Air drying wood question. Carving stock and other uses.

Brandon Yuchasz

Brandon Yuchasz

Well-known member
I picked up a good amount of basswood two years ago that was 2" thick. It had been air drying in an unheated pole barn for a year or two. When I cut a head out of it It was obviously still way to wet and the head developed small circular cracks across the grain. It was nothing that after letting it dry and carving could not be sealed in under spar varnish. Its riding on a gunner with no real ill effects.

I took the rest of the wood and stacked it under my bed with sticks in between to alow air to flow around it but didn't do anything to seal the ends of it.

My question is how to I deal with this wood now as far as starting to use it for carving stock. What should I have done differently.

In addition I plan to go down and pick up more wood for stock. I will be picking up a large quantity of cedar that will most likely have been cut and rough sawn very recently or last spring and stored in the outbuilding. I plan to bring it indoors for drying and let it sit for the next two years and want to know what I should do with it to prepair it. Is cutting it back to where there are no splits and sealing with titebond on the ends enough? I may get more baswood as well it depends on the stock they have. This is a substantial amount of wood and thus money and I want to do it correctly.

At the same time I will most likely be picking up white ash as well for use in a boat project and maybe some other items. This will be stored in the unheated garage? What if anything would you sugest I do for it. The last batch I used in my BBIII was dry as could be and didn't require anything of me.

Oh and can someone please tell me exactly what checking is and looks like. Im willing to be I have seen it but that doesn't help me if I dont know what I am looking at..

Thanks all.
 
Hey Brandon,

I've been putting away my own green wood for a few years now and have learned a few things. Sealing the ends with mistinted latex paint from the cheap shelf works good for sealing the ends. My red cedar dries about 1 inch per year, so a 4" thick block will be ready in about 3 years BUT frozen wood doesn't dry. Plus I live in the rainshadow of the coast mountains and it is really low humidity here - 6% in winter is common. Trying to speed up the drying has resulted in wasted wood for me. You'll notice if the wood is too wet when your bandsaw keeps flipping the breaker from running too hard. Dry wood saws alot easier than juicy. Cutting end checks is neccessary, but the crack seems to extend invisibly further into the log than you'll think. If a block isn't dry enough when cutting, I'll set it on a shelf for a year or so before cutting the bottom board off and hollowing. You can also test a potentially dry peice by putting it near your heat source and see if it cracks. You'll get to know your wood eventually, but don't slap paint on a decoy until you know its dry. Check weather records for your area to see when your dryest season is and that will give you an idea about how dry you can get your stuff air dried. I think kiln dried is about 12%, but I'm not sure.

I've heard a story about bowl turners drying wood in the microwave but haven't made a small enough decoy to try it yet.

Lots of info on the net by guys who know more than me as well.

Mike
 
Get yourself some Anchor Seal. It's a wax sealer that is made for sealing ends while you dry your wood.

I cut some white pine in Feb '06 and cut it in 2-4" thick pieces and stacked it near the furnace in the basement w/ anchor seal on the ends. I used a chainsaw to rip it into rough planks with no heartwood in them. I also put some pieces in the attic, and they dried rather fast.

It carved just fine in '07 when I carved my first few heads from it, and I've made a bunch of keels since. When I run out of my current batch of cedar I'll be using the white pine for a while.

Good luck, and happy drying.

-D
 
First I would take all that wood back out where it was previously stored right now. Then seal the end grain. Then I would find some info on drying wood.

You need to very gradually bring the moisture content down to where you need it, probably 12%. This is done by storing it in a moisture tight container or room and allowing the outside (dryer) air to be introduced a set amount of times per day. I only know this because I just recently read Frank Werner's article from Wildfowl Carving Magazine. I can not say I full grasp everything in yet. The article is available still in back issues https://www.wildfowl-carving.com/cart/index.php?c=29&p=323
 
I've heard a story about bowl turners drying wood in the microwave but haven't made a small enough decoy to try it yet.
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Typicaly when they do this it is after pre-turning the bowl blank. Sometimes the bowl will be turned complete and then put in the microwave. The thin wood will warp rather than crack and the bowl is left that way for artistic value. Only the bottom is trued up to sit flat after the microwave treatment.

I think some of my decoys may have looked like a microwave mutant at some point in time. :>) :>)
 
I've tried the microwave trick on a couple after they have been carved and hollowed.
One worked fine, the other not so good. Large cracks and splits. Burned real well though!

Next time I get some real wet stuff I am going to try, because I can, a vacuum pump here at work.
I am not real sure what the result will be, and its not suited for production like a kiln, but it
might work for a block or two at a time.

Any thoughts?
 
I just read my post again. I should clarify the baswood I bought two years ago was to wet when I cut a head two years ago out of it. At that point I stacked it under my bed seperated by spacers and let it dry for the last two years. I suspect other then having to cut deeper into the ends to find good wood I wont have any issues with that wood.

My larger concerns were what to do with the wood I will be picking up in the near future. Thanks for the feedback so far everyone.
 
Do you guys cut them clean and then seal? If they have been air dried for a year already then do you just cut back as far as you see spliting and then seal?
 
Get yourself some Anchor Seal. It's a wax sealer that is made for sealing ends while you dry your wood.

-D
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best product on the market.

Many advocate the use of paint or any old thing to seal. There is a reason why most mills/sawyers all use a wax based emulsion to paint on their freshly cut raw ends. Most will do it around lunch and then again at the end of the day.

Slowing the drying down is what they are trying to do.

the alternative and what usually ends up happening, is that you have more waste at the end of the board. Typically when we mill a 8 foot board, we will go to 8'6" so we have 3" of waste at each end. This is cut off at the time of use. This gets rid of most of the checking that occurs. If you don't put anything on the logs and the boards as you resize them, your checks can get quite a bit longer. I have seen them routinely go 6" or more, with a few going about 12" in. All wasted.

I would focus your real attention to the new wood you buy, stickers every 18", usually 1" X 1" square all the way out to the ends of the boards, keep them out of the sunlight (some type of roof) and keep MOST of the moisture off of them.

good luck.
 
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