How to season wood

[bp1974]

Well, I am now the new owner of several long pieces of lacewood. They are very green, and I have no experience of seasoning wood so I have some questions.

I've done a bit of Googling and found out that lacewood dries out quickly and doesn't crack easily, and I'm unsure how to go about seasoning it fairly quickly without damaging it.

I put a small test piece in the oven at 60 C for about six hours and it dried out well until the last hour or so, when a couple of small cracks appeared. So I won't be doing that again. Is using an oven to dry the wood out a good idea or should I let it dry out on its own?

 

[weekend_warrior]

Dunno much about commercial seasoning, but we used to cut the green wood into rough planks and stack 'em in a sheltered spot outside with timber fillets between the planks to create an air gap, then left them for 6-9 months.. Worked very well with little wastage

 

[Marts]

This might be of some use:

Mechanical Properties
Medium strength in most categories. Low stiffness makes it an excellent steam bending wood.

Working Properties
Works well with hand and machine tools, but there is moderate blunting effect on cutters and a tendency to bind in saws. Glues well, stains and polishes, with care, to an excellent finish.

Durability
Perishable. The sapwood is liable to attack by common furniture beetle, but is permeable for preservative treatment.

Seasoning
Dries rapidly without much splitting but has a tendency to distort. There is small movement in service.

Uses
Furniture, cabinetmaking, joinery, light construction, panelling, ornamental inlay, decorative uses. Excellent for turning fancy goods.

Sapwood Color
The narrow sapwood is almost white in color.

Heartwood Color
The heartwood is pink to reddish brown, or pale pink to medium brown when freshly cut. It matures to a brownish color with age.

Grain
The grain is generally straight. Large and prominent wood rays are reported to produce a distinct and an attractive silver grain figure on quartersawn surfaces.

Texture
The wood has a coarse and even texture.

Luster
The wood is lustrous.

Odor
The wood has no characteristic odor or taste.

Ease of Drying
The wood is reported to dry slowly and can potentially be difficult to season. Careful air-drying followed by a mild kiln schedule is suggested to prevent or minimize degrade.

Drying Defects
Slight distortion, some surface checking, and splitting in thicker stock are some common drying defects. Wide flat sawn material may cup severely if unrestrained.

Movement in Service
The timber is reported to be moderately stable after seasoning, and tends to exhibit medium movement in use.

Natural Durability
Heartwood resistance to decay is rated as fair. Freshly sawn timber is reported to be vulnerable to attack by pinhole borers.

Resistance to Impregnation
The heartwood is reported to be moderately resistant to chemical treatment but the sapwood is permeable.

Resistance to Abrasion
High resistance to wear is reported

Gum Content
A reddish gum and white deposits are present in the wood.

Toxic Constituents
Green wood and sawdust from machining operations have been associated with skin irritation in some individuals.

Cutting Resistance
Cutting resistance is reported to be low but large ray cells may cause some crumbling.

Blunting Effect
The wood has medium blunting effect on cutting tools.

Planing
The timber is reported to be easy to plane but sharp cutters and a reduced cutting angle of 20 degrees are recommended for best planing results. Quartersawn material may cause some picking up in planing if cutters are not very sharp.

Turning
The material is reported to respond readily to ordinary tools in turning, moulding, mortising, boring, and routing operations with very good results. Large rays may cause the wood to crumble, and care is required to achieve smooth, non-fuzzy surfaces.

Moulding
A reduced cutting angle of 20 degrees is recommended for moulding.

Gluing
The wood is reported to possess satisfactory gluing properties.

Nailing
The wood can be nailed very easily. No pre-boring required.

Screwing
The timber is reported to screw well.

Sanding
Sanding properties are reported to be good.

Polishing
The material is reported to have good polishing properties.

Staining
The material is reported to stain readily.

Steam Bending
This species is characterized by good steam bending properties.

Response to Hand Tools
The timber is reported to respond rather well to hand tools in most operations.

Strength Properties
The bending strength of the species is considered medium, being much weaker than White oak or Teak in the air-dry condition (about 12 percent moisture content). Compression strength parallel to grain, or maximum crushing strength, is medium. It is lower in this property than Teak. The weight is moderate. The density is high.

 

[bp1974]

Thanks for your replies.

Marts, I saw some of that info already, particulary this bit:

Dries rapidly without much splitting but has a tendency to distort

I now see it appears to be contradicted by this bit:

Ease of Drying
The wood is reported to dry slowly and can potentially be difficult to season. Careful air-drying followed by a mild kiln schedule is suggested to prevent or minimize degrade.

Do these contradict each other or are they both true in a way I don't understand?

I have no private outdoor space (live in a flat) - can wood be seasoned indoors? These pieces are about 24 inches long by 2-4 inches across.

Plus, does anybody have any nfo on using a domestic oven to season lacewood (or any other kind that might be useful to know about)?

 

[weekend_warrior]

I would not recommend seasoning wood in your oven - you'll dry it out far to quickly and it'll warp and split. Yes, you can dry it out indoors - don't put in near the radiator, but somewhere with a fairly constant temp and average humidity. What your trying to achieve is a nice slow and even reduction in the water content down to the atomospheric norm. Then the wood will be stable and ready for use. Once you've crafted your item remeber to finish it well with a good oil or such and it'll be sealed and should be free from futire distortion etc..

Try this for more detailed and technical info:

http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-155.html

 

[Povarian]

To air dry, you should wax seal the end grain, and stack in a sheltered/ covered location with spacers to allow air flow. The wax seal reduces the moisture loss through the end grain, and greatly reduces splitting. Generally, the faster the seasoning the more prone a wood is to warping/shakes. I've not got any experience of the kiln drying process, so can't comment on that.

Just noticed your later post where you say you've no outside space - outside is definitely better since it gets proper air flow around the wood, and is generally slower than a typical centrally heated place. If it's only a small amount - borrow a friend's garden?

 

[bp1974]

Thanks again. I'm going to read that document so I understand the seasoning process better.


My main obstacle may be impatience..

 

[swamp donkey]

Spoon size pieces can be dried in the Microwave but dont do what I did! Carve a nice spoon and the put it in for 40 seconds, but go off under instructions to strip wall paper, and return some time later to find it going round and round in flames and the whole of the down stairs filling up with smoke!!! having actually put it in for 4 hours! Micro wave survived and we are are still using it 6 years later.

Swamp Donkey

 

[bp1974]

I did a lot of research yesterday and there were lots of warnings about wood catching fire in the microwave. Apparently with larger pieces it'll catch fire on the inside first and so is very hard to put out.

Anyhow, here's a list of the main non-industrial scale methods I found for seasoning/conditioning wood:

- Air-drying: anything from 6 months to six years, depending on the wood

- Kiln drying: a lengthy process, and the wood may still crack at the end of it all anyway

- Microwave: use short (30sec-1min) low power bursts, and have an accurate set of scales so you can tell when no more moisture is being lost (five or six bursts). Don't set fire to the kitchen. A smelly process

- Boiling: Boiling green wood for one hour per inch thickness will reduce the time needed to air dry it by up to 50%. This is because the boiling process breaks down the fibres of the wood, making it easier for the water to escape during drying. Some people report that the wood doesn't take a finish quite as well because of the damage to the structure.

- Soaking in 'liquid dishwasher detergent', which I think is American for washing up liquid: A bowl-carver in America spent ages trying out different chemical treatments of wood, and found that soaking wood in a 50/50 solution of washing up liquid and water conditioned it perfectly. Once it dries out he says it never cracks and is fantastic to work with, due to the lubricating properties of the solution and the plasticity it imparts to the wood. Basically, the water in the wood leaches out, to be replaced by the solution. Here's the details. Look down the page to the "Experimental New Treatment for Wood" section. Another guy tried it out on various woods - his report is directly below the first one on that same page. He soaked the wood overnight. I am going to try this method and see what happens.

 

[Marts]

- Soaking in 'liquid dishwasher detergent', which I think is American for washing up liquid: A bowl-carver in America spent ages trying out different chemical treatments of wood, and found that soaking wood in a 50/50 solution of washing up liquid and water conditioned it perfectly. Once it dries out he says it never cracks and is fantastic to work with, due to the lubricating properties of the solution and the plasticity it imparts to the wood. Basically, the water in the wood leaches out, to be replaced by the solution. Here's the details. Look down the page to the "Experimental New Treatment for Wood" section. Another guy tried it out on various woods - his report is directly below the first one on that same page. He soaked the wood overnight. I am going to try this method and see what happens.

Nice find BP. I'm going to give this a go.

Marts

 

[bp1974]

Here's some more information about the process from a later date - recommending a 1:6 soap:water ratio

http://www.woodcraft.com/articles.aspx?articleid=313

 

[weekend_warrior]

I have no experience of the soap methods described, but I'd be very cautious in case it affected the finish i chose to use - oils etc... By it's very nature detergent will try and break them down and I have visions of my six month old knife foaming in the rain...

 

[bp1974]

Yeah, that thought crossed my mind too. It was bad enough having a foaming rucksack for months after a leaking shampoo bottle incident. If my knife foamed in the rain I'd freak.

And it's a method that I'm curious to try out. According to the articles it doesn't affect the finish and I guess that will vary from wood to wood, as will the effectiveness of the method. So far I've seen one post stating that they tried it with plane wood and it cracked. Plane wood is what I have so I'm going to be cautious.

 

[bp1974]

Well, I soaked one piece (round branch, 5cm diameter x 20cm long) of London Plane wood in a 5:1 solution of Fairy liquid for 3 nights and 2 days. It gained 10% mass as a result of this. It had been previously baked in an oven so this gain may be more than would be seen in green wood.

It's been drying out for 3 days now and is fairly dry. It has turned a darker colour, more reddish than it was before, and it has a faint smell of washing up liquid. The outside feels dry and smooth, with a faint dampness. Looking at the ends, there's a couple of small radial cracks right at the centre. I won't know more about that until I carve it. I'm going to let it dry for a couple of weeks at least before attempting to work with it.

 

[redflex]

I recommend reading

British Woodland Produce by J. R. Aaron & E. G. Richards

It explains everything about wood structure, water content and different methods of drying and seasoning depending on the final use.

 

[philaw]

I was hoping to to make a handle for a knife blade I've just bought using some wood I found on a forest walk. Is there any way I can avoid waiting 6 months for it to cure? I'm really working with the minimum of available tools and resources. I don't even think I could get my hands on stuff like tung oil, and even buying a decent piece of wood would not be easy. I may try using pine resin to coat the handle, if I can find some, but that doesn't solve my problem of stopping it splitting by drying too quickly. Any tips will be much appreciated.

 

[bp1974]

I've not a lot of experience, but I'm in the process of learning and 've done soem research, so here's what I know.

In the end, whether the wood will split or not is down to the type of wood and the nature of that particular piece of wood. While we can't control the end result, what we can do is use various processes and environmental controls to reduce the likelihood of splitting/warping etc.

If you want to try the process I described above with washing up liquid, that's up to you. So far I've been letting the piece of wood that I soaked in washing up liquid dry out for about three weeks now. It's very dry, very smooth, smells of wood and has almost no cracks. It looks beautiful, and I've not tried to work with it yet so I don't know how it's going to turn out in the final analysis. However, on first impressions, by soaking it in 5:1 water:Fairy liquid for 3 days, and then drying for 3 weeks, my piece of wood seems to be doing very well. I've no idea how your wood will respond to the same treatment but if you want to dry it out fast then whatever you do is going to involve some experimentation and risk.

Can you cut a small piece off it to try so you don't ruin the whole thing if it goes wrong?

Also, if you decide instead to bake it dry in an oven, don't over do it. I tried with a small piece and it was fine for several hours, then cracked quickly.