William Ghio wrote:
>Nichael Cramer  wrote:
> > What wood be a useful way to dry out a freshly cut sapling?
>I would cut them over long and work them down to a rough diameter. 
>Smaller will dry better, but I want enough length to cut off end 
>splits. I would also paint them to try to control the end splits. I 
>have successfully done it this way for all the Maple walking sticks 
>I have made -- all one of them.

Thanks Bill.

However, I should be clear:  I'm not planning to do any turning.

That is, I might knock off any unfortunate branches, etc;
but I'm planning that these will be mostly "rustic" sticks.
The diameter of the stick will be determined by how far
"up" the sapling I cut.

(Thanks for the reminder to leave them overlong to deal with unwanted 
end-splits.)

N