dry wood?

marekz

marekz

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Jun 16, 2008
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when i get a piece of wood in the mail it usually has wax on it. Depending on the size--say its just a handle block size--- i will let it sit in a dry cozy place for a min of 2 years to make sure its dry. My questions: 1.does leaving the whole thing waxed prevent the wood from dring faster? i know the wax keepes the wood from drying to fast to prevent warps and cracks but what if i scraped some of it off--will it help to dry faster? 2. is there a general rule on how long it takes for wood to dry? say i have a piece of wood thats 2x6x6? should i cut it up then wax and let sit. If i just left the waxed 2x6x6 alone i would think it would take many many years for it to get dry.3. i have a kiln, how would i go about dring wood in a kiln? what temp and for how long?. thank you--marekz
 
The wax will indeed keep it from drying faster. I'd scrape off the wax from the faces and keep it on the ends since more moisture is released from the ends than the faces. No wax on the ends might allow those sections to lose too much moisture too fast and they might split or check at the ends.

To see if your wood is at equilibrium with your shop surroundings, weigh it when you get it. Weigh it every month or so and keep track. Once it's at a constant weight, it's "dry" meaning that it won't give off any more water in that environment. Move it to Arizona in the summer and it might give off more water, but for your purposes, it should be considered dry.

This isn't exactly the same thing as "seasoned" though. Keeping the wood in your shop through several weather cycles could possibly help the wood stay more stable over the life of the knife. Keep in mind that some wood like Gaboon Ebony moves alot with changes in temp and humidity. Others might be a bit more stable for you.

For domestic green wood in the northwrn part of the USA the rule of thumb is an inch a year to get down to equilibrium with the surroundings. This is not a hard and fast rule as it takes some harder/more dense woods longer, while something light might take only a few months.

As for a kiln, I don't have any good info. I air dry my wood because I'm cheap and I don't put out as many woodworking projects as I'd like so there's always time to season my wood before I put it to good use.

Hope that helps.
 
An easy way to get green or relatively wet wood dry is to use a low-tech solar kiln. This is basically a black trash bag in the sun. The sun will heat up the wood inside the closed bag and the wood will release water. Turn the bag inside out every so often (every day or couple days depending on the season and weather conditions) to let the accumulated water evaporate. It really works if you're trying to dry wood a bit faster than it would on the shelf. Your mileage may vary so do some testing before you try to force-dry some expensive snakewood, ebony, burl or blackwood.
 
A simple drying cabinet/box ( anything form a small foot locker to a 6' tall steel storage cabinet) is some sort of cabinet with 3 or 4 1/2" holes in the top and the same in the bottom. Put wire shelving in ,and in the bottom install a lamp socket with the bulb sticking up ( bulb should be 6 inches from the lower shelf). Use a 75 watt bulb to create the heat and convection. A thermometer stuck in the door is nice, but not necessary. The cabinet should only be a little warmer than the ambient temperature. The warm air flowing up through the cabinet ( by convection) speeds the drying . Change the bulb for a smaller wattage bulb if your cabinet drys too fast, or gets too warm ( more than 90-100F). Some folks just use a 25 watt bulb,and store their wood/antler in the cabinet all the time. Antler dries very well in one of these, BTW
Blocks and scales in a cabinet like this can dry in about 1/2 to 1/4 the time. I have seen a few plans for large cabinets, where the person put in a small circulation fan ( not an exhaust fan, just to circulate the air inside the cabinet for more even and faster drying).
Wood dried in any sort of device, be it a kiln or cabinet, should be left out in the normal room atmosphere for several months to acclimate before you use it on a knife. It is a good idea to acclimate any wood that hasn't been in your shop for several months, regardless of how it was dried or who you got it from.

I take waxed wood to the 6X48 sander, and sand all sides clean ( after first scraping as much off as possible with a sharp paint scraper). The wax will only be a problem if you leave it on. If you suspect the wood is green, leave wax on the ends. Before sending the wood off to be stabilized, I sand all surfaces again to assure no oil or wax remains.
Stacy
 
I leave the wax on the pieces, typically I am getting larger pieces for wood turning and cutting down to scales. The wax slowes the drying process so they wont crack. I have a old wood cabnet with holes drilled in the back to circulate air. I put in some bug killer to prevent worms. Let them set untile I get the urge to cut scales.

On small pieces I would not risk removing or thinning the wax, a couple of cracks can ruin the whole piece.
 
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