If you decide to cut and dry your own wood there are some basics to learn, even then there are no guarantees however with care you should have a reasonable success rate. If a friend or neighbour has offered you a tree they are cutting down or branches they are lopping off hopefully they will ask you before they cut it up into small pieces. Your first question is to ask or to look at what wood it is, this is a bit daunting if neither they nor you do not know the answer. You will over a period of time recognise various trees from the bark or leaves and sometimes even the shape of the tree. Do not worry too much, there are many good books on the market that you will find most helpful. Next before you bite off more than you can chew establish where the wood is, if it is a half mile from where you can park a van then maybe it is not such a good idea – believe me.

Some woods to look out for are also some of the most common ones such as Fruit woods – apple, plum pear etc also Oak, Sycamore, Ash, Beech, Holly, Yew, Cherry, Walnut and Laburnum are good. Generally avoid Willows, Turkey Oak & Lleylandi as these are not good woods for turning. Dependant upon the size of the tree it will normally need cutting up into manageable size pieces on site, remember the length needs to be a minimum of 1 ½ times the diameter. Assuming you have a chain saw and know how to use it – sorry I must say it and have your PPE (face shield or goggles, gloves, safety helmet, boots with steel toe caps and reinforced trousers or chaps) you can then set about starting work. When the tree is cut down the limbs must be removed leaving just the trunk, say for example that it is 2ft in diameter then you would need to cut the trunk into say 3ft pieces. Now its decision time what will you do with the wood, you could plank it in 2”-3" pieces or you may intend to make bowls, next you need to cut the sections in half to make them more manageable. You should cut just to one side of the heart or pith, you cut it down the centre of the pith you would still have to cut each section again to get rid of the heart . The reason for this is that the heart will dry at a different rate to the rest of the wood resulting in shakes or splits which can render your hard work useless unless you are going into chop stick production or matches perhaps.

Personally I would probably leave half of the logs in the round, end seal them and store them standing on end (on sticks to keep them just off the floor) in the wood shed or workshop. These would then be turned end grain whilst wet, we will talk about turning green wood later but understand that the heart is left and as explained earlier extra care must then be taken to avoid it splitting before, whilst or after turning. As a rule of thumb wood dries at the rate of 1” a year, 2” boards will then take up to two years to dry. We need to stop again here and explain that the moisture level of wood can vary dependant upon its environment. A beam that has stood in a pub for a hundred plus years should you imagine, be as a dry as a bone. Take that beam outside and within a very short space of time it will take in moisture until it is in equilibrium with its surroundings. Once bought back inside it will again loose its moisture until it reaches the humidity level of the room, a bit like a sponge really it will absorb water or dry out dependant upon the conditions.

So end seal the wood lay the planks and stick between them to let the air circulate and cover the top if outside to keep the sun off, rain is not necessarily a problem but a cover on the top will help keep the rain off as well. In Canada you see loggers floating the logs down river to the saw mills, that is not just a cheap or efficient method of moving them, it also helps wash the sap out of the wood thus improving the drying time. Imagine a log being made up of drinking straws, when freshly cut and stood on end the sap inside the drinking straws will drain out over the first few weeks. Do not then be lulled into thinking that the worst is over, the water that was between each drinking straw is still there, this will take a lot longer to seep out. I mentioned above the rule that wood dries at the rate of 1” per year, that is up to say 3 or at most 4” any thing greater and the rules change somewhat. A piece 12” in depth will probably never dry out, we can cheat a bit though by putting it between centres on the lathe and turning it into a bowl blank. That is rough turn it to a bowl shape, take out the wood from inside the bowl cut a tenon for future chucking and leave the walls about 1” thick (this varies but you can adjust to suit the wood and size blank etc). Leave in the workshop or wood store now the bulk of the wood has gone it will dry quite quickly.

There are variations to this and you should try various methods until you find a way that suits you or that dries the wood the quickest. Some turners wrap their blanks in newspaper, some bury them in the garden, others fill the bowl with wood shavings or leave in a brown paper bag and so on. I know of a turner who wraps his bowls in a towel and leaves in the airing cupboard, I do not foresee me trying that one though. Microwave ovens have limitations with size but are very good on a defrost setting and short bursts of a minute or two with similar periods in between for cooling will help the drying process considerably. Do not though be tempted to use higher settings or longer periods of cooking or you may end up with several pieces of wood not one. You do this at your own risk and please do not blame me if your wife catches you red handed with wood in her new microwave oven.

Now as long as you promise not to mention to your wife if caught that it was my suggestion (No threatening letters accepted) here’s another tip, if you are turning a blank only to find there is some worm in it (remember buyers will take exception to buying a work of art from you only to discover it is full of little borers) follow the above procedure. A few one minute sessions in the microwave, on Defrost setting remember, will soon provide a worm free item. I got caught out with that one by leaving the microwave on defrost setting, when questioned do not say ‘oh sorry darling that was me killing off some wood worm in the microwave, well not unless you fancy cooking your own meals for an indefinite period that is.

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