How to preserve wood?

[ccorral]

I have two very large trees that were knock down by the last hurricane (Jeanne). One is teak the other is bay (I am not sure how to say its name in English, its scientific name is Cordia eliodora
How can I preserve some wood (actually almost all of it) for future use avoiding splitting?
Thanks for answering. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Steve Worcester]

its scientific name is Cordia eliodora

The Cordia alliodora is a Laurel tree. (I googled it 🙂

I would just chainsaw it to lengths that can be managed and then paint the ends with a water based paint, wax or end grain sealer. At that point, use it as fast as you can. In addition, put a tarp over it so that it is out of direct sunlight and wind.

 

[dkulze]

If you really want to cut it up for long term storage, you'd need to, at minimum, halve the logs, removing the center 10% containing the pith. Seal the ends of the remaining wood and it will give you a life of weeks to months. Mill it further into quarters (inlcuding cutting the pith out of the slabs you removed), seal the ends, and your shelf life extends to months to years.

There are a number of threads on this through the history of this forum and there are some sites on milling green wood so google it around and look through the older posts on the forum.

Good luck,
Dietrich