what to do with cherry log

[Mitchell Garnett]

My wife, the horticulturalist, brought home a 5 foot log of cherry about 8 inches in diameter and fairly straight. I'd like to cut it up for projects but I've never done anything like this before so where to start?

I guess I could use my 14" band saw if I install the height extension. How long can I keep it as a log before cutting into boards?

Advice is requested and appreciated. thanks,


Mitchell

[John Hart]

Hi Mitchell,

If you're not going to cut it up right away, I suggest you seal the ends, otherwise it'll crack into firewood in a fairly short period of time. Just slice the ends to get fresh wood exposed and seal with a green wood sealer or latex paint. With a good seal, it'll last a very long time waiting for its demise.


....course then, you could send it to me and I'll put it on the lathe!!!!

[Scott Loven]

I had cherry tree die in my yard a few years ago. The logs were small enough that my sons and I could get them in the mini van so I hauled them to a guy in the area with a bandsaw mill. I got 150ft of lumber for $22.50! He had another 200bf of cherry drying in the yard that I purchased for $120. He also had 300bf of walnut that he wanted $450 for. I wish I had the money at the time!
One of the mags had a short story about a guy that screwed a piece of plywood to a log. As I remember, he shimmed the log so it wouldnt roll, then with the plywood down, he did a straight line rip cutting the log and the plywood sheet at the same time. He next rolled the log onto the flat and made the rest of the cuts on the log, using the plywood guide to help keep the log from rolling off of the flat.
Scott

[Charlie Plesums]

I cut some cherry bowl blanks earlier this summer, and sealed them immediately, but there is still quite a bit of cracking. Bottom line, the sooner you can get it into boards the better - there will be significant shrinkage as it dries, and as a log, the shrinking leads to almost certain splits (in the most inconvenient places); as boards, there is much less splitting as it dries.

[Rob Russell]

Seal the ends of the log before you cut it up. It's a lot easier to paint the end of 1 log than to paint the ends of a bunch of boards. AnchorSeal is a waxy paint made specifically for this purpose. Woodcraft also sells a house brand of a sealer that's made for the same purpose.