Dogwood Stump

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Well I got a dogwood stump that is about a foot in diameter for about 8 inches and then split into two 6" diameter forks  about 14 " long. It was cut about a month ago.  It looks like perhaps two nice long pistol blanks.  So what do I have to do to preserve/dry/protect it, and for how long... Down here in humid GA???

or should I just add it to the firewood pile??

[tallbear]

Tim
Paint the ends heavily and dry it slow.Dog wood is one of the toughest woods to dry as it tends to check heavily.Once dried it is very hard and makes excellent tools handles and it turns very well,Whatever you do don't throw it on the fire wood pile

Mitch

[mike payne]

Have you ever tried to carve dogwood ? I have made wedges out of dogwood to split oak!
Mike

[woodsrunner]

Dr. Tim,

You may well have a valuable piece of wood for pistol stocks. Dogwood is very dense and difuse porous if I remember correctly, and was used for shuttle blocks in the textile industry and also for golf club heads until recent years. Back in the '60s when I was in industrial forestry I sold tons and tons of Dogwood to a manufacturer of shuttle blocks in the Columbus, Georgia area. The extremely dense non-porous grain wouldn't splinter which made it perfect for spindle blocks used in weaving thread.

If you can split the chunk along the fork and end up with two approximately equal pieces I think you would be OK in doing this. The unique grain characteristics of this wood isn't going to let the end grain split and check to any degree. If it's been cut a month and the end grains aren't splitting by now, it probably won't check very much. Just to be safe you might dip the ends of each piece in melted beeswax or simply paint roofing compound over the ends. I would dry it simply by putting it in the corner of the workshop or garage where air can circulate around it freely. Inside out of the rain, naturally. How long? I don't know, but I would say for at least a year and it might take two. The moisture content in hardwood lumber drops rapidly initially, but then it slows down. The general rule of thumb for air dried hardwoods is about 9-10 months per inch of thickness. Someone may have better ideas about drying it. My limited experience has been with commercial mills with dry kilns, and that doesn't apply here!

One other thing....   The long horn that you asked me about:
 If you will email or IM me your address I'll send it up to you for your inspection. I don't have anything in it moneywise, and don't want anything out of it. If you can use it to make an historically correct copy of the large Georgia Horn, then I'll ne pleased for you to use it.

Well, already you have two totally opposite opinions on the ends checking! I'm going to defer to Mitch as he probably has experience with Dogwood and I certainly don't. Is there any evidence of the end grain checking at this point?

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

No checking so far. Looks just like it did a month ago...it seems pretty dense and hard to me.  I will butter the ends as you say and hang it up in the garage.


Has anybody here ever made a gun from dogwood?   I figure as a pistol it would likely become a good backup warclub too...

Thanks!!

[Dave B]

I cut down a dog wood that died in our yard. It was only about 12" across the  stump. I was shocked by how beautiful the wood was and bucked up the largest pieces to dry out to make things out of. My boards were cut at 1" thick and I only stickered them and let them dry out in the garage. They never checked to my surprise. I never sealed the ends at all. Maybe it worked to my advantage to live here in the NW part of the country where its pretty wet most of the time. If you get really dry weather it may check if it drys too quickly. Normally the rule of thumb is that you must let the stock dry for one year per inch of stock thickness. So a 3" blank will be ready to use in three years time. My wood is very dense and close grained I bet it would carve like a dream. I will be making chisel handles from some of it. I planed out one board last summer for the heck of it and it is cool looking stuff. I wish now that I would have taken a little thicker section out to make a pistol blank.

[tallbear]

Glad you guys have had better luck with drying Dog wood than I have.Of all the wood I've dried over the last thirty years which is a lot I've had some of  the most loss with dogwood.Either way it is a  dence useful wood that shouldn't go to the firewood pile.I have worked around the checks and have used a lot of it.

Mitch

[bama]

Dr TIm I had a piece of a limb that laid around the shop for a year or two that was about 2 1/2" in diameter about a foot long that I made into some tool handels. I was surprized at how hard and dense the wood was. I did not have any checking in the limb. If you can get it dried I would think that it would make a good pistol stock. I notice that one of my wild dogwoods in the back yard died recently, I need to get out there and cut it up to see if I can salvage any of the wood.

[JohnnyM]

What these guys said!
Dogwood is super dense and hard.  Makes excellent tool handles and mallets.  I think it might be kinda heavy for a gunstock. The weight might be acceptable for a pistol.  Don't know.  I recently had the privilege to handle an original english pistol from the 1760's.  I was amazed at how light and balanced it felt in my hand.  A natural pointer.  Smooth bore and about .62 cal.  Walnut stock.

Regards,
Johnny