Cutting and curing wood?

[bsshog40]

We had a small tornado that luckily went around our house a couple months ago. Took out a few trees in our friends property around us. It's just cow pasture land all around us. One of trees closer to us is an oak tree that felled. It was actually two trunks that Y'd and one trunk blown down. It's probably about 18" round or a little smaller and I was thinking of cutting a few slabs out of it. The tree didn't look like it was very dead. I'd like to take a couple slabs and cut some medium size bowl blocks out of it (6"x6"). So I have a few questions please!
1. Should I cut the wood to sizes I want and then
Let it cure?
2. Should I just leave it as a slab and cure?
3. Does it need to cure inside or can I just stack it outside somewhere?
4. How long do I need to let it cure before actually using it? (I do have a moisture meter)
Thanks for any help!
Bobby

 

[Drewby108]

Cut the pith out to avoid cracking.
Seal the ends.
Cut oversize (I believe it's ~20%) to your finished size for bowls, at least 1/4" for boards getting planed, less for pen blanks.
It's about 1 year per inch of thickness.
Stack and sticker boards in a covered location with good airflow to avoid mold.
Moisture percentage should not go over 15% (depends on location's average humidity), but ideally will be ~10%.
Bowls can be twice turned to speed up drying by roughing the blank to ~1" thick walls. You'll get movement, so if the wood is dripping wet, maybe leave it a little thicker.

That's all I remember offhand

 

[mark james]

Drewby108 nailed it for my opinion.

1. Cut out the pith.
2. Oversize cut the blocks., there will be waste.
3. Paint/stack/sticker the blocks.
4. Measure for moisture periodically.

Enjoy! Home-cut timer is very enjoyable.

 

[bsshog40]

Thank you both!