Cray if you paint the end grain with high oil base paint you will cut back on the end checking too when drying. All my hardwood whole sales have the ends painted before steam drying. Each mill has a different end paint. There is a red end red Oak from a mill in Pennsylvania that I will never by from ever again. Junk grading and honeycombing from drying to fast.
The reason for the paint on the end grain is because you want the water from drying to come out the face grain. It will come out of the end grain much faster and over dry the ends.
I did paint the ends of a few. It did cut back on the small checks. But not the bigger ones.
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