:help: drying burl slabs??? :help:

[metalbender]

I got a bunch of maple burl from a friend as part of a barter, he cut both cross grain circulars and ripped some lengthwise, about a inch thick, the wood is seasoned but damp because the logs were outside and we just had about a week of rain, any suggestions for drying these so they dont check/crack??

thanks

[Alan L]

Paint the end grain with a thick latex paint, or with melted parrafin wax. That slows the drying that causes splits and checking in normal wood, with wildly figured wood you may want to paint the whole thing and let it dry for a year or two.

[metalbender]

these are slices from a burl that had already seasoned and been rained on ie its alot of exposed wood and wet but not green

[Martin Brandt]

Metal bender, I dry lots of wood, particularly maple. If it has already seasoned/dryed out but is just rain wet it will probably dry just fine if you put it somewhere in your shop if it is not hot or heated, where it isn't drafty. Let the surface moisture dry off overnight, then stack them with some dry 3/4" stickers between them, with maybe some thin plastic over them with some spacers so it isn't directly on them. Don't seal it tightly just tuck it in a bit around the edges. Leave it that way for a month or two then leave it open a bit for another one, then remove. How long had the log been drying? Should be about one year for each inch of thickness. So a ten inch log should take 5-10 yrs. to dry if sheltered from rain. Less than that and it won't be completely dry. A 1" slab will be dry by the end of summer if it isn't very wet. That is with maple and most medium density native woods. You can speed smaller pieces up in your microwave if you're in a hurry to use a piece. Cut a handle size piece and nuke on low, so that it just begins to feel warm. Let it set a while and repeat. Weigh it when you start on an accurate scale. When it stops losing weight it's completely dry. It should sit a few days to a few weeks to reabsorb moisture to reach an average moisture level for your area. You can speed up drying with some woods, but you have to experiment a bit. I will use a scrap piece, and nuke at normal heat til it gets pretty warm and hold it against the glass door to see if it makes a little foggy spot. I heat then check, until it no longer fogs the glass. Never get it hot past warm to pretty warm. If you get it too hot it WILL check. If your experiment piece checks, then shorten your heat times a bit and try again. A turntable helps to even out the heat. This works well with most woods that are average density. I have never tried it with very dense woods like ironwood, ebony, pink ivory. It probably wouldn't be a good idea on them. I dry my hammer handles this way before putting heads on them, and have no problems with loose heads later, as the handles are as dry as possible , and can only swell after that with ambient humidity swelling them. Maple burl is one of my favorite woods, especially spalted burl. It is also one of the better woods for stabilizing, it doesn't seem to split, twist, or pop open voids like some other woods do in that process. It takes stain and oil finishes well. I usually just take my maple and cut it green into somewhat oversized handle blocks, and stack them on bread rack trays in my unheated garage, and forget um for about a year or two. then send off for stabilizing, or cut and sand for unstabilized pieces. It is one of the more forgiving woods. Good luck

[metalbender]

thanks