Stinky logs

GG is doing an experiment with soaking wood. As I believe he has mentioned, he is interested in woodworking. During thte week before leaving for the conference in Hobart, Tasmania -- they flew out Monday, 6 February -- he noticed that some construction workers on campus had left a small pile of logs (eight?), about 1.0m-1.3m (3-4 feet) in length, and roughly 20cm (8'') in diameter. He took the three nicest ones (i.e. no side branches) home. They are some sort of gum tree (i.e. eucalyptus).

Because they were cut during the summer, the ''sap was up'' -- which doesn't yield as good quality of wood. (It's better to harvest lumber during the winter, when the tree is dormant.) He had just read in a woodworking magazine about soaking wood in water, to get the sap and resins out, so he tried that: he filled the ''wheelie bin'' (the big plastic recycling bin, on wheels) with water, then soaked them. In the hopes of preventing mosquito larvae, he poured linseed oil across the surface.

Unfortunately, linseed oil -- being organic -- can rot. The surface was becoming rather foul smelling. Thus, when GG phoned yesterday, I asked for permission to terminate his experiment. He agreed.

I dumped out the water, including the logs: this smelled like a pile of damp sweatsocks, but after a few hours, the puddle drained and it smelled much less.

Tomorrow, after the ends of the logs have dried a bit, as per GG's instructions, I will paint the ends with boiled linseed oil, to slow the moisture loss from the ends -- thus minimizing splitting. When he returns he will use wedges to rough-split the logs into planks, to allow for further drying with minimal cracking and checking.


--TG