Trip to the orchard...

A

akey

Well-Known Member
My great aunt has some land with some really old pecan trees. A few of them died in the drought from two years ago. I went out there over the weekend and found some spalted pieces. Now I am not sure what to do with it? I was thinking of cutting it in to two inch slices and letting it sit a while in my garage. The tree it came off of was dead and it seems to be pretty dry. Some of it looks like it definitely needs to be stabilized.

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That sounds like a plan. Spalted pecan can have a nice look to it. Just have it stabilized after you get the moisture in it down.

Doug
 
Aaron.
I wouldn't cut it any further now.
You may want to seal the ends of the logs to keep them from splitting with wax or other products you can get at a gardening supply house.

Then you want to let them sit until you get a moisture reading with a hand held moisture reader of 10-12 percent before it's ready for a stabilizer to do his stuff.

Its about one inch per year to dry, depending on where you live? Then you cut it into knife size blocks for stabilization.

Mark, From, Burl Source Handle Woods, has a Forum here and has post's concerning wood prep for stabilization if you look around you can learn a lot about how he cuts and prepares
before sending it out.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
first thing I would do is get the bark off. the bark and the layer closest to it is where most of your bugs live. instead of garage, is there any area inside or in basement you could put them. I have been using my basement since temp seems to stay between 60 and 75 year round and the humidity is constant. be sure to stack the pieces so air can circulate.
 
Thanks for the replies guys! Scott, my garage is finished so it is heated and cooled just like the house so that should not be an issue.
 
Do yourself a big favor and use a chainsaw and split them down the center taking about 1/2 to 1 inch of the core out. That's where all the stress is. You'll prevent a lot of checks and splitting that way. Then paint the ends with wax. Slow drying is best. Be damn sure to use a respirator when cutting on a bandsaw or other tool. Inhaled molds can and often do infect our lungs and you can get a pulmonary fungal infection.
 
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