"andrew" wrote in message ...
Chade wrote:

Hello,

A tree blew over and I've been chainsawing it up. I noticed it seems
to have some attractive heartwood.

http://tinyurl.com/4vnhr5t

I'm not much of a carpenter and while most of the tree, I think it was
a Lime,

looks like a willow to me


will be going for firewood I'd like to make something nice to
show. The only thought I've had so far is to polish a slice as a
clock. I'd like suggestions, and tips, as to what to do with it.
Whatever I did with it would I need to season it first to stop it from
cracking over time? If so how?

The main reason wood cracks is because of differential shrinkage, the water
needs to leave the wood at the same rate it can migrate from the inside,
otherwise the inside stays swelled and the outside shrinks over it. The
other thing about differential shrinkage is that the cells change shape
more tangentially than radially ( and not a lot axially) so first step is
the quarter them.

Your logs have incipient rot and the green tinge suggests a bit of copper.

Willow has an initial moisture content of ~60%

AJH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRKVXG3DV-I

(sorry)

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%