Nathan Baller Home Air-Drying Tips for Wood

To be able to have the proper wood to use for your projects, you must make sure your wood is properly dried. There are methods for home air-drying that can help you avoid warping, twisting, and ruined woodworking projects. Check out these home air-drying tips for successful woodworking projects!

Time
Processing the logs into lumber quickly after it has been cut down will help open up the wood and aid in the drying process. This can help prevent the wood from rotting or staining. Acting as a natural moisture-barrier, bark on whole logs can contribute to decaying and deterioration in some types of wood. If your wood is poorly processed, it will have the presence of spalted or partially rotted wood.

Size
Wood shrinks when it is dried which means the wood should be cut larger than the size that is needed. You don’t want to bother with jointing or planing the wood before the drying process because it will most likely become distorted. An exception would be that if two surfaces of the log should be jointed level to facilitate getting even and predictable cuts on the bandsaw.

Sealing
Though you want to start the drying process in a timely manner, you also don’t want to dry it out too quickly. It will result in splits and endgrain checking. Sealing the endgrain will keep the moisture to exit the wood in a slower and in a more uniform manner. If you do not seal the endgrain, the ends will typically shrink faster than the rest of the wood and this would create stresses on the piece. It is best to coat the ends of the wood within minutes of it being cut.

Stacking
While stacking the wood, they logs should be uniform lengths and thicknesses to simplify the process. They should be stacked where all sides are exposed to air. Stickers, which are small pieces of wood that are used to add space between planks, aids in a uniform drying process and adds more ventilation. They are usually about 3/4” by 11/2” and their spacing can vary depending on the types of wood and the thickness of the log.

Weight
After stacking the wood and adding the proper stickers, it can be helpful to add weight. Adding weight can help prevent warping or distortion. It is important to the initial drying process when going from green to an equilibrium moisture content. It will result in stable and usable lumber for any project you plan!