Drying Wood

[Maylon Harvey]

I read on here and other places about the Rule of Thumb for drying wood as being one inch per year. Now I have a couple of questions and/or observations about that. I’ve always been told that wood dries from the ends and not the sides. So how true is that? So if that is true an 18 inch length of fire wood would need 9 years to dry at an inch per year from each end. I just don’t believe it. And if it only dries from the end, splitting it and thus making more surface area to release moisture won’t make any difference. I’ve been cutting, splitting and burning wood for over 25 years so I’m using that as my example but what you do with it, turn it or burn it shouldn’t make any difference here. Anyway my observation over the years is that split wood dries faster thus to me it seems it must dry some from the sides. It also seems that with or without bark seems to make a difference. In my years of cutting and drying it, or seasoning which seems to be the term used for fire wood, it has seemed to me that wood cut, split and stored in a covered but well ventilated (no sides) location is quite dry after a year and really dry after 2 years. Now let’s put Anchor seal on the ends of this wood. Is that going to keep it from drying out longer yet? I know it has kept the ends of my wood from checking, which is a function of drying to fast so it must be slowing the drying process. Guess I’m just looking for some observations or what your experience has been in drying you green wood. The firewood pile is where most of my turning stock comes from and as I find a likely looking piece, I Anchor seal the ends and put it inside my barn. When the pile gets to big I go through it and put some of it back only keeping what looks the best and there really is no sure way to know what the “best” is till you turn it. Sorry this got so long.

[Curt Fuller]

Well, you know how wood looks like a bunch of drinking straws all bundled up if you look at it under magnification. So you seal the ends so all the water doesn't run out of the straws.;) That's kind of a corny way to explain it, but in essence you're trying to get the moisture to leave (evaporate) at an even rate so that as it leaves and the wood shrinks, one part (the ends) don't dry out faster, shrink faster, than the rest of the wood, thus causing cracks at the ends.
But with turning wood I think the 1 year per inch rule is a little extreme. You can rough turn a bowl to 1" thickness, that's 1/2" of drying from the outside of the bowl and 1/2" from the inside. So you're only talking about 6 months of drying time really. If you wait for a 6" thick bowl blank to dry and you're as old as me, you might be dead before you can turn it. I just cut my bowl blanks longer than they are wide and seal the ends. Then when you get a chance to rough them you can trim the little bit of end grain cracked wood off, rough them, bag them for a few months and finish them.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Maylon - I have to agree with you that the general rule of thumb for drying wood is 1 inch per year - but - that is 1" in thickness, not length. When you split wood, you halve the thickness and it dries faster. We understand that wood loses moisture faster through the end grain than through the face grain. So, when you put anchorseal on the ends of a piece of wood it does not stop the wood from drying, just slows the drying process down so hopefully the wood doesn't crack.

[Maylon Harvey]

Steve,
For the "Rule", I was thinking length not thickness. I see your point. Thanks

[charlie knighton]

there really is no sure way to know what the “best” is till you turn it.


named Hale-Bopp the knot was not visable on the surface of blank

[Dean Thomas]

...although the Hale-Bopp piece is a dandy. Really deserves its own thread, IMO.

Maylon, the questioning of the premise is not a bad thing. That's how we learn, right, is asking questions.

You brought up the issues of firewood as opposed to turning stock. Firewood loses an enormous amount of its moisture through natural seasoning. One good winter with some really good freeze & thaw cycles will drive a lot of moisture from the wood, even deep in the heart of the pieces. Six months of outdoor life will not bring the wood to anything that looks like equalization, however. It just gets the wood dry enough to burn better than it does wet, right? It's usually still pretty green by turning standards.

To tag-team on Steve's explanation of Anchor Seal's role, a friend has grown the explanation just a little bit. Wood is like a collection of olde-timey PAPER straws. Amazingly good and water resistant, but they do leak moisture when said moisture sits there long enough. Wood dries on all surfaces, but when you whack through end grain, those straws lose a lot of liquid really quickly. Big water loss means big shrinkage. Big shrinkage in the first 1/2" of the end-grain wood with little or no shrinkage in the next 1/2" of end grain means that weak places will crack--endgrain checking.

Does that help??

[robert hainstock]

The straw anology is a very goodway to look at it. the moisture in wood gets there through the pores, capilaries , or whatever internal tubing there is that makes it grow. I would suggest that moisture pretty much runs thrugh those "tubes", and enters and leaves the wood that way and that any moisture that we see on the board side, or blank surface is there because the milling process has exposed those "tubes" to the air. I have observed a great number of maple trees in the spring of the year with Sap,or moisture running down thier length. this only happens where there is a break in the bark, (skin) of the tree. wheather or not "anchor seaaled" wood will still dry over time is not because the moisture leaves through the side, but because it departs through those remaining surface "tubes". IMHO :confused::)
Bob

[Jim Becker]

Adding to Steve's comments, the "one inch" general rule of thumb is for lumber...boards, if you will, that are stickered and have proper ventilation and air flow. It's really not relevant to most turners since a lot of turning gets done green, at least to rough. At that point, wall thickness is typically under an inch and whatever method of drying is employed before final finish turning is up to the artist. Sealing the end grain of your blanks is still important to slow the uneven release of moisture and reduce cracking as the result.

[Skip Spaulding]

Maylon, Here in Vermont we use that "straw structure" for gathering sap from sugar maples. Drill a hole in the tree, insert a tap, hang a bucket or hook up tubing and as long as the nights are below freezing and the days above freezing the sap flows. (Goes back to the roots cold nights, rises into the trunk and branches warm days.) It stays sweet until the night temperature rises and the days get too warm. Maples do make great bowls, and are our best fire wood, but that maple syrup is really great on pancakes!

[John Sheets]

Maylon,
Try to get your hands on a copy of "Understanding Wood" by R Bruce Hoadley. I read this probably 25 years ago, and it's an excellent reference; one that should really be read cover to cover by anyone working with wood. It wil answer all your questions and much more.

[tom martin]

I agree with Jim. The year per inch is a good guide for flat work, but for all of my turning I prefer to turn green. It's faster, less dusty, easier on tools and turner, and frequently offers a refreshing shower! I could never wait that long to turn a promising log! I am going to try some segmented turning that will use dry wood, but am not looking forward to cutting the dry wood and glue.
I do coat ends of blanks with anchor seal and reseal after rough turning. The only disadvantage to this is that you will probably end up building some kind of storage area for all of the rough turned items you will have!!!!!

[Maylon Harvey]

Hi Skip,
Here in NY we pretty much do the same thing so I can't really explain why NY maple syrup tastes better than that from Vermont:rolleyes::rolleyes: I help my cousin make syrup. He has a small bush, about 1500 taps. Hope the season is as good this year as last. Of course I know you guys in Vermont are hoping for one better than last. It's funny, I just finished a maple bowl today and the LOML made pancakes for dinner.



Maylon, Here in Vermont we use that "straw structure" for gathering sap from sugar maples. Drill a hole in the tree, insert a tap, hang a bucket or hook up tubing and as long as the nights are below freezing and the days above freezing the sap flows. (Goes back to the roots cold nights, rises into the trunk and branches warm days.) It stays sweet until the night temperature rises and the days get too warm. Maples do make great bowls, and are our best fire wood, but that maple syrup is really great on pancakes!

[Maylon Harvey]

Thanks everyone for your insights, explanations and other tidbits of wisdom. Love this Creek:)