Replies

1. 
   forestgirl | May 18, 2006 01:43am | #1

   Just to lay the foundation for folks who aren't familiar with "steamed" wood, click here for the late Jon Arno's explanation here at Knots.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   

2. 
   cherryjohn | May 18, 2006 04:40am | #2

   Two woods that, in my experience, do better being air dried than kiln dried are walnut and cherry.  The most norable difference is the color.  Kiln dries walnut turns out .well....brown......... while the air dried parts will exhibit a deep walnut color. They are both still nice but if you make a piece out of both air dried and kiln dried you will see a noticuble diffrence in the color.  The same applies to cherry.  I dont know the reason for it but likn dried cherry and walnut seems to work better with hand tools as well.  If I get a chance to buy air dried wood of either species i get all i can. 

   Wicked Decent Woodworks

   (oldest woodworking shop in NH)

   Rochester NH

   " If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"

1. 
   hdgis1 | May 18, 2006 05:38am | #3

   Its my understanding that kiln dried wood is the same as air, just sped up a bit. However, its a whole new ball game once you introduce steam. Steaming, I think is what makes woods bland. Am I correct?

1. 
   BoardmanWI | May 18, 2006 05:52am | #4

   Steaming drives the color from the heartwood into the sapwood, creating more saleable lumber, and it does "homogenize" the color.  In my opinion, it absolutely ruin cherry and walnut.

   Even kiln drying dulls the color of either of those two also.

1. 
   forestgirl | May 18, 2006 04:43pm | #6

   Did anyone actually read Jon Arno's post I linked to above??  OK, I'll copy part of it below; the rest can be found here.

   "The steam doesn't cause the pigment to migrate from the heartwood to the sapwood so much as it causes the hydro juglone in the sapwood to polymerize into dark pigments. This was demonstrated in tests conducted back in the late 1960's, when it was discovered that a kiln charge of walnut sapwood could be caused to darked, even though no walnut heartwood was present. Further tests revealed it is mostly the heat that causes the conversion and the conversion is most efficient at temperatures slightly above the boiling point of water (around 230 degrees F.) The moisture in the steam seems to assist in the conversion by conveying the heat...in that they also discovered that air dried sapwood could be made to darken when exposed to heat, but it was found that moist, "green" sapwood converted much more quickly."

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

   Edited 5/18/2006 9:44 am by forestgirl

1. 
   BoardmanWI | May 18, 2006 08:58pm | #7

   Apparently I was mistaken on the actual chemical process involved in darkening the sapwood, so I'll be available for execution at dawn.

   But the net effect is exactly the same - more saleable lumber.

2. 
   forestgirl | May 18, 2006 11:04pm | #8

   Execution deemed unnecessary.  Some respect to the late Jon Arno (can't remember what his fave beverage was, but we could toast anyway).  His knowledge and generosity is sorely missed around here.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

3. 
   Jamie_Buxton | May 18, 2006 06:04am | #5

   I bought some steamed cherry recently.   It was interesting stuff.   The color of all the planks was at the dark red end of the usual cherry range, and there was no obvious sapwood -- almost like the lumber had been dyed, except that the color was through and through.   If you use only steamed, it will look good -- even striking.  However, if you combine it with conventional cherry, be careful.   When the two are side-by-side, they almost look like two different species.  That can work to your advantage -- for instance, a steamed lumber edge around a conventional plywood table top -- but it is worth planning for.