Stickering dry walnut

[Fred Voorhees]

It's been about fifteen months since I had a bunch of walnut milled from two trees and it has been air drying since that time. I now want to move it into my shop and was wondering....now that it is dry, does the sticker material really matter? I have a bunch of stickers fabbed up from MDF. I also have a bunch of pine that I can cut up into stickers if need be. Any suggestions?

[Josiah Bartlett]

I usually just use some of the sapwood for stickers, but I've found that once it is dry it doesn't matter much.

[Peter Gregory]

You don't really know the moisture level? I would figure out the moisture % and make a choice with that number involved. Just because it doesn't feel wet anymore, doesn't mean it is dry enough.

Of course, not knowing where/how it is stored now, how thick it is, where you live, etc, etc, make it hard to give good advice.

I would sticker in my shop, until I was out of room or needed to use the wood. But, I have air dried wood stacked from a score 5 years ago, that I'm going to cut into next project. :)

Good luck.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

If it's dry, just treat it like 'lumber yard' lumber and dead stack it (stacking without stickers). But if you want stickering surely won't hurt anything. However you do it, try to get everything flat. Also, if you use stickers use enough to get everything supported - like green wood.

[Jim Becker]

Fred, when I moved my walnut in a number of years ago, I didn't use full stickers, but because I wanted a little more air flow, I used inexpensive 1/4" thick MDF to make "micro stickers". That saved a little space in the racks yet allowed for some continued even moisture acclimation. If the wood is dry to your intended MC, you don't "need" to sticker it, but it will not hurt you in any way to do so if you prefer outside of space utilization.

[harry strasil]

I stickered the oak I had cut for my workbench for 8 years before I used it, it was inside a friends heated hobby blacksmith shop.

[Matt Ranum]

Just as a safe practice I generally sticker everything more than 30 boards. When I know its dry, and I have to move it then I will double up my stacks. In other words sticker every 2 or 3 layers instead of everyone.

Long ago I once had a dead stack of lumber that ended up getting wet for quite a long time from a leaking roof in an old building. Ended up with a real problem with mold on it, thats why I just play it safe anymore.

[Josiah Bartlett]

I still sticker dry lumber before it has been milled, so any warps in the planks don't translate to the next board. I don't like ending up with a whole stack of propellers.

[harry strasil]

and if its stored outside don't for get to spray it with a disolved solution of borax and/or boric acid in water to kill powder post beetles.

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