Rounds for Place mats

[zanev00]

Hi all,
I am having some camphors cut and milled. I am thinking of using some of the smaller branches to make some place mats for cups and plates. I was planning on using whole, round cross sections, but I am unsure of the strength. I don't want the mats to be too thick, so is there some way to make them strong??? I have been thinking about backing them with ply etc.
Any advice would be appreciated.

[Cliff Rogers]

You'll have to 'suck it & see'.... most timber cut in the round like that will get radial cracks as it dries.

[zanev00]

would I be better off leaving it dry as logs, then cutting the rounds?

[Ironwood]

Maybe you could cut them a bit oversize, let them crack, then fill the cracks with epoxy.

[Cliff Rogers]

Logs usually split the same way at the ends.... & take a long time to dry.

[BobL]

I have seen many people trying to cut and air dry what the Yanks call "cookies" and the results are generally very poor to miserable.

I'd suggest leaving them in whole branch form eg 300 mm long, paint the ends of the branches with wax or a thick latex paint and dry them slowly in a cool no direct sunlight place (I have done this successfully with Cape lilac)

The other way is to place the branches under water for a couple of years
or bury them surrounded by a ft layer of wet sawdust and keep the sawdust wet for a couple of years. and then dry them slowly. This method sounds counter intuitive but apparently it's better than cutting them to thickness and then air drying them.