Filed for future reference, while pondering the logistics of larger pieces which could be life-size carvings...
-- Life is an escalator: You can move forward or backward; you can not remain still. -- Patricia Russell-McCloud
Yes, get some paraffin wax, candle wax, some sort of wax. Get an old iron, melt the wax into the ends of the logs.
If you have a lathe, you probably wouldn't be asking, but if you do, turning green wood is a treat, turn it rough, melt wax all over it, let it sit for a year or till dry, and then finish turning it.
They cut the wood too small for much other than lathe turnings (perfect for lathe turnings like bowls, mallets, tool handles, goblets etc.
To use it for other than lathe work, you pretty much need a jointer, band saw, table saw and a planer would be nice. You can make some small boxes out of it, maybe some cutting boards pencil holders etc. I can see from here it is really nice wood. I've made all sorts of stuff from firewood like that, maple, cherry and some walnut like you have.
Actually, a bowsaw and hand planes work perfectly well with firewood, and the sand in the firewood won't mess up your jointer/planer blades.
scott
Looks nice but it is too bad they have been cut short. Even twice that length could have yielded some valuable wood. There is a guy in SE Kansas that sells rough blank black walnut shotgun and rifle stock blanks. When I say rough I mean sawn to the general size of a stock and sealed. He gets anywhere from $75 to hundreds of dollars for a blank. His more expensive chunks have a lot of figuring.
RonB
What are they, hand tools of some sort? Yes, I think I once cut down a Xmas tree with a bowsour, May have seen a hand plane used once by that crazy SOB Roy Underhill, not sure.
Sand? No sand in any walnut grown around here?
Firewood usually is stored on bare ground. Bare ground has, in many locations, sand and other grit, which tends to become embedded into the exterior of the firewood.
Your milage may vary.
Wouldn't recommend using latex paint as an end grain sealer of green wood. Modern latex paint are formulate to breathe - albeit slowly - but not slow enough to keep green wood from splitting.
If you can't get Anchorseal, get some paraffin - sold at hardware stores for canning food. Melt in a double broiler, the container of wax NOT in contact with the heat source. WAX WILL CATCH FIRE - HENCE CANDLES. Once molten use and old brush to brush it on the end grain.
I don't know where you store your firewood - But Never on the ground.
I have it always in the air on two edge wise 2x boards or on a slope of corrugated tin or like we do now - across plastic (fiberglass) pallets that won't rust or rot, won't harbor bugs - won't be in rain runoff and the roof over the wood is sloped tin to drive the water off the cover.
On the ground means rotting a lot of wood.
Those who had no other option - stacked wood end down and in a circle tilted outwards - making a 6' 2 or 3 layer.
Wood lying on the ground here - e.g. a fallen tree - won't last 2 years. The first year it is mushy 1/3 way up. After that - it is all over.
I turned and even re-sawed bolts and logs out of my wood pile. Some of it was put there by my saw and some by a wood supplier. Depends on the year.
Mart> Jack writes:
While that may work, if you have an old iron, plug it in and melt some wax on the end grain, then iron it into the wood. Wax is waterproof and stops fast drying from the end grain completely.
I don't have a double boiler in my shop, so an iron it is:-)
Get an old crock-pot and use that.
I find that it takes much of the day for the wax to both melt and get hot enough to adhere to the wood.
When I am in a hurry I use a big propane powered turkey cooker, the same one I use for boiling wood. When I do this I watch it like a HAWK, cause it will catch fire
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