Drying Wood

[Coach]

My brother wants to make some clock faces from Olive Tree stumps . How does he cure/ Dry them ? Should he cut them up like this first or should he leave them whole ?

[longbowinfected]

I looked up my copy of Bootle but native and true olive are not really covered.
As a general rule without specific knowledge of Olive wood I suggest that large sections are seasoned slowly by sealing the ends, placing under cover in shade and check every 3-4 months. Cross sections shaped like clockfaces only a few inches deep/thick would lose moisture very quickly if cut to those sizes at the time of harvest. Quick moisture loss of free water then quick loss of water combined in cells would extremely likely cause splits and cracks.
You could paint the ends with aquadhere or something else or even wrap the sections or section ends in shrink wrap or glad wrap.
Kevin

[Coach]

Cheers Kevin We looked at some stumps that were cut a week ago ,, and they are already splitting at the ends .

[longbow steve]

Hi Jeff, They split when they are left as logs as the ends shrink/dry rapidly and the rest of the log remains moist.
Cut it up and pile it up for air flow with spacers and see how they go. Seal some as Kevin suggested to slow the process .
It is a beautiful wood that would look better in the riser of a bow if you decide you dont want to slice it, cut it into chunks,seal it and sell some to us bowyers. Steve

[Coach]

It is a beautiful wood that would look better in the riser of a bow if you decide you dont want to slice it, cut it into chunks,seal it and sell some to us bowyers. Steve

Do you guys want some ? I will see what is there if ya want

[longbow steve]

Cool

[Coach]

Are these big enough to be of any use ??

[longbow steve]

Might be able to get some small bits out of them laminated risers etc
Jeffro and I may be passing through on Monday if your home? Provided Jeff is ok about popping in and saying G'day.
Steve

[Coach]

Yeah Jeffro has my mobile number and said he will give me a call when ya come through
These are quite chunky logs ,, thought you would get more than some laminations from them

[Moss]

In the past when drying wood I have painted the ends with beeswax this tends to prevent splitting. you can also take the bark of to speed up dry times. i haven't personally dried olive wood. but i have dried some small logs of celery top and horizontal scrub very successfully using this method the celery top I dried looks very similar in size to the stick of olive wood you posted. as a general rule when drying wood it dries about an inch a year. from the sides that is. Hope this helps