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Since red oak has open 'tubes' running parallel from end grain to end grain, does this allow moisture to escape the interior out the ends(the opposite of other woods which will check due to the ends drying faster.

This would mean sealing the end grain would slow the drying.


How about it Charlese?

To directly answer your question - no, the sealing of the ends of red oak boards will not slow drying.

IMO, sealing the ends of green red oak is just as important as any other hardwood species. Yes, the vessels of red oak are open, however other cellular structures have closed ends. Also the chances of vessels running straight from end to end of a board are pretty slim. It would have to be totally straight grained. Even so, there is a majority of other cells that are closed.

Yes, the ends of red oak will check during drying.

charlese wrote:To directly answer your question - no, the sealing of the ends of red oak boards will not slow drying.

IMO, sealing the ends of green red oak is just as important as any other hardwood species. Yes, the vessels of red oak are open, however other cellular structures have closed ends. Also the chances of vessels running straight from end to end of a board are pretty slim. It would have to be totally straight grained. Even so, there is a majority of other cells that are closed.

Yes, the ends of red oak will check during drying.

Thank You!

The part of a stump I am going to 'salvage' will be quartersawn from the stump and the grain is very straight. It will be rough cut to about 1 1/2 to 2"(chain saw), is about a foot wide(pith to bark) and about 2' long(will be cut shorter eventually).

My concern re drying is that I need the 'project' finished by November(less than 3 months). It has set(where it grew) as a stump since this spring. The freshly cut end is still quite green. The exposed end is only very slightly checked(hence my question).

The intended use for it is as a flat plaque with two brackets(more red oak) forming a gavel nest(notch mallet end and hole handle end).

Gavel species still undetermined, but if black locust co-operates(another stump) that is what it shall be.

The reason for all this stump stuff is that the 'project' is a memorial thing that will be made from wood grown on the site of the honoree's previous activity.

I have already learned that the black locust WILL burn from the inside out if microwaved too aggressively!!!!! Outside appears scorched, Inside has burned out(hollow black dust) voids!:eek:

Again Chuck - Thanks!

JPG40504 wrote:My concern re drying is that I need the 'project' finished by November(less than 3 months). It has set(where it grew) as a stump since this spring. The freshly cut end is still quite green. The exposed end is only very slightly checked(hence my question).

The reason for all this stump stuff is that the 'project' is a memorial thing that will be made from wood grown on the site of the honoree's previous activity.

I have already learned that the black locust WILL burn from the inside out if microwaved too aggressively!!!!! Outside appears scorched, Inside has burned out(hollow black dust) voids!:eek:

Again Chuck - Thanks!

Your really got me there, Red! I can appreciate the emotional aspects to your project and don't really know how to answer your concerns with time constraints, however I have some concerns.

There is a good reason as to why lumber jacks and timber buyers prefer to leave stumps when felling trees. This reason is not related to back bending when falling, nor not caring about full utilization. It is more about the sawable quality of wood in a stump. Because of stump "swell" and or the bending stresses being applied to the lower stem during growth - the stump likely has a large percentage of reaction wood. Reaction wood develops irregular shrinkage and warping, making machining more difficult.

Really don't know a thing about "speed drying" either. You have already found a burning issue with black locust. Any info. I have on drying is limited to what the commercial kiln folks have published.

I send my best wishes for you in this project. (I would probably try the same thing if was in your place)

charlese wrote: . . .


I send my best wishes for you in this project. (I would probably try the same thing if was in your place)

The 'stump' was 3' above ground, and cut off about 1' above ground. Hopefully it was above the ultra stress part(swell).

The speed drying thing will be largely experimental(at a much reduced rate than the experience already mentioned).

The one thing that stood out in all the(not much) research was that everybody has a different approach!

I have concluded that the size and species will require different timing. I am also suspicious of the lack of consistency of the power capacity of the microwaves used.

The charred piece was small(handle size) and was 'dried' in less than 48 hours. A 3 minute time was ok at first, but as it got drier, I am positive 3 min is too long. I did let it cool down each cycle. It does get quite hot(steam seeping) so it takes at least an hour to cool down(on the outside at least).

It did not seem to warp much(ends were not sealed) but it did move slightly after sitting on the spindle for a week after being turned/oiled. Just enough to show eccentricity when I attempted to clean up some gouges in the handle. It will serve as a 'sample' and will make an excellent mallet handle for the shop.

Although this been a conversation between myself and Charlese, I am continuing to add to this thread as a source of information to anyone who may need to accelerate the drying process for themselves.

After getting a 2" x 10" x 20" 'board' cut from the stump, I trimmed the ends and ended up with two pieces 15 1/5" and about 3" long.

It became obvious that I was indeed into the swell area of the stump since one end is about 1" wider(pith to bark) than the other. The increase is gradual, so hopefully it will behave!

As a side note, I mention that although 25+ years growth is indicated in that 10" width, that the opposing side (pith to bark) is less than 3". That is the result I think of growing near the edge of a bank so that there was no room for root development on the short side.

Back to drying!

I 'cooked' the large and the cutoff piece separately for 3 minutes(600W oven[old]). The volume of the larger piece is about 6X that of the smaller.

I placed the boards on top of two sticker sticks so as to allow moisture to escape through the 'bottom' surface'. I intend to alternate top/bottom positioning for future 'cooking'.

OBSERVATION: The smaller piece got much hotter than the larger one.
OBSERVATION: After a brief time out of the microwave oven, the ends felt hotter than the middle. I attribute that to hot vapor still escaping through the end grain.

CONCLUSION: The time required to heat the workpiece sufficiently to force moisture exiting is proportional to the total volume of the workpiece.
CONCLUSION: As Chuck has stated, the end grain needs to be sealed to prevent possible checking at the open grain ends.

ACTION(S): The ends were painted with latex paint and were allowed to dry overnight. I will increase the time of the large piece to 10 min(checking for excessive heating twice during that time). I will proceed after the paint has at least 12 hrs to dry. I will watch the ends also to make sure the paint is an effective vapor barrier.

While hardly instant, air drying can easily be accelerated with a few tricks. Most of the time I have just dried wood by letting it sit. Stacking it in an unused hayloft works pretty well. Anything that lowers humidity will speed it up like being in an AC house or shop or in full time heat in the winter. In addition to lowering humidity it helps a "lot" to have air moving across the surface.
I knew of a guy that stickered some fresh cut wood in his usually hot but well ventilated attic to speed up drying. My own attic is too hard to get to with anything long to do that (too many turns).
A BIL has cherry lumber from a few small logs stored on brackets hanging from ceiling joist in the garage above his wife's car.
I have three grain bins that are no longer used for grain storage that have perforated drying floors and will put some newly sawed stuff in there with a small fan blowing into the chamber below the floor (the roof is vented). It will be a much smaller fan the ones I used for grain drying since the cost of running one of those high pressure blowers would just be too expensive long term. They were necessary for the grain drying to push air through grain that was 15' deep.
Warm or hot air will carry much more moisture than cold air but I used very little hot air for grain drying because I could not justify the cost when I had the time to let natural air do the job cheaply.
For a few small pieces I would maybe make a cardboard box to control air flow and run air in one end with a fan and out the other with the box sitting in a dry place. Maybe in a small room with a dehumidifier or AC running.


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