How should I treat these yew slices?

[richardwale]

I cut yew disks last year, drink coaster size, and left them in my garage, up on the lintel to dry. Perfect, one or two split but they were fine. Stick them in a shed or garage see what happens.  Mine got a little white mound on the surface but when sanded came up really nice.

[richardwale]

Mould 

[Rich Rule]

I cut quite a few bits of Sumac years ago.  Left them in the back of my old Nav for time...  then when I cleaned that out I stuck them in the shed with some other bits and pieces.  

 

When I cleared everything out as I was moving.  It was all in tact including a few rare bits of Cypress I had painted the ends of with PVA and emulsion.

 

I had to give them to a pal as they wouldn't fit in my suitcase...  haha.

[Beardie]

On 23/09/2017 at 17:19, Steve Bullman said:

Sounds like I'm probably as well off slinging them on the fire?

Sell them quickly, before they split!

 

(I did not tell you this)

[Steve Bullman]

Just saw this image on facebook...I guess that bench is screwed 

 

[Squaredy]

One technique is nearly what an earlier post described.  Cut the whole middle section out (maybe a six inch diameter disk or even more) with a jigsaw or similar.  With a large disk maybe cut out two or more concentric disks.  Then the large disks with the hole in will shrink without splitting (probably) and the smaller ones have a chance.  Then when all drying has finished you will need to carefully fit them back together, maybe reducing the size of the inner ones to fit, and gluing into place.

 

Also of course you will need to dry them really slowly.

 

Or my personal favourite - let them split - they will still be beautiful.

 

Or if you don't want a split get hold of some Giant Redwood or Coastal Redwood - they may well not split.

[bob]

So Steve 

have they split yet?

 

[Steve Bullman]

Not yet no!

 

how long should I expect to wait for them to split?

[bob]

More likely to split in the first few weeks than the next few months so maybe ok