Ash Cookies

[kelLOGg]

I have a lot of ash logs ranging in diameters from 4 to 20 inches and too short for much of anything except cookies. Pentacryl is too expensive to prevent cracking on potentially so many so I am inquiring about sawing them on an angle instead of vertical to minimize cracking. Do you think this is a good approach? and at what angle would you saw them?

[WV Sawmiller]

   If you saw ovals instead of round cookies they will be much more stable but I think ash is a poor choice of woods for it as it is very straight grained and does not take much to crack anyway. 

[WDH]

Sticker the cookies like lumber and this slows the drying and helps with the cracking.  I use my regular lumber pallets.  Cover the pallet with cookies in a single layer in rows with the cookies in adjacent rows touching the previous row, lay on stickers on each row (I usually use two stickers on top of each row of cookies for stability for the next layer of cookies), lay on another layer of cookies in rows on top of the rows below, etc.  Really helps with the cracking. 

[Nebraska]

I gave mine a soaking  of denatured alcohol, then wrapped them in a plastic trash bag, put them in a box, I added alcohol a couple times then left them sit  a month then took them out to dry  seemed to work ok. We will see in a few more weeks of air drying but so far so good. Doc H  was my source.

[WV Sawmiller]

How much alcohol for how many cookies? Did they change colors? 

Did any bugs in the wood or under the bark get drunk? :D

[rastis]

I've used PEG (polyethylene glycol) with good results. And it's much less costly than pentacryl