I have a newly cut maple piece, about 18" in diameter and 24" in height that I want to use an as "anvil" (along with my normal anvil) in knife making, and, I want to make sure the log doesn't split.  I am thinking about putting a couple of metal bands around the wood.  Any suggestions?

 

That's what I would do.

Banding it would not only keep it from checking it'll look good. Maybe cut a channel for the band to fit in with a shoulder towards the center of the block. One on each end. Yes?

Make the bands a little too small say 1/4" smaller ID than the block. Heat the band to 400 f. or till it drops into the channel and cool it with water. It'll shrink tight as a tick. Don't heat it to red or the band will stretch as it cools and not be as tight.

I'm just grabbing the 1/4" number out of blue sky, I'm sure someone here has put tyres on a wagon wheel or hot  banded a wood block, maybe big mallet and will be along to give you the good info.

I'm speculating based on very basic info I've read and heard over the years, I've never done it. Yes?

Frosty The Lucky.

I recommend against the channel for the bands.  I did that on one of my stumps and it prevents me from tapping the band down to tighten it.  I've cut the bands on mine twice just to take up the shrinkage from the wood.  The top band I didn't put in a channel and now when it loosens I just tap it down.  Eventually I hope my stump quits shrinking and I can screw the bands into it.  

Ah, experienced advice! Thanks MC, my mental tool kit as a little more complete. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I've seen barrel making tools that look somewhat like a blacksmith's butcher used to drive down hoops as they need tightening.

I just went to tractor supply and got some big hose clamps and daisy chained them. That way when they get loose I just screw them down a bit more.

Or take a piece of strap stock that will just go around the stump and bend each end 90 deg out and drill a hole for a good sized bolt in each bent out piece and tighten it up a lot more than a hose clamp will.  If it finally gets to where the ends meet. Take it off and cut the hole off on one end and bend and drill another one that gives you some more take up room.

Out here the ambient can be so dry we have big trouble even with kiln dried wood shrinking some more.  I dry new hammer handles in the shop for a year+ before using them.  Like today, it's currently 98 degF and 7% relative humidity.  (The piano at church has its own humidifier!)  The easy way to do this is to buy handles when I can find them cheap and hang them up in the shop out of the way so there is always one when you need it. (Fence wire staple in the end to hang them from.)

Here in the Ozarks my wife's piano has a dehumidifier in it.

Having lived in the Ozarks, as I remember it the only time you have 7% relative humidity is when there is a 9, 8, 7, 6 or 5 in front of it.

I have a humidifier, it's called being in Florida. Lol. 

Here almost the only time you have double digit humidity is if it's raining. 

When I open the dish washer door or Deb opens the bathroom door after a shower you can feel your skin relax. The shingle skin on my head REALLY appreciates it.

Temps here are skyrocketing, it's 71 outside RIGHT NOW! Supposed to be pushing 80 next week! Arghhhhh I'm rennnderrring! 

Frosty The Lucky.

High 90's to 100 degF for the next 10 days. Precipitation is for other folks!

80 deg. at 4:30 this morning with 93% humidity. It's going to be a looong summer!

Yeah. Mid 90s and up with at least 75% humidity for at least a month now. Though this last week has been torrential downpours so even worse. 

 

Went out and cut a couple of 1" rounds of wrought iron with my 24" hacksaw before it gets too hot here, though the wind is picking up---15 to 25 mph dries clothes right fast but will dehydrate people too---you never notice you are sweating as you always feel dry...

It only reached 90 here yesterday for the first time this year.  Supposed to be hotter'n dat late this afternoon.  Our air-conditioning unit quit working in the early evening yesterday.  I'm sitting here waiting for the repairman to come.  Little wife and I can't sleep if it's hotter than 68 degrees at night, so didn't get much sleep last night.  Don't know what we're going to do when the Chi-Comms hit our energy grids.  Talk about a couple of spoiled brats! 

Go off grid?  Sleep in the tornado shelter? Move North---or up in elevation!

Yup, I'd have to head for much higher elevations.

10000 feet around here will give you lovely weather in the summer. I remember wearing shorts and a T-shirt standing at my front door one June and seeing snow up on top of the Magdalena Ridge around the observatory...Usually it's more like alpine meadows...

I spent 27 years as a professional photographer..................backpacking in the high country of CO, NM, and WY, so I know how wonderful it is at high elevation.  Unfortunately, my little wife can't tolerate the cold up there...........except at night.  I can't take her there at night and bring her back down to the warmth in the morning.  She's pretty hard to please when it comes to temperatures.  I'd trade her in, but she's the last one I care to try and train. 

So; she had the shovel talk with you?

Okay, as I mentioned, Thomas, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer.  Pray tell, what is "the shovel talk"?

Never hit your grandma with a shovel, it leaves a bad impression on her mind. A spike Jones classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpdMOG7tjtE

 

Okay, got it.  Just didn't understand the reference.  I wasn't a Spike Jones fan back in the day.  I was busy listening to Bach, Beethoven and Vivaldi!