Air drying cedar

ABeck

Member
Just happened upon a load of free atlantic white cedar logs. Winter cut (I think) 2-3 ft diameter 3' lengths. Will it dry properly if just left upright in a garage or should the bark come off? should the heart and wane be sawn off as well? or it it better to leave the log as big as possible to protect against shake? I hope somebody has some experience with this type of thing.

Aaron
 
I have some lengths of basswood that was still wet after a year of cold storage in a shed. Its all 4" x 6" and was 10' long. I cut it all down to 5' lengths and its sitting under the bed raised on a 1' block to let air move. I was told it will dry an inch a year so I just stuck it away and am waiting. Inside in exstreamly dry ( we burn wood ) I am hoping it will dry much faster then that. I do have a few gunners I carved out of it after cutting the blanks and letting them sit for a few weeks. So far so good. Just small checking type cracks across the grain but the spars filled those in.

Can anyone comment on the 1" a year?
 
Can anyone comment on the 1" a year?


That is an old rule of thumb, to which I have not heard any other rule of thumb to the contrary, however it's scientific accuracy seems questionable. With variables in not only geographic climate conditions, but specific storage location plus as the wood gets thicker, the moisture has to permiate further and further through the wood to equalize with the environment, I would think a logrithmic calculation would be more accurate, and may even exist, yet as far as air drying, all I have ever heard was 1" per year...

2003corncrib.jpg


All that said, here is my 'passive wood dryer', old elevated corn cribs build by my grandpa in the 30's. Dad cut some more basswood this winter for me, and he did like Lee said and painted the ends with some old paint. Seems like everyone has a can (or in my case 30 cans) of old paint around.

Chuck
 
I guess I have a different view on this. But that comes since I help my bro in law mill lumber for fun for the last 7-8 years.

1. get the bark off NOW. Bugs/fungus love this and can and will screw with your wood. Nothing like waiting all that time and wasting all your efforts to have wood fungus or powder post beetles who have chewed your wood. I would also make sure as much of the sawdust is off your boards as well.

2. While you are debarking, get some paint on the ends. Your other choices are wax emulsions that are for sale locally everywhere. Google it, very easy to find. The purpose is to SLOW drying from the ENDS of the logs, leaving more moisture in the center of the boards, warping, checking get worse if you don't do this. Expect checks on the ends, you will loose about 3-6 inches in total length normally.

3. Sticker them with 1" square lengths of low acid hardwoods. Poplar comes to mind. Using high tannic acids such as oak or softwoods such as pine will often react with the wood, discoloring it and causing issues.

4. 1" per year is a wives tale, but overall, pretty good since there are so many variables that for most that comes out about right. It has more to do with drying days and humidity level in those drying days. Again, google it if you want a ton more.

5. Leaving heart wood in or out is a personal decision, leaving the PITH (the very center of the tree) is often the worst part. You will get the most checks when you leave the pith in. Often the heartwood and sap wood will dry about the same time, but when the pith is in the board, that is when you get the worst checks.

6. "Shakes" not quite sure what you mean there, if you are referring to checks or splits in the wood ends, see above. Shakes are normally seen from high mph storms that give you "wind shakes" or other diseases or when you have a dominant wind direction. Shakes are when the vertical grain is abruptly ruptured and you will get horizontal cracks in a long board. Not see as a result of drying. You can get case hardening, but that is something all together different.

any other questions, post on up.
 
I agree with Eric. The bark needs to come off asap. If you read the book on the Ward bros., they split the logs in half and had them in racks in the shed. If I had a bunch of logs, I'd cut them so they were about a foot longer than two dekes, split them, paint the ends and sticker them.
 
Thanks Eric, Ill look to follow the advice. As far as shakes goes, shakes means windshake as well as any checks, the way i understand it, shake was was the early english called checks, something to do with the dutch word for 'CHECK" this is from eric sloan and I appologize if i used the term improperly.
So to summarlize, with the bark off, the ends painted and the pith romoved this stands the best chance of drying without checks, bugs and the like. right?
 
Yes that is the best way to prevent checking. No way is always 100% There is always some tension in wood. This tension is in part is because one part is dry while another moist.

Splitting the wood down the middle lengthwise helps because it can dry from the inside as well as the out side reducing some of the tension.

There are log buildings in Norway that are eight hundred years old. The logs did not split because they limbed a tree and cut the top off and waited two or three years before cutting down the tree. The logs then could dry from the inside as well as the outside preventing splitting. In modern log homes this is a problem because we are not going to wait two or three years. There are various ways they use to over come this. One is cutting the log down the middle and putting both haves on a frame opposite each other. Another way is with a saw kerf to the middle of the log to get even drying.

Shake is some thing that you can't do much about. It depends on where the tree was growing. I don't know how susceptible Eastern cedar is, but a tree here in the midwest is Hemlock. You can make beams two by fours etc. but boards will split along the grain.
 
Back
Top