Need an advise how to dry a wood

L

lel

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Dec 26, 2006
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I recently bought a few slabs of Claro Walnut and Black Locust on ebay. They are about 8"x8" and 3/8" thick and they all green, not dried. What would be the best way to dry them? I do not need them right away, so a year of drying time is OK. Do I need to buy Anchorseal or will plastic wrap work just fine? Should I cut them to handle size slabs before drying or should I dry first and then cut?

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Sergiy
 
Let them dry slowly. My concern is that they already have been cut thin (3/8).
The thing to do is to let the wood dry first, then slice them up into scales. It's probably too late for the anchorseal; if they haven't checked by now, you're probably going to be O.K.
 
Some of them already have cracks but all pieces are flat and 3/8 is more then I usually need. The only thing I worry that they will dry too fast and more cracks will appear making them non usable. Right now they are in USPS box sitting the my garage. Should I just individually wrap each them all in plastic wrap and wait for a few months? It will be hot and dry here pretty soon.
 
Walnut warps and moves more than any other wood I know while it's drying. It's worth it - but it's a pain!

Rob!
 
Sometimes I'll just bury green wood in saw dust and then pull it out a couple of times a week then put back that way it meters a slow amount of moiture out each time it's brought out....could weigh it till it doesn't lose any more weight...
 
Hot and dry in the SF Bay area???
I've never heard of plastic wrapping helping to slow down the drying.
At this point, since you have checking going on already, I'd go with the anchorseal ASAP.
 
Troop, well compared to a winter weather it will be hot and dry, at least no rain for a few months :rolleyes:
Now, the anchorseal questions:
1. Is this the anchorseal that I need or is there other product with the same name?
2. Do I need to cover the whole piece of wood or just the sides where checking is going on?
 
More moisture is lost from the end grain .Commercially they coat the ends with a way to slow down drying that way to prevent end cracks. But for those thin pieces I don't think it will matter .
 
I would apply the anchorseal on all of the end grains, and cover the areas around the existing checks. My concern is that the pieces will warp, because they're already cut so thin. Don't dry them in direct sunlight; keep them in the living area of your house.
Regular 'ol paraffin wax will work, too. I guess the stuff you linked me to is the "new and improved" version of Anchorseal. Try Ebay.
 
I'm going to cut down a black walnut tree today that died a couple years ago. Any chance the wood would still be good enough to use for scales?
 
zaph1 said:
I'm going to cut down a black walnut tree today that died a couple years ago. Any chance the wood would still be good enough to use for scales?
Click to expand...

Check it out once you cut it down; if it's solid, you're good to go. Get Anchorseal on the cut ends immediately.
 
Thanks, guys. I just ordered the anchorseal to try on the wood I have. Next time I will try to get a thicker cut wood if I buy it non dried.
 
I've heard of people drying their wood by placing it in a black plastic bag and turning it inside out every once in a while.

The idea is that the black bag will warm up causing moisture to escape the wood. Turning the bag inside out will let the moisture escape and the wood inside can dry further. Weigh it from time to time and when it no longer loses any weight and little or no condensation is found in the bag, your wood is dry. I use the word dry, but not seasoned. That takes time and can mean more stable wood in the long run as it acclimates to your surroundings.

I believe that this is a safe way to get rid of extra water because while inside the bag, the wood is still in a moist environment.

Regarding walnut moving a lot when drying, do you generally mean the wildly figured examples used for knife handles or general run of the mill walnut? I've air dried a couple large trees worth of eastern black walnut with very little movement. It didn't have much figure except near the base and in crotch regions, but even these behaved fairly well.
 
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