carving splitting

[Berts wood]

I am on my second owl now but it has started to split before I have even finished it despite lots of coats of Danish oil and being stored mostly indoors, the wood was from a standing dead cheery tree that my son felled about a month ago.

How long do you generally leave logs before they are carved?

Bert.

[se7enthdevil]

any prunus species will split bert, you can't get away from it.

 

i'd stick to softwoods if you can like larch, western red, douglas fir or anything in the cupressaceae.

 

 

you could drill out the pith to reduce splitting in the cherry but the sap loves to split.

[Goodpig]

If it's gonna split, it's gonna split I'm afraid. You can potentially slow or lessen the splitting with oiling etc. but you can't stop it. Some of mine have not split at all, most do, even had a few close back up again, just luck of the draw when green. If you have time to season a log, it'll just show you where it's going to split and maybe give you the option to carve round em. Carvers curse. Carve green, accept it'll crack, tell customers, you'll be happier for it.

[Berts wood]

sound advice from both looks like all that cherry is destined for the wood stove.

many thanks bert

[Ukulian]

Cherry can be too pretty to burn! Carve it to get around the splitting.

If it's in the round and you must carve it that way, put a relief cut down the back of the carving.

If it's big enough, split it in half before carving. Even smaller pieces can be used for relief carvings and hangings. Just don't burn it! :)

[Woodcrafter]

I've found cherry does split quickly but don't burn it, I had someone ask me if I had some cherry lying around which I did I gave him just a few discs he made me an unexpected gift it was a really nice box it's now a keepsake box for our kids bits.