- I have been reading everything i can find about air drying black walnut. We are clearing a site for a new home and had to take down a black walnut. My nephew owns a sawmill and has offered to kiln dry the wood, however I have read that air drying preserves the color best…. and I hate to bother my nephew since they are so busy with orders. The logs were cut two weeks ago. Because i only have the one tree, which isn't huge, someone with a portable sawmill offered to let me bring him my logs when he was close by, only charging me per board foot, and not for the minimum. I am taking him the logs tomorrow, and will bring them home same day.
I live in northwest Georgia. It is very hot right now with frequent afternoon thunderstorms and high humidity. We have a metal barn that we can use to stack the boards. Would it be better to stack in the barn or outside?
I have sealed the ends, will use stickers to separate… and thought about weighing down with concrete blocks placed inside a plastic bag to prevent concrete dust from getting on the boards.
The wood will be used to make a farmhouse table top (and maybe benches if I have enough wood)
The person making my table has said that if i mill to 1.75 inches I will have enough board to plain and make a nice table.
I understand that it will take a long time to dry… that's ok, we are many, many, months away from having a house to put it in anyway.
I air dried approximately 800 BF of Black Walnut in my barn in WNY a few years ago. I placed the boards on pallets and left enough space to next to the pile to restack it. I used 1" stickers to keep the boards apart. Every 2 months I would restack the boards turning them over into the new pile. It took about 3 years to dry them enough to be used. I had no warping or curling. I hope this helps!
Thanks for the reply's. We do have the metal barn… right now it is packed with everything we own while we build our house…. we can find space - where there is a will there is a way!
I went to the Big Orange Box yesterday. All they had was 1/2×1 and 2×2. I was afraid that the 1/2 would not allow enough air movement so I got the 2×2.
Sounds like a plan. Weights are ok. You can also use cargo straps to bind the stack together.
Stickers need to be no less than 1" thick. Ask the sawyer if he can make some for you when he mills wood.
VERY IMPORTANT: Set up a level and sturdy base at least 8" off the ground. I use concrete blocks on top of 4" thick pads with 4×4's across. I use a string and level to make sure everything is perfectly flat.
You will also need to address the insect issue. Various ways to do that, but I just periodically spread some sevin dust or diazinon around and throw some between the boards.
Good idea to lay a sheet of 6 mil plastic on ground down under the stack.
personally, I like boracare on wood that I'd put an especially high value on like walnut. I'd go with the version with mold prevention if stacking "indoors." If it's a barn that's open on the sides then this is less important.
Also, i wouldn't hesitate to stack it outside if you're hurting for space in the barn. It may take a little extra time to level the base right but the open air will dry it more quickly. Just get something to put on the top to keep the bulk of the rain off.
One thing I don't see mentioned, but I always do is to make sure you brush or broom off all or as much as possible {no real reason you cant get it all} the dust that will be all over the boards when you get them back. Band mills leave a lot of fine dust all over the wood when cut this way. I have one, saw a lot of logs and deal with this same issue.
You want the dust gone from the wood before you stack it to dry. Saw dust holds moisture, promotes mold and can, at the very least, discolor the wood….none of which you want. Best of luck with the wood.
My logs were milled today and I LOVE them!!! I talked my better half into setting up a "babysitting" station. Using the advice I received here we ensured the blocks were level and stacked with stickers for spacing. We have two stacks, side by side (with a space between them). We strapped down the stacks in several areas. We placed some time over the top. I am going to put some seven dust as advised.
Question - is the tin hanging over to much? Want to protect from rain, but also want air to get in…..
Should the straps be tightened every couple of weeks, or sooner? Should we rotate every couple of months?
Once our house is built we will move the wood inside the barn or our basement.
I love this wood!!! When sweeping off the boards I probably drove my husband crazy with the constant "wow!! Look at the colors in this one!!!"
I love even the one with more white area…. if I don't have enough wood… I'm thinking about using these for my benches.
Thanks for all the help!!!
Ok…. have spent 30 minutes trying to copy a link from photobucket….. it will not let me copy the link,... i changed my profile picture to the photo of the stack with the tin cover,
I think you can skip the photobucket and just insert a picture into your forum post. Click the "img" button just above the forum input box and it will let you browse to your picture and then insert it. It won't show you the picture you inserted until you preview or submit the post.
I don't want to be a downer but the rule of thumb is to sticker with the same stock that you're drying. Something about preventing stains via different species abound different colors. As suggested above I'd go back to your mill and collect some of the scrap for this.
Good luck with the pile! Check back in in three years once your stock is ready and show off your table.
Fuigh - thanks! I thought I had read somewhere that dry white pine was ok
We used the dry white pine on the bottom, since they are 2×2 and will allow more air movement. The black walnut stickers are about 1", we used them on the smaller pieces. If I need to remove the white pine I can.
Is the tin ok? Do we need to raise up the sides of the tin to allow more air?
I think your stickers are fine. I use pine 1×2 (.75×1.5) all the time, and they won't stain walnut if kept dry. It's better to use dry wood for stickers than wet wood from the milling. If the scraps were dry from milling long ago that would be fine. That said, I'm sure many people have used scraps from their milling and have been satisfied, but ideally they'd be dry. Ideally you'd like to have them aligned vertically, but with the 2" thick stuff you're drying even that won't matter much here.
The tin is fine. It's purpose is mostly to keep the rain off. Biggest problem you'll have is that it will act like sail with a big gust of wind so make you you tie down well. You should also make sure that the stickers are aligned vertically from layer to layer to reduce the chance of wavy boards. If there is weight from above but not supported below, you may get a little bit of a bow there, even with 2" thick boards. At a minimum, they need to to be aligned where your straps are.
I concur with Lazyman with regards to the sticker alignment. Been there done that. Wasn't pretty. I ended up turning a lot of wood into chips on the jointer.
First thing - I am so thankful to everyone for all the advice and words of wisdom. It really means the word to me that you are willing to take the time out of your busy day to help me!
Next - went to The Big Orange Box and asked the guy in lumber to sell me his rocking chair 2×2's as cull…. 70% off, score!
Sweet talked hubby into disassembling and re-stacking our wood. Now the stickers are all the same and are aligned. Hubby even thought ahead and made sure that the metal from the tie down straps doesn't touch my beautiful wood!
I love looking at the wood! It is so beautiful, I am sure that the different shades of color in the wood will only get better….. and I know that when we are finally able to have our table made I will enjoy not only looking at it…. but will have stories to tell about how we made it from scratch with a lot of help from some REALLY nice people!
Looks like your stacking job will work fine. Rule of thumb is one year per inch of thickness for air drying. It is not necessary to restack what you have done. Leave it alone for a couple years, then, once your barn is cleaned out, move the stack inside and let it go another couple years. Get a wood moisture meter (or borrow one) to check progress. Here in coastal Virginia, you will achieve equilibrium (the wood will reach its driest) at 8-10%. Dryer in the winter, of course. Move it into the workshop (or other conditioned space) for another couple months and it should reach 6-8%, at which point it's ready to use.
I've air dried and used well over 10,000 bf of walnut, cherry, maple, pine and oak over my 45 year woodworking hobby.
Here's what happens to air dried walnut that sits in my shop too long…
Stack looks ok, but over ground contact even if you have it raised up on the cinder blocks I would have used a tarp to keep out ground moisture, and easy access by bugs. Doing that I have never had any bug problems, while I know people who didn't use a tarp, and did end up with critters. Honestly don't have proof that this is a thing, but people I know who routinely put out a stack for air drying had suggested it.
I used the thick black rolled plastic sheathing 2 layers thick. IIRC it was 32 mil, and was marketed as a landscape barrier cloth. Trial and error told me the BORG thick stuff of 4 to 6 mils lasted only a really short time.
Best of luck.
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