Dry wood?

DustinY

DustinY

Joined
Dec 29, 2016
Messages
754
Anyone have any advice - quick search didn’t pull anything up for how to dry moist wood out in order for it to be sent out to K&G? I’m assuming they don’t do this step for you, ha! Any advice would be rad! Cheers!
 
They can do it for you but you need to call and talk to them before sending it.

I have cut some scales and blocks (that were large block dried for a year) and stacked them above my hot water heater(low humidity) for about a year and now it’s approximately 10% moisture so it’s ready to send.
 
Make a drying cabinet if you plan on doing it often. A foot locker and a 75 watt bulb are basically all you need. A moisture meter is a good thing to have to see what the progress is.
 
3fifty7 said:
They can do it for you but you need to call and talk to them before sending it.

I have cut some scales and blocks (that were large block dried for a year) and stacked them above my hot water heater(low humidity) for about a year and now it’s approximately 10% moisture so it’s ready to send.
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Does it have to be 10% or can they dry any wood? Will give them a ring, thanks brother!


Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Make a drying cabinet if you plan on doing it often. A foot locker and a 75 watt bulb are basically all you need. A moisture meter is a good thing to have to see what the progress is.
Click to expand...

Will do both of these things if I plan to do it consistently, thanks Stacy!
 
Im not sure what their limits are on what they will take in and work with.

I think I’ve read the want it below 12-15%. Being dryer may lend itself to less warpage. Slightly oversized is always recommend.
 
I thought it was 10% , went and looked and this is from the website
The most important thing to know before sending your wood/material to us is to check the moisture of your wood/material. We will not stabilize pieces of wood/material with over 9% moisture. Moisture in your wood/material may cause it to twist or warp while it is in the curing process. We will assume your wood/material is safe to stabilize when we receive it. If you are unable to check the moisture, please let us know and we can check it for you. We can dry your wood/material for a small handling fee depending on quantity.
 
If you're just wanting to do it once or whatever, you can use a cardboard box, turned upside down with a lightbulb on an extension cord stuck underneath...

Same thingas a drying cabinet, just way lower tech and temporary.
 
I played with this (and continue to do so). Stacy's (and A.McPherson) recommendations are spot on. I would only add that when I was building a drying cabinet (surprisingly) incandescent bulbs were not really easy to find (LEDs have taken over). An alternative (maybe more efficient?) are ceramic heat lamps for keeping pets (like lizards) happy. For example THIS.

Depending on your quantity and sense of hurry - you might just consider taking your wood and placing them in front of a fan at ambient temp (K&G says this is what they do).

from my experience (and I strongly suspect Ben will say the same: a "pinless" moisture sensor will tell you an incredible amount about the state of the wood (something like $50). the university of Wisconsin extension service has published plans for building a "solar kiln" for drying wood ... but for our purposes the interesting part is the recommended drying rates versus moisture content is what is interesting. Short of it: the wetter the wood, the slower you need to dry it (to avoid splitting, etc). Below something like 10-12% all bets are off (you can dry quickly at high temp and not risk a lot of damage. for yucks, I tried this in my drying box (see below) and cranked the thing up to 120F (making sure all wood I cared about was at 12% or less). I had no problems at all. In fact - at that temp, spalted wood dried out to unmeasureable residual moisture in something like one week..... The denser the wood, the more risk you take (but I had purpleheart in there, and it had no problems at those low moisture contents).

so ... I guess it depends on your quantity and hurry. for just one or two pieces, try the "put a fan on it" approach. For more, try one of the drying box ideas?

For yucks, here is my drying box. I put wire shelves in it, and used a ceramic space heater (supplies heat and circulation), controlled by a simple thermostat. I can take it from 70F to 120F with a push of the button, and it stays within 5 degrees of that set point (no sense in making it tighter.But I think for quick results, a big box turned upside down over a light or ceramic heater will work fine (but find a way to suspend the wood on a wire rack up in the air, not just laid down on the floor....)
upload_2019-12-10_18-37-32.png
 
I let the wood in whatever size I get it sit for a year per inch of thickness. off of the ground for a good 6” . Then cut to size. Test the blocks with my pinned moisture tester. You can get one of the cheap ones from Harbor Freight . 9% and it’s off to K & G. It doesn’t rain to much here but can be humid during the Summers.. When o buy any woods from anyone, stabilized in blocks etc. I let it sit around for 3-6 months till it has Climatized to here.
 
"Dry wood" is also relative to where it is housed. OP lives in Arizona(desert)...dry there is under 8%. Move to the Pacific Northwest (a temperate rainforest) and the driest you are going to get it air dried is around 10-11% due to much more humidity in the air. I came across a chart a few years ago that showed what to expect for different regions. I have a moisture metre. I let K&G know that my wood is about 11% when I send it. Last time it took a few weeks because my blocks were "in line" to be dried before being stabilized. They didn't charge me any extra to dry them and get them below 9%
 
Randydb said:
"Dry wood" is also relative to where it is housed. OP lives in Arizona(desert)...dry there is under 8%. Move to the Pacific Northwest (a temperate rainforest) and the driest you are going to get it air dried is around 10-11% due to much more humidity in the air. I came across a chart a few years ago that showed what to expect for different regions. I have a moisture metre. I let K&G know that my wood is about 11% when I send it. Last time it took a few weeks because my blocks were "in line" to be dried before being stabilized. They didn't charge me any extra to dry them and get them below 9%
Click to expand...


Something I learned yesterday as well, K&G is literally in AZ where I own a cabin. I’m going to have to give them a holler and see if I can just hand drop off the wood :) what a cool experience that would be!
 
DustinY said:
Something I learned yesterday as well, K&G is literally in AZ where I own a cabin. I’m going to have to give them a holler and see if I can just hand drop off the wood :) what a cool experience that would be!
Click to expand...
They may not want to give you a full tour. “Stabilization Espionage”
 
They actually seemed very open to maintaining good relations wirh all. I would give it a try!
 
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I go up to Pinetop every summer and really enjoy stopping in K&G good people there. It's a small shop but they have a lot of good stuff there I usually go through the website and make a list of what I want to buy, ask about and check out. Have fun.
Gilbert McCann
 
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