My logs are splitting! Help!

[Evanism]

I bought 15 logs of various timbers. Russian olive, birch, maple, oak.

All of the logs are apparently at least 7 years old, most are 10. They are all approx 30cm diameter and 50 to 100cm in length. I cut one down the centre to check and they are dry as dry.

In the last 3 weeks they have all developed huge splits along their edges with many splitting multiple places right to the centre.

Needless to say they are now useless for bowls.

They are in my garage and are dry. It's in Canberra and it hasn't been hot, usually 20 degrees. They were previously stored in almost identical conditions.

How can I stop this from happening? I'm loosing about a grands worth of timber and I'm spewing!

[MAPLEMAN]

I bought 15 logs of various timbers. Russian olive, birch, maple, oak.

All of the logs are apparently at least 7 years old, most are 10. They are all approx 30cm diameter and 50 to 100cm in length. I cut one down the centre to check and they are dry as dry.

In the last 3 weeks they have all developed huge splits along their edges with many splitting multiple places right to the centre.

Needless to say they are now useless for bowls.

They are in my garage and are dry. It's in Canberra and it hasn't been hot, usually 20 degrees. They were previously stored in almost identical conditions.

How can I stop this from happening? I'm loosing about a grands worth of timber and I'm spewing!

Hi Evan,are you sure they are dry? If they have come from similar environments,and were dry,then checking shouldn't be an issue..has the shed got air conditioning?Have the humidity levels dropped significantly in the last 3 weeks? Something is pulling moisture out..MM

[BobL]

Howe were they stored before you possessed them?
If they were near the coast and you bought them inland to canberra that would be enough to do it.
It's probably too late but covering in wet hessian bags might help.
It might also cause mould growth so monitor carefully for thous

[rustynail]

if you know a carpet layer, get some old under felt from him. Even if you dont know one, just ring around, they'll be glad to get rid of it. Hose it down and cover your timber. You aint seen nothin yet, with this weather summer will be the pits.

[TTIT]

I bought 15 logs of various timbers. Russian olive, birch, maple, oak.

All of the logs are apparently at least 7 years old, most are 10. They are all approx 30cm diameter and 50 to 100cm in length. I cut one down the centre to check and they are dry as dry.

In the last 3 weeks they have all developed huge splits along their edges with many splitting multiple places right to the centre.

Needless to say they are now useless for bowls.

They are in my garage and are dry. It's in Canberra and it hasn't been hot, usually 20 degrees. They were previously stored in almost identical conditions.

How can I stop this from happening? I'm loosing about a grands worth of timber and I'm spewing!

I might be reading this wrong but it sounds like you have cut cross-sections from the logs (like slicing a loaf of bread!) in which case they are sure to split like that no matter what you do. To get 'stable' bowl blanks from logs that size they should have been halved down their length along the pith and then cut to lengths just a little longer than their width.
Let me know if I'm wrong and I'll go back to my corner and hide