I have just purchased a load of walnut. It was milled to 4/4 and 8/4 about four years ago, properly stacked and stickered in a dry shed and, despite this being the rainy season in North Carolina, now has a moisture content of only about 12%.
Unfortunately, the board ends were not painted, so there's plenty of checking, but the wood is still a bargain - wide boards with almost no sapwood.
I have not managed air-dried lumber before. I will need to keep about half of this stuff properly stacked outside, but want to bring the other half in to begin acclimating to my shop with the relative humidity maintained at about forty per cent. Should I trim off the checked ends and paint them before stacking them, stickered, inside? Should I bother to paint the board ends of the lumber that's staying outside?
Lumber in my shop generally reaches equilibrium at around 7 - 8% Any guess as to how long that's likely to take for this stuff?