When I did some woodturning a few months ago, I turned a chisel handle from a sweet gum tree that still had the bark on it and everything. I thought, “Hmm, I wonder what kind of wood might be available to me where I live in Malaysia.” I don’t have a lathe, but still – that shouldn’t stop one from trying to make stuff out of long cylindrical pieces of tree. Right? I’m not really into making rustic furniture – I just want to take “rustic wood” and make finished pieces from it.
So I was at a Muslim ceremony the other week (commemorating the 100th day since the death of someone in their community) and saw this hugemongous fallen tree next to the cemetery. When I asked about it, the guy said it was teak, and that they had cut the tree down because they were worried it was going to fall down into the cemetery. It looked like the tree was about 5′ or so at its thickest and 3′ or so at its narrowest. I asked a few questions about it while trying not to act too excited, visions of a solid slab teak workbench top dancing around in my head. And you know what? The guy didn’t seem to care too much about it. At some point I just might ask him if I can cart off the wood, but here in Malaysia you can’t just do that right away, you have to take your time and build the relationship a bit first. More on that as it develops. Here are a couple pics of the wood.
And closer to home (in our neighborhood, actually), they felled several trees and for the past month or so, they’ve just been lying there doing nothing but acclimating to being dead. So I decided that before rainy season kicks in again, I’d better go over there and see what I can get. I don’t know what kind of tree it is, but if it’s like most trees here it’s a hardwood. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
I can see myself using this wood to make accessories for my bench: leg vise handle, bench dogs, planing stop. Stuff like that. Here’s a cross section of one piece:
Now I have a few questions for you who know your wood and know things about acclimating, moisture content, etc., because I don’t know squat:
1. That teak has been sitting out for several months at least. Is there a chance that the wood is not good any longer, or does it just mean it’d have to sit covered for a bit longer to get that extra moisture out?
2. What’s the best way to store wood that you’ve just cut down? Leave the bark on? Cut it to planks?
3. How long should it sit before I use it? (Note, I don’t really have wood movement issues here since it’s pretty much the same humidity level year-round.)
4. What caused the cracks in the middle of the tree? Does that mean I probably won’t be able to use the very center?
Thanks for any and all advice!
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March 7, 2010 at 10:26 pm
The Village Carpenter
Eric, nice find! The teak is definitely still good. If you store wood in the round, you want to coat the ends to slow the drying process. Wood dries out more quickly on the endgrain, and that’s why there are cracks at the ends of the smaller logs. I paint the ends of my logs with latex paint.
If you slab the lumber right away, you’ll want to “sticker” it. Make sure the bottom plank is 12″ off the ground, then put 1″ square sticks of wood along it’s length before you rest the next plank on top of it. That allows air to circulate on all sides of each board. Your stickers should be lined up throughout the stack so the pressure (weight) on your boards is distributed equally. Otherwise, you’ll get some ripples in the boards. On the top of the stack, weight it down with heavy objects, like sandbags. This will ensure that the lumber dries flat.
It takes a year per inch of thickness to dry lumber. So, if you slab it, it will dry more quickly than if you leave it in the round. If left in the round, it’s a good idea to remove the bark so insects aren’t attracted to it.
I would not use the very center (pith) of the wood. It’s not stable and moves too much.
March 8, 2010 at 9:25 am
Eric
Great, thanks so much for your feedback! I assume that the wax I sometimes see on wood is on there for the same reason – to check cracking?
Slabbing the lumber is easier said than done, since all I’ve got are hand tools! But the logs are small enough that I probably won’t get more than three plankish pieces out of them anyway.
P.S. You said you wouldn’t use the center of the wood. What about if I got a fresh piece, kept it from cracking, and then used the entire piece to form a carving mallet? In that case, the center is not really used for anything. Would that work?
March 8, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Gye Greene
Yay! Another posting!
This is a topic that’s near to my heart (and experience), as I tend to scavenge wood — dimensional lumber from construction bins, as well as small to mid-size logs (one of these days I’m going to contact some local tree services, and see if they’ll toss me some logs (for free, or for a very minimal “beer money” courtesy fee) next time they cut down a tree with interesting colored wood (I like brown and reddish wood; indifferent to white wood).
The end-checking is just due to the physics of how wood dries: as you probably know, as it shrinks, wood dries along the grain: imagine that the rings have a cord threaded through them, like drawstrings on a purse; alternatively, imagine that if you “quarter” the log, let it dry, and then piece it back together, you’ll have a missing “wedge”, due to shrinkage.
I have various smaller-diameter logs scattered throughout the yard (I’m in Brisbane, Australia, so our weather and humidity is probably similar to yours). I’ve found that if I split the log into six to eight similarly-sized pieces, that there is minimal, or no, end-checking — as the wood is “free” to contract. Conversely, if you leave the log whole, or even split it in half, the wood is not free to contract, and thus creates splits (the end checking) as it pulls apart from itself as it shrinks.
So: As soon as I can, I split the log. I have about six splitting wedges and a ”Hammer of Thor” (like a mallet, but with a short, one-hand handle) that I use. If you don’t have these, cutting a ”starter” slot about 3cm deep into the end of the log, then using a series of home-made, hardwood wedges (I’d say 10 or 15 degrees, but you’ll have to experiment) with a wooden mallet should also work. Use the existing splits as indicators for where you’ll place your big splits…
Once you do this, you’ve “rescued” you wood — and you can take your time with cutting it into boards, turning it on a lathe, etc. (I’ve heard that if you’ll be doing wood turning, it’s easier if you keep the wood green: one method is to put it in a plastic bag, with a little extra water, or methyl alcohol.)
As far as storage: I have several piles of split wood outside, stacked log-cabin style (for air circulation), stored up off the ground by two layers of bricks at each corner. Not covered or anything: when it rains, they get wet; when it’s sunny, they dry out. Wood is amazingly robust: as long as the bugs don’t get to it, and it’s not lying in the wet dirt, it survives pretty darned long. (See my Dec. 2009 blog entry for some examples — http://gyegreene.blogspot.com/2009/12/robust-wood.html )
Note: If your wood has a lot of knots, it may be tricky to split. Also, some woods (annoyingly!) have a spiral grain. But, worth a try.
I’d take the bark off: less hiding places for bugs. But I know that some people leave it on, with the intention of slowing the moisture loss. (With some wood, once you split it the wood falls off anyhow…)
USING THE CENTER: You probably wouldn’t want to have the center all in one piece of wood, for the reasons I mentioned above: lots of drying-induced forces, trying to pull it apart. But you can use the center — as tips of each “piece of pie” of lumber — if you want.
HOW LONG TO LET IT SIT: Depends on the purpose. It it doesn’t matter that it shrinks a quarter inch on ya (after you’ve built your thing), then you can do it as soon as you like (e.g. carved figurine; one-piece mallet; making it into boards (but realize that the board will probably cup a little bit after it dries, so no point in planing it **super** flat…).
OLD TEAK: I’d reckon it’s either rotten/bug-eaten by now, or it ain’t gonna happen. Even if it **is** getting a bit squishy, it seems like it would work from the bottom up — so the top part should be salvageable.
The big issue is: how ya gonna get it home?
–GG
March 8, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Gye Greene
Oh: And except for once, recently, as an experiment, I don’t bother waxing the ends.
–GG
March 13, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Eric
Gye, as always, I appreciate your feedback! I might just try your splitting technique. I ended up doing what I did (in the next post) because I had a few minutes and wanted to just slice an inch off the end to see how far the cracks went. When I saw that they didn’t go very far at all, I ended up cutting the ends off of all 3 logs and the glue was all I could think of on short notice. We’ll see tomorrow when I go out there if there is still any checking. If there is, THEN I’ll do the wedge technique!