DIY Wood Slice Coasters

Anne Davidson
by Anne Davidson
5 Materials
Wood slice coasters and chargers are a great way to add some rustic decor to your table-settings. Coasters are also a great way to up-cycle fallen branches.
To prevent cracking we used a product called Pentacryl which is supposed to prevent green wood from cracking. So far so good. The slices seem intact without any cracking. The coasters were soaked in a bucket of Pentacryl for 3 days to absorb the liquid. They were then dried resting between some wooden scrap boards to dry both sides of the wood.
Ours were made from black walnut which is why the core of the wood looks the way it does. We first gathered the branches and then cut the wood slices using a miter saw.
Pentacryl leaves somewhat of an orange finish and we might try some other products for stabilizing green wood next time--either Anchorseal or Polyethylene Glycol to avoid the orange tone. Another option would be to let the slices air dry for a couple months with stickers in between the wood slices; however, I'm not sure what percentage of slices would crack and those would be discarded. After the Pentacryl dried a palm sander was used to shore up the end grain. Lastly a matte finish polyurethane was used to finish the coasters.
A set of DIY wood slice coasters make a great Christmas gift!
The coasters are a fun way to bring the outdoors in for your holiday table. Let me know if you've used another method to make wood slice coasters. Read more on the blog.
Suggested materials:
  • Black walnut wood
  • Palm sander
  • Miter saw
See all materials
Anne Davidson
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
Next