I have several short [12″ long x 9″ diameter] sections of “green” Black Walnut. A student of mine and I were wondering the preferred method of drying these out for use in a lathe. We are most interested in the core of the bole to be used eventually for a center dart in a table inlay. We are presuming a final depth of about 1/2″. To complicate the issue…the wood has traveled in the back of a pick-up during our recent storms, it is saturated as well as green. Any advice is welcome…thank you all.
Nedco6
Replies
Cut it, sticker it, get it up off the ground, put a tarp over it, and put the stack in a place where air goes through it but sun doesn't come down directly (helped by the tarp). Don't tarp the sides. A lean to is a decent building to air dry in. You won't dry it in log form without splitting. Cut your square turning sections a little bigger than you need for shrinkage, and estimate at least 1 year per inch for drying. Doesn't matter that it got rained on, may have saved some early splits since it ain't cut yet. If the stack is small, weight it down good to help reduce warp. Cinder blocks come to mind. Your stickers should be about an inch square, and themselves dry.
Ned -
I fell heir to a short walnut log a while back, too. My experience (that was my first exposure to a walnut log) leads me to agree with RW: You'll have little if any success trying to fry the log as a log. Even if cut off into roundels, the shrinkage in that stuff is horrendous.
I hand split into quarters one section of my log, painted the ends with end grain sealer and put it aside in my shop out of the sun and out of contact with anything but the shelf it was on. The ends split horribly none the less. The only portions of this log that I've managed to save from end checking were those I milled off the log as short pieces about 1" thick and stacked to dry as RW explained.
Incidentally, hand splitting green walnut is not walk in the park!
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
PEG (Polyethylene Glycol) - MW 500 or 1000 can be used to treat green lumber. As it is a bulking agent, it is successfully used to minimize (potentially eliminate) cracking related to drying.
If you wish to use cross sections or material that contains boxed heart pith, it is the only practical method I am aware of.
NIEMIEC1,
THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION...WE WILL GIVE IT A TRY, HAVE A GREAT DAY.
I've had luck getting sopping-wet koa off the plane from Hawaii to acclimate to my customer's Montan house by putting it in a garbage sack and leaving it to dry--plastic is not that vaporproof. It took several weeks, but i've done this twice now with 8/4 pieces about 18" long and 8" wide and didn't lose much at all, even with the ends unpainted. No pith core, though...
Has anyone tried short sessions in a microwave oven (for rough-turned blanks) with the piece(s) wrapped in either paper sack or plastic sack? I've done it a few times and with care and some species of wood, I've been able to accelerate the drying some.
...........
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
splintie,
Thank you for the response...I will try the advice and hope for success.
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