Question on drying wood

D

deker

Joined
Nov 14, 2005
Messages
3,496
I just got a REALLY nice hunk of lace redwood burl that's still pretty freshly cut (4 months). It's a large-ish piece at 6"+x6"+x3"+ and I'm wondering if I should leave it at this size to dry or if I should cut it down some and dry the smaller pieces. My plans are to send it off for stabilization once it's dry, I'm just wondering when I should cut it up. The edges are already wax sealed so if I can leave it as is it saves me some extra effort re-sealing everything.

My main concern is losing as little as possible.

Thanks,

-d
 
If it's allready sealed then it might be safer to leave it as is. Smaller pieces do dry faster but that also increases the chances of checking to. I have noticed with firewood that the big pieces sem to dry almost as fast as the small pieces do. Perhaps there is more evaporative area to wick up/out the moisture.
 
Give it six months more and take a moisture reading (a local lumber yard or cabinet shop will have a meter,probably). When below 10% send it to Mike at WSSI.
Stacy
 
A fast rate of drying is the cause of most imperfections in finished wood; if they are not a result of something that happened to the tree itself during growth.
Most people that dry wood as a small business, like to have it up on stick for a year, for optimum results. Large comercial dryers put it in the dryer soon after sawing and deal with the waste caused by not letting the wood air dry over a longer period of time.
Wood will air dry to around 10 or 12 percent, no matter how long you let it sit. It takes a wood drying process to get it down to 4 or 5 percent which is where furniture makers like it.

Fred
 
I was talking to Mike at WSSI about this last week. He says to cut it right away, oversize to allow for shrinkage - especially length wise. There is so much waste in cutting burl anyway that if you let the big stuff cure and check, you lose that much more. I'd have to agree. I've had some big chunks of red wood burl and black ash burl that have lost some choice pieces to checking when I left it uncut to cure. Now if it's carefully waxed on the cut ends, that something else I suppose but the cure time goes up quite a bit.
 
I seal the ends of the pieces really good, and just leave the chunks in my shop to dry naturally. The temps in my shop vary greatly because I only heat it when I am working in there, an outside shop. It seems that the varied temps lets the wood dry with little or no checking.
 
As small as this piece is, I would dry it as is. It wouldn't hurt to split it into two 3X3X6" pieces ,though.When dry and stabilized cut that into four 3X1.5X6" pieces and slice out 8-10 sets of scales.
 
Thanks for the continued advice folks. Thankfully there's not natural edges on this one so I'm hoping it will cure and dry without any major trauma. Here's a few pics just so you can see what al the fuss is about. :) Oh, and the waxed edges are the "sides" not the faces where you see all the lace effect. Is that "correct"?


41da_3.JPG


4247_3.JPG


42fb_3.JPG


Thanks,

-d
 
Deker,
That's some beautiful stuff! I don't think it will cure well in Pa though. Perhaps you should send it to Ohio!:D
Matt Doyle
 
mdoyle said:
Deker,
That's some beautiful stuff! I don't think it will cure well in Pa though. Perhaps you should send it to Ohio!:D
Matt Doyle
Click to expand...

There's a Steelers/Browns joke here somewhere, I just can't find it... :p

John Andrews said:
WOW! Where did you get that?
Click to expand...

fleaBay :) It wasn't exactly cheap, but figuring how many sets of handle slabs I should be able to get out of it, it was pretty cheap.

-d
 
OK, I'll bite. What is the purpose of sealing the wood with wax? Seems like it would slow down the drying process.
 
Rookie7 said:
OK, I'll bite. What is the purpose of sealing the wood with wax? Seems like it would slow down the drying process.
Click to expand...

That's exactly the point. If you slow down the drying process, the wood sees less stress in a short period of time and has less of a tendency to crack. Or at least that's the way I understand it.

-d
 
DANG!!!!!! talk about your 3d "chatoyance" It looks like you are seeing a 1/2 inch down into the block. Take good care of that piece.
 
hey dek ive been told a 100watt light in a cooler will work but if you need it done faster i can put it in the kiln:D :foot:
i ll call bama and see waht my woodworking fam has to say
 
butcher_block said:
hey dek ive been told a 100watt light in a cooler will work but if you need it done faster i can put it in the kiln:D :foot:
i ll call bama and see waht my woodworking fam has to say
Click to expand...

I eventually want to make a drying kiln out of a big lightbulb and a broken fridge. Saw that setup once and liked it. Now I just need a broken fridge..... :)

-d
 
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