Drying Maple

[Bryan Milham]

Hi folks,

I've been given a 5 foot length of Field Maple (Acer Campestre) trunch between 5" & 6" diameter.

It'll turn into vases, small hollowforms and hopefully a natural edged form (or 2) which I'll part-turn and put to drying.

I know all the methods for drying Green timber but has anyone got a definitive method for Maple, bury in shavings, paper or plastic bag. Or is it stable enough to just leave dry in a cool area?

[davidbrac]

My experience with field Maple is it will split quite easily, best results have been rough turn wax and throw on a shelve. I've had about 80% success rate with this method with bowls and vases.

Some of the planks l cut and sealed the ends off (1.5m * 8cm * 50cm)   split quit badly, even though they were stored in the same building. So my theory was that by releasing the stress by rough turning improved the success rate .

[Bryan Milham]

When I did an AWGB Hollow turning day it was suggested that If I covered the thick area connecting to the tenon with Superglue I'd stand a good chance that it would not split.

It works but seemed wasteful of glue - so I thought about what I was trying to achieve - to stop the wood moving such that it could split.

The picture below is a small vase from my Maple, the pith is well off centre (you can see it in the photo) so I fully expected it to crack in the tenon.

But the Jubilee Clip seems to be doing the trick. It's a Stainless Steel one of course - not wanting rust stains.