Recommendations on my green ash wood?

[David Parker]

Yesterday I had a large Ash tree taken down due to Emerald Ash Borer disease. Being a new woodworker and turner, I had them leave some wood so I could attempt to make some of my own lumber and also some blanks for turning. The 3 foot trunk section looks huge when it's lying on the ground with its 27 inch diameter. Fortunately, I had them cut this trunk section in half lengthwise. This allowed me to wrestle the pieces into position today so I could mill them with my 18 inch electric chain saw (from Sears, which worked beautifully by the way). I also cut up several smaller logs for turning.

I quartered the 3 foot main trunk and ended up cutting 4 to 5 inch thick slabs of quarter sawn wood from two of the quarters. All the pieces can now fit on my 14 inch Rikon bandsaw, which has a 12 inch resaw capacity (once I build some infeed and outfeed support tables).

My questions are: Should I resaw the wood now while it's green or should I seal the ends with Anchorseal and wait for several months (or a year) for it to dry first? If I wait, will splitting be a problem? Thanks for any input.

Dave

[Jamie Buxton]

The wood will dry faster the smaller the pieces. So if you're sure you're going to use some for furniture, you're better off slabbing it first, then drying it. Turning blanks are generally kept wet until they're rough-turned.