Log, Log, Log! advice

I got a couple of large cherry logs from my sister last weekend. One had been drying in her garage for about a year, the other out on the wood pile.

So I spent some time today with the draw knife, taking the bark off. The dried log was a lot of work, but okay. If I ever decide to go rowing, this is the exercise to get those muscles going.

But the other log may be a lost cause. I found the bark was all rotted. It came off with little effort. It just fell off basically with rotted bark mud underneath. Easier on the back for sure. But under that, I found the wood was different colors. Not sure if it's rotting or what. Some of it was rather gray.

Is it no good? Or did Mother Nature just help me by rotting off this bark?

On 2005-04-02 18:21, Swanky wrote:
I got a couple of large cherry logs from my sister last weekend. One had been drying in her garage for about a year, the other out on the wood pile.

So I spent some time today with the draw knife, taking the bark off. The dried log was a lot of work, but okay. If I ever decide to go rowing, this is the exercise to get those muscles going.

But the other log may be a lost cause. I found the bark was all rotted. It came off with little effort. It just fell off basically with rotted bark mud underneath. Easier on the back for sure. But under that, I found the wood was different colors. Not sure if it's rotting or what. Some of it was rather gray.

Is it no good? Or did Mother Nature just help me by rotting off this bark?

Burn it!

I would cut an end off it first and see how it looks inside. If it is all soft and spongy then burn it but there may be some beautiful spalted wood there. You gotts get inside to find out.

True dat! Check it out before , it may carve well still. I carved one of my fave tikis from the shittiest log I've had. Swank, I will email you, I have something I hage to run by you.

It's not rotted inside. I went through the stuff first. This is just about a 3 foot log. So, I'll let it dry and see hw it looks. I just didn't know if this surface bark rot was a deal killer or not.

A lot of times the outer layer of wood called "Sap wood" rots away really easily and for that reason is not good for carving. on your dried log you may see the same sapwood dried and not rotten, however if it is much softer than the heart wood, you should cut it off too.

The bark peeled right off of the log that was to become the Fishertiki ( http://www.nicefishy.com/NF_Carvings.html ). It had the same bark dirt that you described, but the wood was still fine, and in fact didn't split at all while carving.