Hickory Slabs & Butternut

[dstumm]

First time here - First time logging. 
I live in SW MI and I have a friend with a portable mill who has helped me try to recycle a hickory log. 
So far we have cut the logs into 10 - 2" (approx) thick slabs that are 11' long and anywhere from 38-32 wide to 30-30 (live edge).  Also 6 that are 5'11" long.
Question:  what do I do with them?

Also I have 4 butternut trees that we have cut into dimensional lumber -4/4x11'x8 1/4" and are kiln drying.  I probably have more that I need.
Question:  What should I do with the rest?

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum.

Sounds like some heavy slabs. How do they look for grain pattern.

[SwampDonkey]

You know, one other use for the butternut is carving blanks. A couple years ago there was a fellow that kind of drifted in and took up residence near friends of my uncle. And he carved a mask from a piece of butternut. The neighbor friend showed me it and asked if I knew the wood. Yup, looks like butternut. He knew himself, but it was one of them quizzes you know. ;)

[Clam77]

Welcome to the forum DStumm.

If the Hickory doesn't crack on you, you could make a real nice workbench from it... or any other piece of furniture..   ;)

[dstumm]

How do I keep the slabs from cracking?
I have heard that waxing the ends will help.  Is that true? Is there a better way?

[Ianab]

Sealing the ends can help.

Reason is that wood dries fastest through the end grain, that's the way moisture naturally travels through the tree, and when it dries it shrinks. So if the end 6" of your board dry dry (and shrink) quickly, before the rest of the board, then they are prone to splitting at the ends.

By end coating you slow down that process, and make the end of the boards dry through the sawn surface, at approx the same rate as the rest of the board.

Now with large slabs there is all sorts of other shrinkage and movement going on as well, so you may be other splitting and checking that you can't control as easily.  All you can really do there is sticker them and let them gently air dry, and hope. Woods that shrink less, like Walnut, cedar, cypress etc are easier to dry in large slabs, some of the less stable and harder to dry woods are very difficult to get dry on one piece.

Ian

[dboyt]

Butternut is getting scarce.  You might find a furniture maker or woodworker that would want it.  I'd just make a Craigslist posting and see what happens.  Be careful about bringing that hickory inside, unless you have heat treated it.  I made the mistake of making some rustic benches out of hickory slabs from my sawmill.  I spent the next 8 months battling powder post beetles that had come in with the benches and started chowing down on my posts & beam.  Little piles of sawdust on the floor.  Trust me, it is easier to get rid of the little buggers BEFORE they are in the house.  Heat treating involves bringing the wood up to at least 140 deg F for at least an hour (that is core temp-- the thicker the wood, the longer it takes).

Coating with wax-- I use Anchorseal from Baileys-- helps a lot with splitting, but needs to be put on as soon as the wood has been cut.  Once it starts to split, it won't do you any good.  I have a friend who loves splits in his wood.  He fills it with a turquoise/ epoxy mix and it looks like a vein of turquoise in the wood.  It is expensive stuff, but then so is his furniture.