harvesting my own basswood

[Nutmeg Designs]

Hi all,
about three weeks ago i harvest my own basswood from bind the house. I got some nice 4' sections most about 7" diameter. I painted the ends with latex paint that morning and left them out side on the patio chairs.

how long do i need to leave them out side before i can safely hack them up? I never did remove the bark not knowing if i needed to or not. does anyone have any ideas?

[Gergie]

Two things and I may be wrong on both. I heard you were suspose to use oil paint to seal the ends and strip the bark off of basswood.

I have cut down two walnut trees and left the bark on, but I took it to a saw mill soon after I cut them down and cut to rough thicknesses then painted the ends. And some splitting occured.

I hope there are some other opinions out there for this topic.

Are you going to saw them up into slabs or carve them in "log" form?

[Eddy-Smiles]

It's been my experience on small pieces that you need to strip off the bark so that the entire piece of wood can breathe to prevent splitting. As to whether latex will suffice or an oil based sealer is needed, great question! Maybe one of our more experienced members will chime in!