Some nice figured Huon Pine

[56nortondomy]

I had this Huon sent to me by a guy who wants me to use it for a rosette and headplate on a guitar i'm building for him. He was dead keen on having Huon pine on his guitar so he bought this on ebay. There's enough for a stack of rosettes and headplates. Only problem is it's still a bit green.
Wayne

[Kim]

Resaw close to required thickness and it will dry out quick smart..you'll probably need to keep it stickered to keep it flat but then you can run a low speed fan near by to really push it along.

[Trevor Gore]

Resaw close to required thickness and it will dry out quick smart..you'll probably need to keep it stickered to keep it flat but then you can run a low speed fan near by to really push it along.

That usually works with "straight" wood, for sure. But I've had a lot of trouble when I've tried that with high figure/burl. It shrinks fast in all different directions and cracks like crazy. What I've taken to doing is putting it in a plastic bag (thin Woollies style) and leaving it in the house for 6 months then move it to the dry room for 6 months minimum. It still wriggles a bit after 6 months, but is better after 2 years. Bet you didn't want to know that!

[Allen]

All you can do is try both Kim and Trevors methods. A few pieces both ways and hope for the best. But I've not had a lot of luck with force drying burl either.

[56nortondomy]

Thanks guys, i was thinking along the lines of Kim's idea, but i might try both see what happens. I don't think the client wants to wait 2 years though.
Wayne

[Clancy]

I may be way, way off the mark here, but...
Could you cut off a slice then drown it in thin CA??
Or is it even to green for that?

[56nortondomy]

I'm not too sure how green it is Craig, i haven't had a chance to really suss it out yet.
Wayne

[Lee]

"I may be way, way off the mark here, but...
Could you cut off a slice then drown it in thin CA??
Or is it even to green for that?"


Slice and PEG may do the trick. Might limit your finish options though.

[charangohabsburg]

I don't think the client wants to wait 2 years though.

So I would him have the veneers cut and dried!

[auscab]

Cut off a bit and try a few bursts in the microwave . wood turners are into it.

link

http://mgorrow.tripod.com/microwave.html

[56nortondomy]

I used to do a bit of woodturning Rob, i tried the microwave on a bowl i made and it warped like hell, but i might have overnuked it. The guy that supplied the huon actually suggested that as well so i might try it on one piece. Thanks for the advice.
Wayne

[charangohabsburg]

I may be way, way off the mark here, but...
Could you cut off a slice then drown it in thin CA??
Or is it even to green for that?

Slice and PEG may do the trick. Might limit your finish options though.

What is PEG?

Sure, there is a method where the wood gets soaked in a substance which replaces the water and voids in the wood. It gets considerably heavier but absolutely stable. I don't remember the substance and the exact procedure but can search for it if nobody else is faster on that...

[Kim]

With burl Tim showed me a method of slicing thin and then layering up with alternately pieces of unsealed poster board, the stuff that looks like the inside of a weeties packet on both sides but is around 2mm thick. You then tape the stack tight and leave it dry untaping now and then to check mold is not developing and then retaping again. If the wood is very wet then you may need to change out the posterboard after the first week.

Trev if you still have those wrinkled veneers, try spraying them with veneer softener like super soft 2 and ironing them flat the next day and once flat clamp them that way for a while and they can come good. This won't help with cracks and voids but it can salvage some pretty doubtful looking slices.

[Bob Connor]

Are you sure it's green?

The bark on the right-hand sample looks like it's been out in the weather for a while and it's actually illegal to drop Huon Pines unless it's done by Forestry Tas because of something like a new Hydro road or dam being built.

There are only two blokes (Morrisons and Bradshaw's Mills) in Queenstown who have a licence to harvest Huon and all their stuff is recovered from the forest floor and has been down for yonks.

Any Huon that you buy in Tas would come through either them or Forestry Tas and I know that most of the Huon that Forestry has sold in the last few years has been dry logs, mostly recovered from rivers on the west coast.

Regards

[Lee]

PEG
http://owic.oregonstate.edu/sites/defau ... bs/peg.pdf

[charangohabsburg]

PEG
http://owic.oregonstate.edu/sites/defau ... bs/peg.pdf

Thank you.
Polyethylene Glycol. Yes, having a quick look at the table of contents, that's the same stuff I was searching an article about (on my PC).

[Trevor Gore]

Trev if you still have those wrinkled veneers, try spraying them with veneer softener like super soft 2 and ironing them flat the next day and once flat clamp them that way for a while and they can come good. This won't help with cracks and voids but it can salvage some pretty doubtful looking slices.

It's never a real problem getting it flat; a hot iron by itself works fine. It's just a case of dealing with the mass of open cracks. In burls with lots of different colours, I've done fill jobs with an epoxy mix adding colours from light to dark. Then there's all the post-fill levelling and getting back to even thickness. Not too much of a deal with a drum sander, but I haven't got one. I thin and level everything with hand planes. So for me it was a lot less work to buy a bunch of burls and let them dry real slow. And when I'm talking drying here, it's just taking it from 12% to 8% EMC. That's enough to have burl fall apart on you if you take it too fast.

Some burls are really crumbly regardless of how you dry them, but a dunk in epoxy or CA fixes that.

[56nortondomy]

I cut some veneers off today and it seems it's not that green after all, it came from Distinctive timbers Tasmania Bob, i can only assume it's legal, it was passed on to me by the buyer.
Wayne