could get 70-80 blanks into at a time.
> 
> Just my experience. Worth nearly what you paid for it
> 
> Sam


 
Ok - well thanks to all of you who warned me about shellac not working all that well.  For the some of the bigger stump pieces I will cover with latex paint today.  For the smaller stump pieces I will try the method listed above.  It seems the most doable for me so far with the tools I have and what and where I can buy what I need.  

Again I'll take pictures today and get back to you with them so you can see what I'm working with here.  

I really appreciate all the help on this.  Wish me luck! 

Candy


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## arjudy

candy1land said:


> So you cut up the wood and turned the bowls when it was still wet wood?  I just want to figure out how you dried it.



Candace, I received the wood cut in sections about 18" long. The tree was cut down about 2 months before I actually took posession of the wood. I just cut one of the logs in half throught the pith and cut a small section off and chucked it up in the lathe and turned it. The walls are probably about 1/4 - 3/8" thick. I then just sanded it and gave it a liberal coat of BLO and then used a product called Briwax (carnauba wax & beeswax mixture from Woodcraft - CSUSA also carries this product). I then just let it sit and after a couple of days it started to change shape slowly. It has a little wobble when placed on a flat surface but I think that gives it character. I gave this bowl to the tree owner. 

I believe the coationg of BLO and Briwax slowed the drying process down enough to prevent the wood from developing cracks. 

The rest of the wood is drying in paper grocery bags. I did not seal the ends with anything. Some of the wood has developed small cracks but most seems to by drying OK. I don't really turn anything large so most of what I cut up to dry is in spindle form.

I hope this helps you out.

Oh, by the way, the apricot wood that I have was very hard so have patience with it.


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## candy1land

Well I spent the day using my new bandsaw to cut up one of the stumps into blanks.  That sure took some time.  But some beautiful blanks came out of it.  I painted the rest of the stumps with Latex.  

After doing that I soaked them in DNA for 6 hours.  They are now sitting out to dry in a cardboard box.  I did not dip them in wax or paint the ends.  I just took them out of the alcohol and am letting them dry from that. 

Any suggestions on what I should do next?  I won't see them again until Thursday.  

I will post pictures of the wood not cut up next. 

Candy


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## candy1land

junosdad said:


> +1 denatured alcohol.
> 
> Cut into blanks, then soak for 6-8 hours in DNA, then allow to dry for about a day. Then load in cardboard boxes with newspaper between each layer.
> 
> I had this work with a trees worth of Madrona (another notoriously long drying species) earlier this year. Lost well less than 10%.
> 
> Available by the gallon at your local hardware store. Can be used for more than one batch. I soaked my blanks in a 2$ rubbermaid that I could get 70-80 blanks into at a time.
> 
> Just my experience. Worth nearly what you paid for it
> 
> Sam


 
Ok....did what you said today.  Loaded up a 5 gallon bucket with freshly cut blanks and DNA for 6.5 hours to soak.  They are drying out now until tomorrow.  

How long does it take before I can use them now that I did this?  I did save the DNA back into their cans so I can use it again.  Good call on that one.  

Thanks, 

Candy


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## junosdad

*My experience*

I let mine sit for a couple of days in my unheated garage, then moved into my basement, as the temp and humidity are more stable than the garage.

Your best best would be to find a place with stable, low humidity and relative warmth.  Take a blank and weigh it.  Record the weight.  Repeat each day until the weight no longer changes.

I found that mine stopped losing weight (read: water) after about a week. Your mileage may vary.

Grams scales available at your local radio shack or similar outlet.  Perhaps a little cheaper via the 'net.  I think I paid 8$ for mine which has resolution down to .1 gram.

Can't wait to see pics of your first turnings from the wood!

Sam


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## candy1land

*One Week Later*

So I let the blanks dry inside a very large cardboard box for a week after the DNA soak.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were very few with any visible cracks at all.  

I cut them larger than needed in case they did crack or warp but there is no warping whatsoever and I can easily cut them down to 3/4 x3/4 x 5".  

I am going to start weighing them this weekend to see if they lose any weight in the next week and if not I will turn my first apricot blank.  

Thanks for sharing the DNA method with me.  I have four other very large stumps that I will cut up very soon and soak and then hopefully sell!  : ) 

It does work and it's pretty inexpensive.  I paid about $30 for 2 gallons of DNA at home depot.  I paid $10.00 for latex paint and $10.00 for Shellac which I tried first.  My stumps look good so far.  

Candy:rotfl:


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## barrysj

How about rough cut lumber?  I am thinking about getting some 8 quarter rough cut birds eye maple and squaring it up and cutting blanks from it.  Is rough cut lumber usually dry enough?  I did this with some wormy maple and created a nice pen with no issues, of course I don't know if in 6 months my beautiful pen will crack or not....any help would be much appreciated....

Steve


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