Danllan

On ‎29‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 19:49, se7enthdevil said:

leave as logs but seal any endgrain once cut.

 

i'd love to see the tree, it must be enormous for a box???

On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 08:46, Lignaterrae said:

I had my greatest success sealing the ends with bitumen - it's just what I had at the time. The logs were stored in the attic of an outbuilding that was dark but draughty. Left for 4 years and they were then nicely dry and virtually crack-free. Mind you, those were 4' diameter, not 8" ...

Apologies for such a slow response, I don't go down to that part of the farm much during wet weather - which means most of the winter here in Carms. But I did go down last week and looking at them remembered to take a pic, it's from my clockwork 'phone so not great. The scale is my pocket knife, a Mauser.

I must admit to being a bit edgy about cutting the branches now, but I need to open the place up a bit so it must be done. However, I'm not in a rush, so if it's too late to cut this year I can wait for next winter, thoughts? Thanks for the advice given.

Thanks for that, I've not been down there for a while - the weather has been awful and I'm not taking a vehicle to carry the stuff while the ground is so soft. When I'm next down there I'll take some pic's. The trees are either side of an old ruin, maybe they started as ends of a hedge, there are no smaller box in between them. By pure luck, a large oak that is near them and came down in the storms, missed them. ☺️

Seal the ends with what? Wax, a varnish, paint or something specific? How many years to season -  as a guess, of course.

I have a couple of fair sized box trees that I need to lop a few branches off, the branches themselves are pretty big, being about 8" in diameter at their bases.

I like the idea of having some turned bowls and other things made from them, but have no experience of this wood. Can anyone advise the best size to cut to and the best way to season them, i.e. in cubes, in the round, bark on / off etc.?

Thanks in advance.