Outdoor wooden stools - how to keep from checking.
I built a series of stools from some ash rounds for around my fire pit. All of my experiments (the stool samples if you will) checked pretty badly even though the logs were quite dry when I cut them - they had been dead standing for about a year, and then I slowly let them dry further in my shop.
I have a couple more ash trees to take down and wanted to make a few more this fall.
I’m pretty sure I’ll need to soak them in a wood stabilizer. I’ve had success with pentacryl on some other projects (small coasters made from 4†logs) but I realize i’d need a couple of gallons to soak a few of these stool tops - they are 2†thick and about 12†in diameter.
Any advice on what I should treat them with? Also should I plane them to their finished thickness first? When using pentacry or PEG is there a recommended finish (I had used an exterior urethane on these samples, but when they checked moisture got under the finish…)