Beech - to season or cut now?

[Bigfoot]

I have a bit of a log from a recently felled Beech tree and I thought I would get some nice knife scales from it and possibly do a bit of carving on what's left. My first instinct was to let it season for about a year first but if I want to carve something, I'm probably better to do that when the wood is still green, yes?

Would I be better off cutting out a few blocks for knife scales now and then let them season separately or just leave the log to season fully (less what I want to use for carving)?

Any comments/advice appreciated.

[spandit]

I'd reckon if you cut it now there'd be less stress aa it dries out so less cracking (and it would dry quicker too)

[mrmike]

For the knife scales I would cut some blocks now, but make them about 4 times larger than you need.

This is so that when you leave them to season (somewhere cool and dry for about a year, it needs to dry SLOWLY) if there is any splitting you should still have some useable timber.

You could also try painting the end-grain ends of the cut wood (use an oil based paint) as this will also help to slow and even out the drying process.

Hope this helps
Mike

[woodgrain]

For the carving, get at it now. Green is good!

[Bigfoot]

Thanks for the comments, chaps! I think I'll be cutting now and thanks for the tip about sealing the end grain.

[Ian S]

How big in diameter are the sections you want to keep?

I'd want to split the wood into halves or (better yet) quarters and get rid of the very centre pith. Wood shrinks as it dries, but the sentre can't shrink. This sets up stresses in the wood which causes it to split and tear apart. Get rid of the centre pith and minimise this problem.

Cheers

[Bigfoot]

^

Only about 6 inches in diameter although I intend to do some cross cuts to get maximum grain impact so the surface area will be bigger than that. I didn't know about stresses imparted by the pith, so that's something else I have learned in here yet again I don't think I have sufficient surface area to remove the pith and be able to make a sufficiently big cut to use for handles, so I think I will just cut now into the sections I need and see how it goes. The remainder I will have a go at removing the pith - I can always try my hand at turning a few spirtles!

Thanks again.