: Hi John's

: I would not suggest using the wood right out of the forest. Chances are you
: would not get a good bond with the glue. It is best if you let it season
: to lower the moisture content to match the air around you. The best way to
: do that is to mill it into planks and stack it with stickers in between
: the pieces. If you have a band saw, you can attach a straight board to one
: side with short nails, and let that keep it square with the fence and flat
: on the table. Don't want it to roll. When you get one side sawn flat, then
: do the same with another, adjacent side. When you have two sides square,
: then you can rip it about any way you want. The other two rough sides
: won't mater till you get ready to use it. Then stack it and weight it on
: top, at the sticker points, a foot or so apart, then let it sit in the
: garage or shed for a couple of months. Check it and restack it with the
: bottom boards on top this time. It takes about three or four months to get
: it to air dry to the proper outside moisture content. Longer if the planks
: are thicker. I would assume you are going to rip it to 3/4" or
: 1".

: Another reason you would not want to use wet/green wood is that it will
: shrink a bunch, and probably distort your boat a bit.

: You definitely want to rip it to dry it, as it will check and .........??
: what's the word when the ends split all to hell. ?? Anyway, you don't want
: it to dry out in log form, as it will dry from the outside in, and split
: and check real bad, and you will lose much of the wood. When milled, it
: has a chance to dry from all four sides equally and keeps it from
: splitting or warping real bad.

: You will enjoy using your own cut and dried wood on your boat, so, go for it.
: Just don't rush the wood drying, unless you have a kiln of sorts. Have
: fun.

: Rehd

Thanks for the info, Rehd. I had some understanding of the drying process but it was somewhat vague. I use to know a guy that had a large bandsaw for cutting logs into lumber. He would trailer it to your logs and cut them for so much a bd. ft.. He has long since retired. I want to see what I can do on my own with this split in half 8 ft long walnut log. I need to flatten the face and a side and then I can do rip some planks on my table saw for drying. I have a rough idea of making a simple 2x4 frame guide for my chain saw. I may play around with it today. I made a 7 to 1 scarf jig for my table saw yesterday but the fine ends were somewhat curled and fuzzy so I think I will just butt glue my strips. Thanks to all for the hot glue gun infor. I will buy a small one and see what happens.

John