Big Texas Wood

[mtngun]

Hard to get a feel for the thickness in the photos. OP said 7", but that's a very rough 7" due to the free hand cut. Eventually quite a bit of thickness will have to be removed with a router sled (after drying, of course).

Impressive slab. :msp_ohmy:

 

[BigTxWood]

Hard to get a feel for the thickness in the photos. OP said 7", but that's a very rough 7" due to the free hand cut. Eventually quite a bit of thickness will have to be removed with a router sled (after drying, of course).

Impressive slab. :msp_ohmy:

Yes, we are working on smoothing it up a bit now, heard we should paint the ends to help slow cracking. Spoke with billstuewe and he has a mill big enough...5 hours away from us, but everything seems to be 5 hours away in Tx so I am not bothered by that. I am looking for 2- 2" finished slabs. Bill also said load up the rest of the tree and bring it "as is" and he will cut it up too. We are part timers. 40 years old, three kids ages 7,7, and 6 and get a limited amount of time to play with dangerous tools without interruptions. The rest of the tree will produce 40" inch slabs and some good quarter sawn lumber. I will post pics if someone will school me on how to do that, on the project as it goes on. Thanks, you have been helpful.

 

[billstuewe]

Don"t waste your paint at this point. Once the cracks start it is too late. The only remedy is to cut off the ends as far as the cracks run and then paint the fresh cut endgrain. At this point I would just wait until you are down here and I can help you as I have anchorseal which is made for sealing end grain and it should not crack much more in the next few weeks. I try to seal the ends of my logs as soon as I cut them. I have seen cracks start in an hour after cutting on hot dry Texas summer days.