how did they figure out if wood was dry enough back in the old days?

[Mike Gager]

ok so back 100 or 200 years ago people used wood for just about everything. how did they know when wood was ready to be used to build those high end furniture pieces that still survive today?


im guessing they had primative kilns or simply air dried lumber but what did they use to let them know it was ready? they didnt have the kiln technology that we have today and they obviously didnt have fancy moisture meters so how was it done?

[Tony Bilello]

Most furniture makers knew from years of apprenticeship and experience when it was ready. The wood was air dried in the open, usually under a shed type roof for several months them moved into the barn and up high where it was warm most of the time and yet airy. This usually was for a year or two per inch of thickness, depending on the geographical location.

The one advantage that the furniture makers of yore had over us today is that houses were neither airconditioned nor well heated. Given that, moisture content was not as critical as it is today.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Probably about the same way a local guy I know who makes his living using wood who gets it in green by the boxcar and sticks it to air dry. I asked him about using a moisture meter. "Yeah", he said, "I have one but never get it out."

Handle enough of it long enough and you develop a "feel" for it.

Dry kilns have been around for about a hundred years, which in itself is not a real long time considering how long wood has been used but applying any real control to the drying process has been about half that time.

People talk about the fine furniture pieces and superb craftsmanship of bygone days and lament that nothing is made as well as it used to be. I've seen any number of posts of things made by hobbyist members that well deserve the tag of "fine furniture". And I imagine 'way back when' people built plenty of junk, too. And just like today's junk it didn't stay around long. (Not really on topic......just one of my rants :o).

[Gary Breckenridge]

You can get an idea if wood is ready to work by feel, weight, drying history and snapping a piece. :cool:I'm sure the old timers were quite good at knowing if dry is really dry.

[Alan Schaffter]

I have no idea, but they may have done it the same way you can do it today- weigh it wet, cook it, and weigh it again to see how much weight that species loses. Then apply that number to the other pieces. They had accurate enough scales back then.

[John Keeton]

I agree with Richard that there was plenty of "junk" built in the old days - much of it referred to nowadays as "rustic", or "folk", etc. Only really well built furniture truly comes thru the ages looking great.

On the topic of dryness, I doubt the old masters purchased "dry" wood as we do today. Most stickered and stacked their own green wood, knew exactly how long, and under what conditions it had been stored, and used that information to chose wood for a particular project. The same rules applied then as now - about an inch/year. I doubt they even thought much about it, and as Gary implied - it was second nature to them.

And, "dry" in Arizona is not the same dry in Memphis, TN - let me assure you of that, having been to both in the middle of summer! So, "dry" is relative to the conditions of the locale.

[Howard Acheson]

Lots of factors go into the answer.

First, most old time furniture did not last, and much that did shows signs of wood movement damage. This is particularly true of "country" furniture made by itinerant woodworker/carpenters. In fact, much old time funiture has not lasted. That's the reason for the value of that that did survive.

Second, in the time before central heating and air conditioned homes, wood movement was not as big an issue. You would be surprised the amount of old time furniture that is damaged when brought into a modern environment.

Third, old time furniture generally stayed in the same general area thoughout its life. Therefore it was spared large swings in long term humidity changes.

Finally, there are a number of restorers whol make a good living repairing and restoring old time furniture where wood movement and use of inferior adhesives has caused damaged.

The best old time cabinet making firms did store and age their wood for a couple of years. I have toured a couple of surviving old time cabinet making shops and they will have their wood still stored in the original sheds where they stored their wood stock. These firms that make authentic reproduction old time furniture all include a "caution" that their pieces can be expected to crack or have some failure over time.

[David Keller NC]

"The one advantage that the furniture makers of yore had over us today is that houses were neither airconditioned nor well heated. Given that, moisture content was not as critical as it is today."

While often repeated, this is generally not correct. In homes prior to the advent of modern air conditioning and heating systems, the ambient relative humidity swung wildly from weather system to weather system. Particularly in the winter, the humidity in a home in the Eastern US would have been exceptionally low, as exterior air at 20% RH and 10 degrees was drawn into the home from the updraft of chimney and heated to an ambient temperature of 50 degrees or so. During the summer, of course, Eastern US homes would have been exceptionally wet and muggy.

One of the reasons that antique furniture doesn't do well in our modern era is the rapidity of the change from an off-site storage warehouse or barn to an almost instantly drier climate inside a conditioned space.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

"The one advantage that the furniture makers of yore had over us today is that houses were neither airconditioned nor well heated. Given that, moisture content was not as critical as it is today."

While often repeated, this is generally not correct. In homes prior to the advent of modern air conditioning and heating systems, the ambient relative humidity swung wildly from weather system to weather system. Particularly in the winter, the humidity in a home in the Eastern US would have been exceptionally low, as exterior air at 20% RH and 10 degrees was drawn into the home from the updraft of chimney and heated to an ambient temperature of 50 degrees or so. During the summer, of course, Eastern US homes would have been exceptionally wet and muggy.

One of the reasons that antique furniture doesn't do well in our modern era is the rapidity of the change from an off-site storage warehouse or barn to an almost instantly drier climate inside a conditioned space.

I'll second that.

[Jim Kountz]

I guess alot of what has been mentioned here about them "knowing their wood" would hold true except in the case of Mahogany. A wood used extensively for finer pieces. They like us today, had to import it and wouldnt have the slightest clue about how long it had been cut or dried other than what they were told. Just like us today. Most of the time they would gauge the "readiness" of the wood by working with it. You can tell when a piece is dry enough by the way it works, cuts, planes etc. They wouldnt know the exact content but close enough apparently.

[Larry Edgerton]

It was not uncommon for early craftsmen and post and beam builders to use moisture content to their advantage.

Just for giggles and grins sometime, chop a mortise in a green piece of wood, then a tenon in a dry piece, fitting just snug enough for no slop, and then set it by a heater for a couple of weeks. Don't mess with it in the meantime, just leave it and check it in a couple of weeks.

I have used this building chairs, making my legs with slightly green and my rungs dry with slightly ball shaped tenons. The resulting joints are very strong.

[Carlos Alden]

They used steam-engine driven moisture meters. The gauges and dials were all cast iron. Good stuff, that. No need for fancy modern electronics.:)

Carlos

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

A few years back I was taught this trick: Cut a small cube of the wood in question, say 1". Weigh it on an accurate scale. Now bake it in a toaster oven or such for a couple hours at about 200 degrees f. Weigh it again. The percentage difference equals the wood's moisture content. When I have tried this, the results have been nearly identical to my electronic moisture meter. According to my friend, folks in the know have used this technique for centuries.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

The sound of the board when whacked against an apprentice's head was how they gauged the moisture.

Wood rings when dry.

[Stephen Edwards]

"The one advantage that the furniture makers of yore had over us today is that houses were neither airconditioned nor well heated. Given that, moisture content was not as critical as it is today."

While often repeated, this is generally not correct. In homes prior to the advent of modern air conditioning and heating systems, the ambient relative humidity swung wildly from weather system to weather system. Particularly in the winter, the humidity in a home in the Eastern US would have been exceptionally low, as exterior air at 20% RH and 10 degrees was drawn into the home from the updraft of chimney and heated to an ambient temperature of 50 degrees or so. During the summer, of course, Eastern US homes would have been exceptionally wet and muggy.

One of the reasons that antique furniture doesn't do well in our modern era is the rapidity of the change from an off-site storage warehouse or barn to an almost instantly drier climate inside a conditioned space.

This is true. I heat my home with wood, a good Vermont Castings wood stove. That's the only type of heat that I use. Though my home is surely better insulated than homes of the past I can vouch for the fact that a wood stove will certainly decrease the humidity in a house. As in the days of old, I keep a water pot on top of the stove to help with the dry humidity in the house. Even when I lived in houses that weren't so well insulated (the kind where you didn't have to crack a window to get some fresh air!) the house was still a lot drier in the winter than in summer.