drying walnut crotch wood

[George Pell]

Hello,
I was fortunate enough to come across some nice looking crotch wood as I was cutting some walnut tonight. Is there anything special I need to do when air drying it? This is some great looking wood and I'd hate to ruin it. Thanks.

George

[Mike Mastin]

Hi George,

How thick did you cut the boards? I would stack and sticker the boards no wider than 18" between stickers and put some heavy weight on top of the stack to help keep the lumber flat as it dries. Make sure that your stack is stickered on top of the top board so that air flow is allowed there too :-)

Walnut is very forgiving so the biggest problem would be to keep some air flow over the stack, but not an excessive amount. Just a whisper of air flow is all that you need, not a high flow of air. All that you are trying to do is keep any surface moisture from forming which could cause mold to grow.
Keep it out of the sun and rain too.

[Harry Thornton]

Do NOT place the stickered pile directly over a large colony of termites! They have NO appreciation for the beauty of walnut but they love the rich nutty flavor.:D
Sorry, I have nothing of value to add but I am sure you are about to get some valuable advice about keeping it dry until you get a moisture content of 6-whatever thingamajigs.
Just kidding, of course. Good luck....really.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Thank you for this post. I may have a source of some walnut crotch lumber, so I will keep this advice in mind.

[Harry Thornton]

anytime you need some advice with no substance, I'm sure I can help. Kidding again. Hopefully you're smiling, not thinking of ways to hurt me. Hey, I live in Atlanta and we had kind of a rough weekend. I need a little smile even if nobody else does. Take care, Brotha.:) :p ;) :D

[George Pell]

Hi Mike,
I cut it with a chain saw, so it's pretty rough right now. One piece is about three inches thick, but I'm going to resaw it tomorrow, and the other piece is about one inch thick. They're pretty small pieces, maybe 18 inches by 12 inches, but they''ll be perfect for boxes. Are we still talking about a year per inch of thickness to dry? Thanks again.

George

[Steve Clardy]

Thats the rule usually. 1 year for every inch, till you get to 4". Then you add a year.
4"=5 years.