I received from my neighbor 2 pieces of cherry wood. 35cm in diameter en about 50cm long. They were just lying on the grass waiting to be rotten but I have a better destination for them .
My question is: how do I best season it? I thought cutting it in slices and the keep the heart wood. Let it then in the rain for 6 month (they are already 6 month old) and then dry for a year out of the rain but in a windy place.
Fred, I’m interested in the answer to this too. Also to ask: Is seasoning required for fruitwood? I suspect the need for seasoning may depend on the specific type of wood.
In my reading on this subject, the only scientific info I found on seasoning wood was specific to seasoning Oak and not on any other wood type. Oak is seasoned in the weather for a long period of time to remove tannins from the wood. Tannins are a water soluable compound that can make spirits bitter. Time in the weather will wash much of these tannins out of oak.
So I think a question about your fruitwood is, are there tannins in it? Or perhaps, are there other undesirable compound in fresh wood that would wash out over time in the weather? If I had both fresh cut and seasoned wood from the same type of tree I would love to run a comparison test. Likely a tea test for instant gratification as well as an aging test to see if I could notice a difference between seasoned and dried wood.
The best suggestion I have for you now is to try using a small amount of the fresh wood now in a few jars of spirits and to season the rest of the wood. Possibly try a tea test now too to help learn a bit more. In a few years you will have a better idea as to the impact of seasoning on cherry wood.
FYI, I have played with fruitwood a bit and I seasoned all of the fruitwood I used. I seasoned it simply because I did not know any different. I stacked the rounds outdoors (some 1 year, some 2) and I only split them up after seasoning. I was working with cherry, apple and plum, and only plum seemed somewhat bitter after the seasoning. Of course I did not try these woods before seasoning, so seasoning could have helped. I just don’t know. If you are interested, I documented my tests in a fruitwood thread located in my signature below.
It's because I read your great post on fruit wood that I wanted to try! So thanks for your time and efforts back then.
As you said I was sure you HAD TO season wood before you could use it, because it would contain to much tannins otherwise. But why not think outside the box and try using "fresh"wood? That's a good idea. I'll re- re-read your post and focus on the tea stuff and try it. My problem is that in this season I'm suffering from allergy and my nose is completely out of service. I hope that within a month it will be better and that I can share my results.
In the meantime of someone could help with the best seasoning method...
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