Hi everyone,
This is my first time seasoning green wood. It's for my bench project, which seems far off at the moment, but I have to start somewhere. The wood came from a birch tree that came down during the winter. I suppose that's beneficial, as it will be slightly on the dryer side. But I hewed the logs, and split them in half. The ends have already been painted with multiple coats of latex paint. Some ends got an epoxy floor paint coating--but for others I just used the latex.
Anyway, right now the slabs are sitting in my unheated garage, propped up on some 4x4s. I was looking at the slabs the other day, and I noticed that on one or two pieces I'm getting some stress cracks/checks. It's not from the end's drying out, I don't think. I think what's happening is that when I hewed the logs, I naturally squared some of the logs' bows. So the pith is probably still in that section. This section also has a fair amount of knots.
My plan was to rough out the slabs into my leg and stretcher pieces, cutting out these checked areas (since there's a lot of knots anyway), in hopes that the checking doesn't travel across the board. Then, I'd sticker these pieces individually. Does this sound like a good idea? I'm not sure, though, if it's best to let the boards sticker in as long of pieces as possible to minimize bows or twists?
Also, are there any tricks to minimize cupping, so I can save as much thickness of wood as possible (I'm thinking of my bench top here specifically). If the cupping happens mainly because the outer layers of the wood are drying faster, would it be a good idea to keep the bark side close if not on the concrete floor for some time, so the drying is balanced out? Or is there really no way to slow down or avoid the outer layers from drying faster?
Any help is advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Joe