drying green maple saplings

boots713 · #1 09-24-2006, 06:01 PM

Hi new here and i hope i am not asking a question that has already been asked.
i read somewhere that you can dry green saplings for canes/walking sticks in plastic? i know it is in a book i have but am unable to locate it, im frustrated! what i ended up doing is hanging the saplings on hooks and making a sheet of plastic that wraps them but does not touch the saplings, so far so good. my first try was to put them in large garbage bags and lay them down but a few started to mildew where the plastic was touching the wood. so i went to approach #2. next question will the maple saplings hold up as walking sticks? and one more question has anyone ever worked with madrone and large manzanita branches i have access to lots of it and it is beautiful but i cant get it to dry right for nothing,within a few days it starts to crack no matter what i have tried. grrrrrrrr!!!
just getting back into wood working and there is a lot i need to learn still. smiles

Hi_Ho_Sliver · #2 09-24-2006, 06:21 PM

Get some "anchorseal" and seal the ends and hang or lay them in the rafters of your garage (if you have one)

Or if you prefer, coat the ends with parafin wax...works just as good.

wade clark · #3 09-24-2006, 11:03 PM

Boots,
Welcome!
What Hi_Ho said! The best price I've found for anchorseal is at www.highlandhardware.com , really good Folks to work with.
I'd probably coat the whole sapling in it if it was me.
Are you from Florida? I think manzanita thrives around St. Augustine.
Wade

boots713 · #4 10-07-2006, 08:49 PM

sorry it took so long to respond, life kinda gets in the way of fun sometimes! thanks for the answers, and i am in the far northwest corner of california, on the smith river. lots of manzanita, madrone,big leaf maple here as well as redwood(a bit down the road) but the state parks frown on taking that from the redwood forest. dont blame them the redwoods are absolutely gorgeous but ya can still oogle the trees. so instead i go to my local burl shop for the redwood, have found some great birdseye and even redwood with a tiger striping effect, beautiful wood. i am digressing a bit here. i will have to try the anchor seal. one more question if ya dont mind. will coating a green sapling seal it forever or will it mildew under the sealant eventually because of the moisture? and will maple hold up well as a walking stick? thanks in advance!

Claude · #5 10-07-2006, 09:20 PM

Hi, Boots713!
The reason you seal the end of the sapling is to slow the drying process. When a sapling/tree dries quickly, the outside dries faster than the inside, shrinks, and then splits. When you seal the end with something such as paraffin, the moisture inside the wood can't wick to the end, so it has to slowly evaporate through the side. This helps the inside and outside to dry, and shrink, at the same rate, so spliting is minimized. If you lay the sticks up in your nice dry rafters, it should dry out without any mildew at all. When you get ready to carve it or make it into a hiking staff or cane, you can easily cut a half inch off the ends that were sealed and see clean bare wood. It usually takes about 1 year per inch of thickness of the wood to completely dry it, depending on the ambient humidity. If you lived in Arizona, it might dry in a couple of weeks

, but Northern California will take a year per inch thickness...

Claude

boots713 · #6 10-09-2006, 09:11 PM

thanks for the info on paraffin and on how fast wood will dry was especially helpful to know.if i paraffin the ends of the green saplings, then carve them and lay them in the rafters do i stand a good chance of them not splitting or will they? since i have debarked the sticks and carved varying thicknesses before they are dry. most of the wood i have found i will let dry naturally with the paraffined ends, but is it possible to carve them green and get good results?
i guess i am just getting anxious to use some of the wood i have that isnt dry yet. so many technical questions from my end!smiles

Hi_Ho_Sliver · #7 10-09-2006, 10:07 PM

most carve better green...some the bark comes off better green, some the bark comes off better dry....parafin or anchorseal works good on all of them.....some experimenting with the different woods you are working with.

Linda L · #8 10-11-2006, 08:48 AM

I would also like to know if anyone has carved Madrone. I'm in the Pacific Northwest, up in Washington State, and also have access to lots. It's also known as "Pacific Madrone" or "Madrona."

It sheds it's red outer thin layer of bark in the Fall. I'm thinking it might make some beautiful sticks/canes. The inner bark still has a reddish cast, and if I recall, the wood is a nice creamy yellow?

Anyone ever carve it? It can also grow into some interesting shapes!

Linda