Wooden Discs

[Greyman 28,881]

I have been making a few house name plaques from discs cut from logs or biscuits, my main issue is how long should the wood be dried out and is there anything I can do to stop them splitting as some of them look lovely for 6 months or a year but then start to crack, the discs are normally around a foot or two across with a thickness of about two inch, any tips or advice on treating the wood much appreciated thanks

[GruffaloGriff 1,859]

Are you sealing them with anything? The longer the logs stood before slicing them up the less likely to crack, although that diameter cut 2" thick is liable to split.

[Tiercel 6,986]

Try cutting them at an angle then stack them on top of each other with spacers between each layer to allow air to circulate around the wood and leave them for at least a year or two before you start working them. Once worked make sure they are sealed properly because if they take in moisture then dry out again they will crack.

 

TC

[Greyman 28,881]

Cheers for that I have not been sealing them with anything, just cut them leave them in my garage for a year then off I go, it does seem to be the heat of taking them indoors that accelerates the cracking, I have made a few clock faces, that were absolutely fine until they came indoors,then they just split almost overnight, I guess I just need to be a bit more patient when seasoning them, cheers for the advice anything else just fire away

[jok 3,322]

You'll notice that most plaques are cut diagonally. If crosscut, they will split as in I he inner rings will hold together but the outer rings will reduce through normal drying. When cut on the angle they hold together better and in the case of, for example, cherry, take on a much better finish because the bark stays intact.

[Greyman 28,881]

Have done a few that never split or lost bark from a tree I have been harvesting for a couple of years, here is one of my clocks, even keeps quite good time, I have a pile of these seasoning in my shed

[Greyman 28,881]

Have done a few that never split or lost bark from a tree I have been harvesting for a couple of years, here is one of my clocks, even keeps quite good time, I have a pile of these seasoning in my shed

Edited June 19, 2016 by Greyman

[Guest Navek]

Are you cutting them in to 2 inch pieces befor drying them out ? Normally it's best to cut the logs in 4 ft lengths paint the ends with gloss paint or wax leave to dry for a year . You will ger splits/cracks at the ends but the rest of the wood will / should be bone dry so shouldn't crack after

[jok 3,322]

Is that pine? The bark looks that way as well as the rings. If it is, I'm surprised with no splitting.

[Tiercel 6,986]

Is that pine? The bark looks that way as well as the rings. If it is, I'm surprised with no splitting.

Looks like beech to me?

 

TC

[jok 3,322]

Mate, that ain't beech. Silver blue smooth bark. No way mate. I might well be wrong about pine though. Jok.

[Greyman 28,881]

Could not say what wood it is but I have made a few and none of them have split I have a three foot stump, I will go and get a photo, it's a fair size tree that blew down across the road, the council chopped a lot of it up and dragged it back from the side of the road, so I go and harvest it in the winter, for my woodburner, some of the discs have split but it's usually straight away, I just burn them and keep the non split ones for clocks and door numbers,

[jok 3,322]

Looks like black poplar.

[Greyman 28,881]

Looks like black poplar.

thanks for that, my tree identification is very limited, cheers