Shopsmith Forums

Much better day today!

Nice!!!

Wow! That is gorgeous!

Wow! Great looking board and judging from that one it looks like you are going to get a bunch of nice boards from those big logs. Will be interested in seeing pictures of how you stack and sticker for drying.

Question for you guys that have cut and dried your own wood. I was given several pretty good size slabs of walnut 2 years ago which I stacked, stickered and sealed the ends. It is in my garage in a make shift tunnel with a fan blowing over/through the wood 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. I was out of town and stopped into a hardwood dealer/shop last weekend and was talking to the owner. He indicated that air dried wood will never get to the 7-8% that I think I am looking for. He said kiln dried is a much better option. I thought it was only better because of the shorter time but the end results are the same. Am I just wasting my time trying to dry this stuff?

Final moisture content for air drying depends on the average relative humidity of the environment. Here in Ohio, you can expect to get to about 11% MC by air-drying outdoors, IIRC. I store wood indoors in my basement shop for a few months before using it, which allows it to acclimate to the lower indoor humidity.

Kiln-drying walnut affects its color. Air-dried walnut is more colorful, typically with some purple overtones. (You can see the purple in this post of some bowl blanks that I cut a couple weeks ago). Kiln-drying walnut mutes the colors, turning it into the more uniform brown you see in commercial walnut furniture. As a matter of fact, commercial walnut is often steamed, as this darkens the sapwood so much that it can be used as well.

stew wrote:Question for you guys that have cut and dried your own wood. I was given several pretty good size slabs of walnut 2 years ago which I stacked, stickered and sealed the ends. It is in my garage in a make shift tunnel with a fan blowing over/through the wood 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. I was out of town and stopped into a hardwood dealer/shop last weekend and was talking to the owner. He indicated that air dried wood will never get to the 7-8% that I think I am looking for. He said kiln dried is a much better option. I thought it was only better because of the shorter time but the end results are the same. Am I just wasting my time trying to dry this stuff?

If I was selling kiln dried lumber that is exactly what I would say...
Study the history of some of the finest furniture built in Colonial America. Many of their "factories" were a large room of their house and all lumber was kept in a lean-to on the back. Their drying kiln was... No, wait... They didn't have drying kilns.
I've used both. I believe that the lumber should be a balance between the moisture level in your shop and the place where it will reside when complete. I also believe that it is possible to over dry it depending on where you live in the country. A lot depends on what kind of woodworking you want to do. Many kinds of woodworking are done green on purpose.


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It's amazing what nature does . those are real pretty .
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Stew, the longer it dries the better it gets, IMO after a while it stabilizes to its environment, it is best to dry it indoors away from pest , I agree with the post above . 6% -8% is doable here in Ohio, if you can get it into a attic it will cut the dryng time down , be prepared for a few twist or bends when you cut into the board depending on how it was cut .I have seen the saw blade try to follow the grain n quarter sawn lumber . sharp blades are a must and feather boards and riving knives are a good idea .all in all I think you will be happy using it , harbor freight sell's a cheap moisture meter under 10 bks , its not fancy but it will get ya by .

Thanks for the responses, I am feeling better about my wood. I plan on testing it in the next couple of weeks to see how dry it is. I am pretty sure no pests and it is in an attached garage that never really gets below 25-30 degrees here in the Chicago area. My next first will be to try and mill this stuff into useful stock without destroying it.