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Hickory harvest

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Muskyman:
I remember reading that on here Pat. If I remember correctly the post said that the sapwood and heart wood dry at a different rate and will cause them to check. I’m going to continue to work on them till I get down to the orange wood. I just put the polyurethane on them to try to keep them from checking till I get the sapwood off. I’m going to work on them more tomorrow.

Thanks Dave. I decided to take care of the Osage first then I’m gonna get busy on the hickory. I should be set for staves for a while. Also have the Osage I harvested last year. It will be a year old end of September. I’m thinking I’ve got 6 or 8 of those. I’ll still keep an eye out for any really nice looking Osage trees. If I find the right one I’ll probably try to get it.

Eric Krewson:
Leave the bark on any stave you can't remove the bark and sapwood at the same time.

I lost a lot of fine osage early on by removing the bark and not the sapwood. The sapwood checked the staves from the back to the belly even though I sealed the back with 4 coats of shellac.

If you store your bark pealed staves in the sun they will check very quickly.

Here is an osage split that I tried to get away with only removing the bark. This split was stored in a crawlspace under my house where it is cool and damp, it didn't matter.

Muskyman:
Thanks Eric. I’m taking the sapwood off. I got 3 done this morning and I’ve got 3-4 more to go before I get back to the rest of it. I’ve been cheating a little bit.  Using my chipping hammer. I sharpened the bit up and it worked great. I take the sapwood off till I see it starting to change color then finish it with my draw knife 😀

Muskyman:
Finished product

Muskyman:
What’s with these cracks down the left side of this stave?

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