A few months back a tree was cut down in Cambridge Park, Sydney and needed to be cut up into manageable lengths as it was just left as felled. The tree was next door to a friend’s mother’s home and needed to be cleared. The friend had a chain-saw so cut it up into manageable lengths and sealed the ends with Bond Crete, and, consequently, as it had great colour, how could one refuse the offer of a few lengths.
The wood is Juniper, also known as, Eastern Red Cedar, Scented Cedar, Red Pine, or Red-hearted Juniper. The Juniper tree is often used as a suburban street tree, which suggests that once established, it seems to tolerates neglect and harsh conditions.
The wood’s rich red heartwood and contrasting pale sapwood, and relative hardness makes it an ideal craft-wood although the size of the tree does restrict its use; for those focused on woodcraft, such as turning, sculpture and box-making, pen-making, and the like, Juniper would be most suitable and desirable.
What to do with these delivered blocks? Well, firstly, as the lengths are freshly cut and still quite green, the wood will need to be seasoned, that is, allow time for the wood to dry out and stabilise before using it.
As an experiment, I decided to slice some of the blocks up into small boards for future box-making.
Once sliced using the bandsaw, the boards needed to be stacked back in order with stickers/spacers separating them to allow air to circulate between them.
The stack of small boards was still “in the round”, so it was necessary to wire the bundle together during the seasoning process which secured the bundle and allowed easy handling.
Next, weigh the bundle, then leave it in the garden shed. Why weigh it?
Well, as the wood loses moisture as it dries out, it will become lighter and once the weight stabilises, it will be “seasoned”, and ready for use.
The boards wired together allowing the air to circulate for even drying.
Well, once seasoned, what to do with the boards once dried?… several months of seasoning time to think about that.
