Moisture content & stabilizing

george tichbourne

george tichbourne

Joined
Apr 19, 1999
Messages
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I am going to get some wood that was salvaged from Katrina to make a few knives from but the material will have varying moisture contents. Do the wood stabilizers dry the wood before treating? If not what moisture must I achieve before sending it to be stabilized? It will be a mixed bag of varieties but I have suggested that they pick up only hardwoods.
 
Yes, it needs to reach a certain moisture content before being stabilized, but I can't remember the exact numbers. I would take an old worn out ice chest and make a drying chamber. I had an old plastic 10 gallon igloo that I drilled a hole in and ran an light socket with a low wattage bulb. It don't take much at all. I sealed the hole with silicon and made a couple of wire mesh trays for the wood to sit on so the wood can breathe. Keep it in there it will dry out in a few months. Works well. Hope it gives you some ideas.
 
Drying it is easy enough and the enclosure with a light bulb is just the thing

There is a time window however, so over drying must be avoided if the project is going to be completed in time. I would like to take my friend's trusty moisture meter to each piece and remove it from the box as soon as it reached spec. Better still if the wood treater could do the drying for me.
 
When I send wood to Mike @ WSSI, if it isn't right, he just sticks it in the kiln till it is. Takes a little longer but always comes out great. It's that kind of service that keeps me going back over and over.


Rob!
 
If you're going to dry it yourself, put some latex paint on the end grain, so the ends don't dry faster than the sides, and cause cracks in the end grain.
 
george tichbourne said:
I am going to get some wood that was salvaged from Katrina to make a few knives from but the material will have varying moisture contents. Do the wood stabilizers dry the wood before treating? If not what moisture must I achieve before sending it to be stabilized? It will be a mixed bag of varieties but I have suggested that they pick up only hardwoods.
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George,
There is an opportunity for a lot of root burl right now. Downed oak, pecan, elder. You name it. A lot of trees with a shallow root system didn't stand up to the storm. East Texas and west Louisiana really took a pounding.

Craig
 
I remember reading that a check on the drying is weight. If you weigh the wood once a week or so, when it stops dropping for at least 2 weightings (is that a word) then it is as dry as it will become in that environment. That's from a book "How to make a Chair from a Tree". I don't remember the author right now.
Later,
Lynn
 
We lost a lot of the posts on Primal Fires due to a recent hack. Randy Skidmore told me the method for drying wood in the microwave last year when I was trying to dry some mesquite. It does work, but it takes constant attention. There are several sites that tell how to do it, but you basically just put the wood in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time and then let it cool. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat till you get what you want. Lots of folks told me that my wood would lose some luster, but it didn't.
 
Knowing that WSSI will kiln dry if necessary is ideal, I can dry a little myself but having a pro finish the job takes a lot off my shoulders.

Now I just have to hope that the wood will arrive early enough to get through the stabilizing process before it is too late to assemble the knives.

I hope that someone has the foresight to salvage some of that root burl that is available.
 
If you are trying to dry the wood very quickly,you may have problems.Even with a kiln the wood must air dry for a while first,and then it still takes a bit of time in the oast. Most handle woods need to dry for 6 months to 3 years.
Stacy
 
Point taken Stacy but in this case it is going to be wood that was once dry, used in construction or furniture or the like then soaked in the rain. Because it has no natural moisture ( trapped in place in intact cell structure) it will dry faster.

I hope!?!
 
those woods will all require kiln drying or a long seasoning period if you do it yourself.
you can substantialy speed things up if you cut it close to the demension your going to use, but it increases warpage.
if you can saw it close to what you want to use . you can air dry it by making a frame to fold it flat while it dries.
coat the ends with parafine wax.
the fastest way to learn how to prepare it for use would be to go to the "bowyersden" website. lots of experiance there with drying wood.
 
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