# air drying black walnut



## botietruck

I picked up (free) several large pieces of black walnut a couple week ago that had just been cut down. These were limbs that ranged from 8" - 17" in diameter, 2 1/2' - 8' long. I took them to a local fellow with a mill and he cut them in to mostly 1" thick boards, with some 2" - 3" thick pieces. Some were too short dog down. Those will be used for turning. I now have them stickered in my enclosed, insulated garage, with a dehumidiifier running 24/7. According to his calculations, I should have about 200 board feet of walnut, give or take a few. I plan on coating the ends of the boards this weekend. Any advise on what else I should be doing? Is the dehumidifier a good thing , or no? Should I be running a small fan on the wood?
Since I stacked the wood in the garage, I noticed a light film of rust on a couple tools. I took care of that quickly and applied a heavy coat of wax to the metal surfaces. 
Thanks in advance for any advice!


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## Catspaw

You coat the ends of logs to keep them from drying out too quickly…causing checking. Once sawn there would be no point in coating the ends of the boards. Coat the ends of the cants you didn't get sawn up.

A fan would decrease the drying time somewhat. Dehumidifier is good. After a week or so you probably wouldn't need the dehumidifer. The largest portion of moisture should be out by then.


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## charlie48

Bob, Nice haul !! and free WOW what a find.I'm in the process of having some red oak, Ash, and Maple sawn up,so I'm learning as I go,so this post is helping me and maybe many other LJ's Thanks and good luck.
Catspaw, I was told by my sawer to paint the ends of my boards with oil base paint , now I'm confused.


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## roman

if you dont saw them up, they will check beyond repair as they are short. Paint, wax, seal the ends even if they are cut up as this will help with checking and splitting.

Take the sawn boards and sticker them. Using 3/4" x 3/4" sticks placed perpendicular to the boards between each layer for moisture to evaporate evenly around all surfaces. To air dry lumber allow for 1 year per inch of thickness, plus a year so that a 1" thick board takes 2 years, a 2" board takes 3 years etc.,

It looks like you have limbs and often this lumber turns out to be quite angry, tough to tame and even after drying they tend to bend and twists after cutting them into parts

Good luck


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## tnwood

Wood from branches tends to have a lot of internal stress due to the fact it grows horizontally. I would make sure that the wood is stickered and weighted down with very heavy blocks of some type. It must also be end sealed. I would not try to hurry the process as you will get more movement and checking that way.


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## Nomad62

Since wood dries thru the end grain at a much, much faster rate than thru the long grain it is imperative to seal the end grain asap. It doesn't matter if it is sliced up. "Moron" above has the best advice. Hopefully the wood will stay straight, it mostly depends on how horizontally they were growing. The more vertical, the better. I would turn off the dehumidifier until the ends were coated, then a fan would be nice; you may have a mold problem unless you use larger stickers, I use 1" minimum but have found better luck with 1 1/2" for wetter wood.


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## jcsterling

I have found that walnut to be one of the easiest woods to air dry. As mentioned earlier, allow to air dry for approx 1 year per i nch of thickness, coat the ends, sticker, weight and wait. Limb wood will be a bit more reactionary but not insurmountable. hope you had some flitch sawn.
John


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## douglbe

If you can get air to them, such as a fan, it will probably air dry to 12-14% MC in a 2-4 months. I have some Black Walnut that was logged and lumbered to 1" thick in April, that had been stickered and in my shed. I put some in my solar kiln a little over a week ago and it was already at 14% (this is in the center of the board), so it is air drying fast. It only took a week in the kiln to get to 6.5%.


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## botietruck

Thanks for the feedback. I will put the fan on it this weekend and watch it closely. I did have the sawyer to saw several pieces of flitch. But I must admit, I did not know what flitch was until yesterday after jcsterling mentioned it. I had to Google it. It is amazing what you can learn from Lumberjocks…and Google!


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## Sawmillnc

Limbs are pretty much worthless as lumber with all the stress wood. End coating is only effective within a few days as checking once started will not be curtailed by anchor seal.

This time of the year 4/4 boards will dry to 12-15% within 60 days. 8/4 stock 120-160 days. At that point it can be kiln dried in 6-10 days to 6-7% depending upon thickness.

The stickers should be 1" thick and spaced 14-18 inches a part.

The wives tail that it takes a year to dry per inch needs to be forgotten it is false.


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## sw_iowa_sawyer

Walnut is real easy to dry so that will make it easier. I cut a fair amount of walnut since I live in walnut country, a fan blowing on it will help keep mold from forming. I would coat the ends as it will help some on the end checks. I use Anchorseal but despite what folks claim it will still check some that is why when you saw logs for lumber they cut logs 8'6" so you can account for checks and defects. That will usually catch most of the checking. The limb wood thing is dependent on the limb. If the pith is centered in the log/branch they behave pretty well if not then they can sometimes act up. I won't say which sticker thickness is best I use 3/4 hardwood stickers for my stuff and haven't had any trouble yet but 1" would work as well. It really isn't rocket science and walnut is very forgiving for first timers, (harder on basswood or maple or white oak) so stack it and you will be well on your way to using your own lumber.


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## TreeBones

I'm a little late on this post but there is a lot of good information here. I like to cut 3" and thicker . My experience is 1" boards tend to be more unstable during drying. I will re mill into thinner stock after most of the drying is done. I cut a lot of burl from trees that have been grafted,

Here is some info on drying: Air Drying


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