Post #231532 by Swanky on Thu, May 11, 2006 6:50 AM

Ben, did you remove the inner wood for weight or for drying without cracking? Or both? I had a guest over the other night who is an expert carpenter and he was very surprised that I was carving on whole logs. He said that if you remove the core of the tree, you get almost no cracks. So, drilling a nice hole up the middle, or carving out the back, is good to prevent checking.