Pyrography

[user 122190]

I've a red fir I dropped late last fall, and will be dicing it up in another month or so. I'm going make 1" rounds from different segments of the tree and am going to dip my toes into some pyrography. For starters I will do some bear claw coasters, but plan to get the skills to do a trophy buck's head and antlers.

My question is how to keep a 1" round from splitting, about 18" to 20" diameter. I'm thinking to putting it under as much pressure as I can with some tie straps and storing them in a corner or the garage, where it will be out of the light and kept relatively cool. Anybody attempt this?

 

[Wagnerwerks]

Slow drying... It's a crap shoot. One way I've used for bowls is to wrap them in a few paper grocery bags then stick them in a shop cabinet and forget about them. You can paint them also and it can help. Do a little searching on drying green bowls.

 

[Timberframed]

Try a light oil finish on both sides. I used olive oil on one cookie that didn't split but the others did 12"d