I would recommend putting 4/4 and 6/4 lumber on sticks in the spring and leave it on sticks until the following fall. Then dismantle the piles after a spell of dry weather to minimize the moisture in the lumber. The most common method used to air-dry lumber is to lay narrow sticks perpendicular recommended site to the layers of lumber to create an air space between each layer so the moisture can escape. I like to use a three-tier system for the base, putting down three or more cross pieces — depending on the length of the lumber — on the levelest ground I can find or create.
There are companies that produce sticks commercially, but they are not cheap, or you can try to find a lumber mill that has an overabundance and purchase some at a reasonable price. I get my sticks from a mill that stacks their lumber in 6′ wide packs, and I take the broken sticks they can no longer use and cut them down https://bestwoodcarvingtool.com/ to the 4′ lengths I use. You do get lower-grade material from your logs that you can turn into sticks, and you can always cut the material from logs that you don’t value as highly, such as beech or ash. They should be from a harder wood and shouldn’t contain a lot of knots, since they are so narrow they can easily break.
Why Does Lumber Need To Be Dried?
Properly drying the wood also kills any insects and eggs that may be in the wood. When the wood is no longer losing or gaining moisture equilibrium with its surroundings. • Cutting, shaping and working the wood requires less power, a characteristic often taken advantage of by carvers, turners, in steam bending, green woodworking etc. • There is no fungal activity in wood dried to below 22 percent MC. I would try and have the slab reach Equilibrium in the area it will be used or take it to someone that could kiln dry it.
An understanding of the wily ways of wet wood can keep you one step ahead of trouble while letting you enjoy success using all kinds of inexpensive and interesting lumber that might otherwise cause you grief. I’ve been working with wood for fun and professionally for 30+ years, so you can trust what you’ll read here. The more sun and wind can get to the drying stack, the faster this process will go. However, you do want to be careful with this, because if you live somewhere it rains a lot, having your wood in an exposed area will actually slow the process down. This is especially true if you have your heating system located in the garage, as that will help generate dry heat. Now if that’s not a reality and you’re keen on fast-tracking the heating process, a good quality garage heater will work wonders.
Storing And Drying Firewood
Defects from uneven drying, resulting in the rupture of the wood tissue, such as checks , end splits, honey-combing and case hardening. Collapse, often shown as corrugation, or so-called washboarding of the wood surface, may also occur . Collapse is a defect that results from the physical flattening of fibres to above the fibre saturation https://bestwoodcarvingtool.com/drying-wood/ point and is thus not a form of shrinkage anisotropy. Salt seasoning is the submersion of wood in a solution of urea, sodium nitrate, all of which act as dehydrating agents. The electrical and thermal insulation properties of wood are improved by drying. Usually the wood is sawn before drying, but sometimes the log is dried whole.
- Mark Ellis May 27th, 2021 How long do you have between the time the slab is sliced, to stacking it up for drying?
- I argued that they were not the same because I read an article that said kiln drying changes the cell structure of lumber that air dying doesn’t do.
- When the moisture content is over 100% it simply means the weight of the water in the wood weighs more than the weight of the dry wood, itself.
- Many woodworkers simply trim off the split board ends, but a much better solution is shown in Photo E to slow moisture movement.
- Coating the ends of logs with oil or thick paint improves their quality upon drying.