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I recently came up with some sumac (fresh cut, green) around 5" in diameter. It's a really nice yellow color.
Along with it a piece of crotch 1" x 4"which I have been weighing every few weeks & the weight seems to have stabilized for September that is. I'm hoping to use it for rosettes. I realize the EMC might still be as high as 13 to 20%. My question is can I cut it to around.090 now or should I wait until later this winter until it gets really dry?

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Mike McNerney

Greetings from another Mike from Ottawa!
Sumac is a fun wood: it fluoresces (glows) under ultraviolet light. Could look really cool on stage. Weighing the wood is a fine way to track how it's drying, however be warned: sometimes when you think it has stabilized, it's only partway done. The free water in the pores and intercellular areas of the wood evaporate pretty quickly, but the water bound in the cells and cell walls might be slower, hence it's possible you're just seeing a pause in the drying action.
That being said, you can (and maybe should) cut it thinner now. It'll dry faster and be less likely to develop mold and cracks. You have to allow for the fact that it might still warp and shrink quite a bit, so allow a bit of extra thickness. If it's just for rosettes, a little warping won't be a problem at least.

split into quarters and let set about 1 yr per inch

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Another ex- canuck here I process local logs it all depends on the species of wood. I have a chrome yellow shrub, I cut veneers 2 mo ago when green, now moldy, mildew and potato chip was what I got , Err on the side of caution I use end grain sealer slathered on to prevent checking and as john said 1 yr to the inch then sticker . I weight my stacks and bundle them , it/s vy humid here and stickering as for luthier tops does not work vy well, I did a test sample on japanese wild cherry which was dead in may / Some I cut into 1,25 in stock and some into veneer for headstocks, Some of the cherry went wonkey and some were just curling . Beautiful stock and veneer awaits you when you cut local exotics and make your own veneers.

I have done a little of this. Cut the blank into pieces a little larger than you are going to use to allow for wood movement. Coat then ends to prevent uneven drying - 2 coats of latex paint works fine. Sticker it with some weight on top to help maintain it's shape. I have found that once you thin the piece to, say, 3/8" or so that it does not tend to check as much. Blow a fan through the stack, on low speed, for a few weeks to help get the bulk of the water out, then allow that year-per-inch rule. Some woods go quicker and some slower, but that is a good rule. Generally speaking, the thinner the wood, the less of the 1 inch-1 year rule and the thicker, the more, so less than 3/8" would be less then 3/8 year. This is because the water in the center does not have as far to travel to reach a surface.

You can speed it up by putting the wood in a cardboard box with a light bulb (stickered and weighted if possible - think hammers and wood splitting wedges). Try to get it to 120° or so. This works great for the small pieces you are talking about.

Also remember that branch and small trunk wood, and crotches and knees, will have a lot of tension in them and are much more likely to move around than a piece of a nice straight trunk.

Ed

Ed made an excellent point , branches , limbs , crotch burl etc, small tree trunks, check and move a lot unless you like that sort of thing for rustic chairs.

Since you are planning to use it in very very thin stock for inlay duty - it may not matter what you do so long as its dry. In this case - poke around on "The Internet" and you will see some discussion of woodworkers using a microwave for quick drying green wood.... Give it a whirl and off you go. If it curls or twists - use a clothes iron set on "Nuclear" to flatten it back out... Yes- it works...

If you plan to do anything structural with some of it - you really need to season it.. Not just dry it out. "Seasoning" exposes the wood to multiple hot/cold, wet/dry, freeze/thaw, pressure, wind, rain, humidity, seasonal changes. This exposure to all these elements actually stabilizes the wood far more than age and drying can accomplish by itself. It's pretty effective to make it more stable.

Heres how you do it... Cut the wood into billets. Paint the ends and coat it with some sort of lumber insecticide like Solubor. Find a place out of the way in the rafters of an outbuilding, down in the crawl space, or just outside under cover somewhere. Leave it for a while - a year or two... When you go dig it back out - you will find that the wood has far less jnternal stress and is far less likely to go all squirrely on you in your project.

I read a how to- in FW on OYSTER Veneering. Said to cut branch sections thin and bundle together with twin and popsicle sticks between for drying. Might find ideas there.