Selfbows

Here's some pictures of my dry wood, long staves and billets that I'll splice into longer pieces. These were cut 3-6 years ago. There's some locust that were cut last spring too. I always seal the ends of the log as soon as it's cut with shellac which dries fast and stops the moisture from running out the ends. This is most important when the sap is up. Moisture leaving the ends is what causes drying checks or cracks in the log. I split them at least in half so the wood can lose moisture through the split side. The bark keeps the moisture from leaving through the outer side. A split needs to be 3 or more inches across the bark side and at least 3 inches deep. Now that I have a bandsaw I can use a lot of marginal wood. It's a lot easier to find a 3-4' straight section in most trees.