How long wood to dry

Neatly and properly stacking, stickering, and weighing wood will go a long way towards ensuring that the drying process will result in flat, stable, and usable lumber.

This small stack of buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica half-logs has just been cut, stacked, stickered, and sealed with a water-based wax emulsion coating. Add heat once EMC is reached. This can be as simple as moving the lumber stack from a garage or shed into a heated basement indoors.

A drying cabinet can be nothing more than a simple wood cabinet with an incandescent lightbulb on a dimmer to finely control the light output—which in turn dictates both internal temperature and consequently relative humidity. Many thermometers both traditional and digital sold by big-box retailers also feature a hygrometer with a somewhat accurate readout of the relative humidity; the ability to know the RH of both the drying cabinet and the wood shop proves to be a helpful and prudent investment.

A good way to visualize the tendencies of wood during drying and shrinking is to picture the arc of the growth rings trying to flatten themselves out.

This of course is not actually the cause of the shrinkage, but it serves as a good memory tool to help visualize dimensional changes. This endgrain view of plum Prunus domestica exhibits cupping.

The board was initially cut flat, with the top and bottom originally being parallel. Further machining will be necessary to ensure the board is flat and square. The results of uneven shrinkage vary depending upon the particular shape and grain orientation of the board; flatsawn boards become cupped, riftsawn square stock becomes diamond-shaped, and circular dowels become ovoid.

Additionally, there are a number of warping issues that can occur which are not solely related to uneven shrinkage. In certain cases, a pre-existing flaw is present in the wood itself, which is only brought out and made apparent by the drying process.

This can result in defects such as: bow, crook, twist, or a combination of two or more defects simultaneously. Regardless of the specific names that can be applied to distorted lumber, most drying-related warping issues can at least be minimized using a few simple guidelines: Use proper stacking techniques. As mentioned previously, by far the most important deterrent to warp is the adequate stacking, stickering, and weighing of a lumber stack.

Avoid juvenile wood. There is no officially determined width of juvenile wood, usually excluding the first few central growth rings is sufficient , but generally, the further the wood is cut from the pith, the better. Much like the pith itself, juvenile wood is very unstable, and has an elevated rate of longitudinal shrinkage; this increased shrinkage rate pulls against the mature wood and causes it to contract and deform either along the face of the board bow , or along the side of the board crook.

Avoid processing branches or leaning trees. This abnormal wood is called reaction wood, and it can cause a number of unpredictable warping problems during drying.

In softwoods, reaction wood forms on the underside of a branch or trunk, and is called compression wood. Conversely, in hardwoods, just the opposite is true: its reaction wood forms on the topside and is called tension wood. Avoid knots. Simply put, knots are sections in the trunk where limbs once grew. In addition to shrinking unevenly or possibly coming loose during drying, leaving a knothole , knots can also create areas of concentrated abnormalities in the wood grain, and consequently impact its shrinkage properties.

The presence of large knots can result in dramatic and exaggerated warp during drying. Handle spiral or interlocked grain with care. Some wood species have what is called spiral or interlocked grain. Just as the name implies, the wood fibers grow in a twisted or interlocking manner. Not surprisingly, this can result in drying problems, most commonly twist—where one of the corners of a board is raised up out of the plane of the other three corners.

Careful drying, along with proper stacking, stickering, and weighing can help alleviate difficulties caused by irregular or spiral grain. Identifying and Using Hundreds of Woods Worldwide. It contains many of the most popular articles found on this website, as well as hundreds of wood profiles—laid out with the same clarity and convenience of the website—packaged in a shop-friendly hardcover book.

Notify of. I give permission to use my email address to send notifications about new comments and replies you can unsubscribe at any time. Inline Feedbacks. Hi Eric I recently pick up a heavy log from the beach on the east cost of South Africa.

I live inland in Johannesburg which is not humid at all. Kind Regards Shailen. Hardie Swanepoel. Reply to Hardie Swanepoel. Keith David. Reply to Keith David. Ken Williams. Reply to Ken Williams. Reply to Eric. Reply to? Reply to Lisa. Geoff Bott. Reply to Jason. Reply to Lee. Tim king. Dann Barry. John Baines. Reply to Dann Barry. Tom Burklin. C Smith. Reply to C Smith. Reply to ian sanders. Bob Ward. John Ritchie.

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Reply to Jeremy. Reply to Roy. Gene Wood. Reply to Gene Wood. Reply to Sam. Rob the Timberframer. Reply to Markus. Miguel Romero. Reply to Larry. Rob Soderberg. Reply to Brian. Doug Coyle. Nate R. Reply to Doug Coyle. Curious if you ever got a good answer on this anywhere, Doug?

Pam D Davis. Reply to DanTheMan. Joe klep. Reply to Joe klep. William Van Twisk. Wil Cooley. Reply to Wil Cooley. Julianna Middleton. Reply to Julianna Middleton. Reply to Charles. Walter Park. Burning green wood can be dangerous. It creates a lot of smoke and may cause a dangerous creosote buildup over time. Learn to tell when wood is seasoned. It will help you properly heat your home and keep you safe.

Up-to-date agriculture news in your inbox! Seasoned wood is something that I would want to have for my firewood needs. Specific Gravity of wood can be easily estimated. Put a piece of split wood into a 5 gallon bucket of water and see how much of it remains above water level. A dry piece will float higher than a less-dry piece of the same wood. For example, a piece of seasoned white oak should have a specific gravity of about 0.

Drying wood depends on the wood species, size of wood, climate, and humidity. If you are in a very dry and windy climate, it can take just up to a day or two to dry all your wood! If you are in a very wet and dark climate, it can take over a week to dry. To find out when my wood is ready to burn, I use a moisture meter. You can get my favorite moisture meter here. Here are a few more quick ways on how to dry wet firewood quickly.

It will be very heavy, so heavy that it is almost impossible to carry by hand. How is the weather outside? What climate do you live in?

In ideal circumstances wet split firewood will take at least 6 months to dry. Winters are cold and wet so your firewood has no chance of drying. It may actually soak up more water and start to rot you can burn rotten wood. Plan on giving covered firewood at least 6 months of summer sun for it to be fully seasoned. It can take less than 4 months for wood to dry in hot dry locations like Arizona, Nevada, Texas, etc. Yes, there are ways to speed up the seasoning process.

There are four main factors to consider when trying to speed up the seasoning process. Think about how you would dry any other object. If you follow the tips above and cover the wood, get it off the ground, and leave the sides open it should dry in a reasonable amount of time.

The picture above is a great example of properly covered firewood. Plan on giving your firewood at least 6 months to dry before you need it. I like to cut and split my wood really early in the spring.

That gives the wood all summer to dry out. Buying a moisture meter surprisingly cheap will be the easiest way to tell if your wood is dry, but there are ways to spot dry wood just by looking at it. I picked up a moisture meter a few years ago and never looked backed.