sanelko

I see. Disregarding the fact that it won't stain as well, is there any harm if in staining and finishing the wood after just a week or two? Will the internal moisture content be an issue? Great idea with doing another set of branches. Another thing I'm thinking of doing is just building the tree as is and letting the branches dry out on their own indoors, then I can decide if I want to finish it at that point. In terms of the marks, it's definitely for me not the cats . I consider the piece I plan to build to be a decoration as well and feel like all the marks give it a bit of an unnatura

I agree, I wouldn't really want to remove any more wood than I need to at this point because I'm happy with the thickness. Also, I actually prefer the wood to be lighter on this project. Just two weeks? So the rule of thumb of 1 year per inch of air-drying doesn't apply here? Also, any opinion on the marks -- should I deal with them somehow or will they go away as it dries? My theory is that I may have forced some "juices" into the wood from the bark from the hammering. I'm new to woodworking so sorry for all the questions but I highly appreciate all the insight.

Hello, So I took a large branch (about 3 inches in diameter) off the walnut tree in the backyard for a little cat tree project. Ended up cutting it into 3 pieces and debarked it by hammering on them quite hard with the back of the head of my hatchet. It made the removal fairly easy and it didn't seem like it was harming the actual wood underneath. However, it wasn't until after that I noticed all these marks that look like bruises show up on the wood itself (links to pictures below). It started off as green and then the next day have started to become more dark brownish. Anyone know if th