On Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 10:45 AM, Nichael Cramer wrote:

> My two cents:


-- If I were going to do this, what might be the best time of
> year to cut the saplings?
>

Winter - you want the wood as dry as possible...don't know why early is
better than late winter, but I would do it in Jan or Feb in the far north
of the US, right in the depths of the season

>
> -- Again, I'm just assuming I want to dryi them out first before
> working on them (but I do, don't I)?
>

Yes since you are not doing any real work to them (i.e., turning, hacking
at, or carving...if you were you might want to get your blank closer to its
final form but still oversize and overlong

>
> -- How long should they be allowed to dry before I started the
> final work?
>

til they are dry - drop the stick on its end on the concrete floor in your
garage and listen to it ring - it's dry. If you don't know what this sounds
like try one of your old dry sticks or a broom stick, shovel handle and
compare to wet wood... the sharpness of the sound is noticeably different

>
> -- How should they be "stacked" while drying?  Just lean them
> against the wall?  Let them dangle from the ceiling?  Or...?
>

Flat or straight up. If not too many and you have the space hanging would
be good - they will do what they want in drying but no need to dry them on
an angle and coerce them into any particular direction

>
> -- I assume I'd want to remove the bark immediately (correct)?
>

Not necessarily - you are trying to slow drying to prevent cracking. But
this is possible to do if you need to

>
> -- Just to mention, there's a lot of maple hereabout, so I assume
> most of these would be maple.  But other than that I can't tack
> down the species.  Assuming I stick to hardwoods, are there
> any I should try to avoid?
>

You know your woods in your area but lean towards those with great
strength. I have use white birch in the north and crepe myrtle in the
south...both have worked well for me. As well as the hickories, oaks,
maples, etc.

>
> -- Once I cut the fresh, green wood down to length, should
> I do anything like paint the ends while they dry?
>

Seal, seal, seal...and cut overlength to accommodate the cracking you can't
prevent. There are special sealers (I have never used), but i do use old
latex paint and to tell you the truth the one thing that I had the greatest
success with was old stinky yellow glue on the ends. I save all my old glue
for this use.

>
> -- Anything else I've not thought of?
>

Don't think so

>
> Thanks,
> Nichael
>

Aye Nichael, Scott from Duluth GA