All kinds of great crafts can be made with wooden discs, for example for beautiful, natural decoration in the house or in the garden. So if a tree needs to be felled, you can still use it wonderfully - instead of simply throwing away the valuable wood. With the right tools you can cut the tree trunk into manageable slices.
How do I slice a tree trunk?
To slice a tree trunk, you should first dry the wood to prevent cracking. You can then use a circular saw, chainsaw, band saw or scroll saw, depending on the desired accuracy and slice thickness.
Why wood should dry well before sawing
Before cutting, however, the tree trunk should first be carefully dried, otherwise the slices will simply tear within a short time. In the traditional way, it takes around five to ten years for the (sawn) trunk to reach the necessary residual moisture of less than 20 °C. For this reason, it is better to use wood that has already been seasoned - or use a trick. Drying is a little quicker if you put the tree trunk in a sack or bin with sawdust and store it in a dark, dry place. In the USA, on the other hand, the method of placing the wood in a stabilizer (for example Pentacryl (€19.00 on Amazon)) before processing is widespread and thus prevents cracks from forming.
Which saw is suitable for cutting wooden discs?
Now that the problem of drying wood has been answered, you now need the right saw. To cut wood slices you can use these saws:
- Circular saw: If the wood slices are to be rather thick and accuracy is not so important.
- Chainsaw: You can work a little more precisely with this, but very thin slices of wood are difficult to create.
- Bandsaw: This is ideal for cutting slices of wood and allows for thin, very precise slices.
- Scroll saw: This saw is the right choice for very fine and delicate woodwork.
No matter which saw you choose, you must adhere to certain safety rules while working to avoid serious accidents.
Tip
If you don't have the time to dry fresh wood laboriously and for years, you can instead do it in the cut and processed state: To do this, however, you have to moisten the wood slices regularly so that they don't tear.