Drying a big slab

[Jack Ganssle]

We had three red oaks taken down today. There's some beautiful slabs 3 feet in diameter and a couple of feet long (actually, I could cut quite a few more out of the wood). I'm thinking table tops a few inches thick eventually. But how should I take care of these slabs if that is the ultimate goal? Should I slice them to 3 or 4" thick? Then what - anchorseal? I'd hate to see them crack.

Thanks in advance,
Jack

[Jim King]

Cracks present the opportunity for fine work and are worth money. Let it dry. This is just one way to make the slabs special.

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[Julian Nicks]

Oak that thick will take 5-6 years to air dry around here( in the midwest), so I would suggest maybe 2-3 inches max unless you have access to a kiln.

[Josiah Bartlett]

Having done this with Walnut... remove the pith, cut to 4" max, paint the ends to reduce checking, then sticker well and air dry. I dried mine under a bench in my unheated, detached garage. Other good places are under the center of a car you park in the garage but don't move much (use a drip pan), under a bed, or in your crawl space. Attics don't work well because the temperature and humidity varies too much and the wood will crack and warp funny.

I would go with about a year per inch dry time, depending on your climate.

[Frank Drew]

Jack, if by "slabs" three feet in diameter, you mean logs three feet in diameter, then follow Josiah's advice and end coat them with a green wood sealer ASAP and cut the logs down the middle (which always cracks) then have them sawn into planks of whatever thickness you choose, but as he says 4" is sort of a practical limit.

I wouldn't try to dry then indoors since they'll give off a lot of moisture, but do stack and sticker them off the ground and out of the direct sunlight.

[Jamie Buxton]

You're talking about slabs whose faces are face-grain, right? That is, you're not planning on cutting discs whose faces are end-grain? Discs are a bad idea. Discs will crack as the wood dries, guaranteed.

[Scott T Smith]

You will get some wood movement as the slabs dry. Cut them thicker than you will need, so that you can plane / sand them flat after drying.

On a 36" diameter oak log, approximately 4" around all sides of the pith will crack. Flatsawn boards that are approximately 1/3 of the way from the pith to the bark should stay the flattest during the drying process. Avoid pith wood or any type of knots, etc in your slabs, as the pith will crack and the wood near the knots usually warps while drying.

If the heart is not centered, it may be best to avoid slabbing, as it indicates tension wood in the log, and you will most likely experience extraordinary movement while air drying.

You need to dry them extremely slow - it would be best to place them in a cool and somewhat damp (but not wet) location for at least the first year.

Soaking the slabs repeatedly while green with a Timbor / water solution will help kill some of the pests inside them. The timbor actually wicks better into the boards while green, versus when dry.