Leatherworking stump

[motocouture]

Been a good week! Picked up two racks of deer antlers someone left out on the curb, which will be turned into burnishers / folders  .  Then hubby wanted to get rid of two trees in the back yard, so I put in a request for a 33" section of the trunk to make a leather working stump. Came home to this - happy to hear any suggestions on drying out / treating / embellishing etc! (Will neaten up the top later to make it level)  

 

[Brianm77]

Paint the cuts good and heavy and put in the coolest and driest place you cans find for about a year.  What I would do...

[motocouture]

11 minutes ago, Brianm77 said:

Paint the cuts good and heavy and put in the coolest and driest place you cans find for about a year.  What I would do...

Thanks! That should be do-able....

[JimTimber]

Get the bark off it pronto!

Painting the ends will only possibly prevent checking (cracks radial to the diameter), and will slow the overall drying.

You're looking at more than a year.  Hardwood dries 1" per year when cut into boards (2" = 2 years, etc).  If you have a wood stove or fireplace, you might speed the process but risk inducing cracks from uneven drying.

[JD62]

    Jim Timber is right on about dry time. I painted the ends of mine with poly and just use it , reseal the top when worn. After a year I only have a couple fine checks that don't

seem to be getting any bigger.

[zuludog]

'fraid I haven't used anything like that, so I'm stumped for an answer.

[motocouture]

Thanks JimTimber and JD62, much appreciated.  I'll work on getting the bark off asap! I have a good poly sealer at home I can use (was for hardwood floors, so assume it'll do the trick)

Zuludog, sounds like you wood-n't know

[zuludog]

Alright, that's enough for fun, if you like that sort of thing

More seriously, search YouTube for 'log end table' ; 'tree stump table'; and any similar variations you can think of. As is usual with YouTube there are lots of videos, some probably more relevant & useful than others

I have only watched 2 or 3 as I didn't need to watch any more, but I think you would find it useful to do so, as many as you have the stamina for

One of them recommends painting the cut ends with 40% sucrose solution to prevent cracking. I don't know anything about this, perhaps others can comment? Sucrose is just the chemical name for ordinary table sugar

Have you ever used percentages? They can be confusing if you're not familiar with them, but I have used them all my working life. Beware, 40% is not 40 + 100 it is 40 sucrose + 60 water; my apologies if I'm talking down to you.

[JimTimber]

You seal the ends to prevent them from drying faster than the middle (which is what causes the "check".  Checking is the technical name for a stress crack in wood).  The grain of the wood is actually made up of thousands of little tubes that are filled with various levels of water depending on where in the log they're located.  Heart wood is dryer, because it's not the "live" wood of the tree (that's the sap wood around the outside edge).  Trees grow up when they're young, then start growing outward once the tree hits it's peak height adding growth rings at each spurt of growth (usually around 4 a year).  "Old growth" trees are more sought after because they grew slower under natural succession (more competition for sunlight = slower growth = tighter grain).  Without that competition, the tree grows a lot faster and puts on more growth per spurt and has looser grain, while getting bigger in a shorter time period.

Bark seals the water in and will allow fungus and mold to thrive.  Get that off so the sap wood can breathe, and seal the ends so they can't - that's your best bet for an air dried log. Still no guarantee you won't get checking, but it does help keep it to a minimum.   If the stump is brought inside before being exposed to much outside contamination, you can leave the bark on and leave the ends bare. I did it with the log my anvil lives on, and it checked a bit but not enough to pose a problem.  I didn't know what I do now when I cut the green ash it came from (10 years ago), so I would do it differently today.  

[motocouture]

Thank you both so much; really appreciate you both taking the time to share the detail. 

Zuludog - no worries at all. I have used percentages, but always good to get the clarity on whether it's a % versus a ratio (e.g. 1:1). 

JimTimber - will give that a shot.  I'm not too worried if some checking occurs. I'll call that "character" ; ) Now I just have to actually clear a spot in the garage... 

[Doc Reaper]

LEAVE THE BARK ON! It holds in the proper amount of moisture so it won't crack as bad. I have 5 trunks,  The ones with the bark left on fared far better than the ones with the bark removed,  LEAVE THE BARK ON!

[dirkba]

On 4/4/2017 at 2:51 AM, motocouture said:

Been a good week! Picked up two racks of deer antlers someone left out on the curb, which will be turned into burnishers / folders  .  Then hubby wanted to get rid of two trees in the back yard, so I put in a request for a 33" section of the trunk to make a leather working stump. Came home to this - happy to hear any suggestions on drying out / treating / embellishing etc! (Will neaten up the top later to make it level)  

 

If this is an Australian pepper tree stump its probably not the best choice for a stump...the wood is likely to crack no matter what you do. Walnut or eucalyptus wood makes a very nice stump!

I would however try and force a metal hoop around the top and as it dries force the hoop down and let it settle at about 4 - 6 inches from the top. If the stump cracks the metal hoop will hold it together.

Good luck with your project!

[Crashresq]

Moto.... I have been a wood turner for years and have cut and prepped a LOT of wood, of a lot of varieties, for turning.  I've also prepped and used several really large stumps for anvils for my other hobby, blacksmithing.  A lot of good advice here and I'll add my two cents worth.  For your purposes, definitely get the bark off...you can paint or urethane the ends if you want, it will just slow the checking, but it's going to check (crack) regardless... banding it at the top and bottom with something you can increase pressure on as it dries will be one of the biggest benefits... and if you get some steel bands made up for that purpose, you can add loops to them for holding mallets and other tools  .  Jim was dead on with the drying times... I usually turn green wood to about an 1" thick and let it set in shavings and a brown paper bag for a year before removing and finish turning... it's held solid for about every species I've turned... so given that, debark, seal the ends (or not), and band it tightly and start using it...

[mojave]

Moto,  I also like a stump for leather working, but I live in the upper Mojave desert of California.  Not many big trees here.  I went to our water district and got a cut off of 20" PVC pipe.  I made a base and top out of glued 3/4" oak plywood that extended 3" into the pipe  Filled the pipe with compacted sand, than installed the top by forcing it into the sand.  Screwed the base and top with SS screws.  I than attached a strap for my tools.  I have used the stump for 3 years now, and really like it.  

Howard

[motocouture]

Dirkba - not 100% sure on the wood, but since I'm in Pennsylvania, I'm guessing walnut or something similar. Good idea on the bands at the top.

crashresq - great to hear that you do blacksmithing! My step-dad was a farrier / blacksmith, so grew up around anvils and forges. Thanks for the detailed info and the bands idea, that will be the plan for this weekend...

mojave - smart way to build a stump when there's no big trees around!

[motocouture]

Me - 1, stump - 0. Got the bark off (took a surprising amount of effort lol). Found some stainless steel bands online that'll go on next, along with leveling and painting the top. Thanks again for all the advice

 

[Doc Reaper]

How bad is it cracked now, show pictures please! My Hickory stump is a cracked pretty bad, my Red Oak (bark on) is still solid with hair line cracks. Maybe the type of wood makes a difference on the amount of cracking???

[motocouture]

It's definitely cracking some, will take some photos and share! I also need to level out the top from the chainsaw cuts, which I haven't quite got round to yet. Stump's currently sitting in the garage, to the annoyance of hubby

[Rockoboy]

When I wanted to level the top of a tree stump to mount my anvil on, I used the top of an old solid wooden crate as rails and I made a rough router sled. The router sled slid along the top of the crate as I moved the router back and forth in the sled.

The only really tricky part was right at the beginning when I had to position the stump so that the top would be parallel to the bottom.

I ended up with a stump that had a very slight rock (uneven base) to it, so I used 3 galvanised fittings as feet. The fittings lift the stump up off the ground about half an inch, and like a 3 legged stool ... it does not rock.