Coasters, chopping boards and whatnot help!

[Treeborn Wanderer]

Hello there, have been doing quite a bit of tree felling at work recently and was considering sawing a few limbs up to make coasters and chopping boards and the like for my friends. I've tried before a while back but after I had cut the pieces and left them to dry out they all cracked. Is there any way of drying the wood so it won't crack or should I stick varnish on it as soon as its cut? It's a right mix of trees in there, few oaks but mostly firs and the like. Any help would be mightily appreciated

 

[Harvestman]

Thins sections or rounds rarely dry without cracking. it is annoying, but there it is. You can get away with it for smaller pieces, say mug coaster size. I sometimes use 30 seconds in a microwave on coasters to drive out moisture. That works, and most pieces don't split when I do it. Much longer scorches the wood.

I have yet to find a way of seasoning larger pieces without splitting, other than by letting wood season naturally for years and then using the seasoned wood from the middle of the log.

There are far more knowledgeable people than me on here though, so maybe someone else will be more helpful.

 

[Treeborn Wanderer]

Ah didn't think of using a microwave that's a nifty trick. Cheers! Yeah the ones I cut before were a mix of thin ones and thicker, left them in my garage for ages but nearly all of them cracked. Pretty annoying indeed

 

[mr dazzler]

Did you do cross cut rounds to make coasters? That is the most likely explanation why they cracked especially if they are only very thin. It is impossible to prevent this happening normally, its a downside of wood as a hygroscopic material. You could possibly rip up some decent logs into thinnish planks, then cut small discs out of them with a hole cutter without the pilot drill, in a drill press? One way to reduce cracks and splits is to decelerate the drying process. I have done this often with spoons and bowls, by putting the items in a polypropylene sack with damp sawdust or shavings. This will let the item dry out but much more slowly.
Cheers Jonathan

What Harvestman said, all good

 

[Harvestman]

I had a nice bit of spruce that I saved as a round, and it dried quite nicely, and I thought I would get a platter out of it. Then it split.
I tried to rescue it but shaping it as a broken heart, but it didn't work, so I tried scalloping the edges of the split to disguise it. Still no good.
Then a moment of inspiration!

Woodenboardasaurus!

Sadly, all that happened was it split again, from the centre, ruining the piece. :11doh:

 

[Treeborn Wanderer]

Yeah I just cut rounds, I never considered cutting from a plank sort of style, I'm pretty limited with my tools, only have a chainsaw and a few chisels really so whatever I can make from them is my aim.

Haha love your coaster monster, shame he cracked and became extinct though. Just had another thought, what do you finish the wood with, some sort of varnish or wax type thing?

 

[Harvestman]

For the finish it depends on the use. For food-safe finishes I use walnut oil. Otherwise I use Danish oil or linseed oil, or a finishing oil. Sometimes I use a wax finish over sealed wood, especially on a lathe-turned piece. Wax gives a better shine than an oil finish.

For the woodenboardasaurus I used a child-safe melamine lacquer.

 

[Treeborn Wanderer]

Perfect thanks for all the info!