We have a lot of what's called vine maple on our property. I'm not
sure if it IS actually maple but it is a very hard wood. It's also
very pretty when finished. I want to utilize it in some fashion since
for the most part it grows to a particular length and then dies so
there is a lot of dead wood laying about. I've cut some of it green
and am going to dry it but I am wondering how to do this without the
wood checking. Or is it inevitable that it will check? leave the
bark on? Remove it?
I've got a few ideas for projects one of which is a bed frame.
Another is to make some outdoor chairs.
The diameters of the wood range from 1" to about 5-6".
I'm new to building with stuff from my forest but fortunately I have
lots of material so I can make mistakes and it's only time I'm out.
Kirk
"Moe, Larry, the cheese!", Curly
After cutting the boards, paint the ends with a heavy coat of latex paint to
prevent checking and splitting. Vine maple tends to have a very high
moisture content, and needs to dry slowly.
"'Captain' Kirk DeHaan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> We have a lot of what's called vine maple on our property. I'm not
> sure if it IS actually maple but it is a very hard wood. It's also
> very pretty when finished. I want to utilize it in some fashion since
> for the most part it grows to a particular length and then dies so
> there is a lot of dead wood laying about. I've cut some of it green
> and am going to dry it but I am wondering how to do this without the
> wood checking. Or is it inevitable that it will check? leave the
> bark on? Remove it?
>
> I've got a few ideas for projects one of which is a bed frame.
> Another is to make some outdoor chairs.
>
> The diameters of the wood range from 1" to about 5-6".
>
> I'm new to building with stuff from my forest but fortunately I have
> lots of material so I can make mistakes and it's only time I'm out.
>
>
>
> Kirk
>
> "Moe, Larry, the cheese!", Curly
"'Captain' Kirk DeHaan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> We have a lot of what's called vine maple on our property. I'm not
> sure if it IS actually maple but it is a very hard wood.
Go over to www.primitivearcher.com and ask around- I've heard that vine
maple is an exceptional bow wood, and you might actually be able to sell
staves (full length), or billets (half length) to bowyers.
Steve