How to Air Dry Timber

Wood drying is an important process for many utilitarian uses of wood. For both woodworking and wood burning, the drier the wood, the better. Wood burning poses the obvious need for a lack of moisture, drier wood makes for better fires, but in any form of woodworking it is important to work with appropriately dried woods. Working with wood that still contains moisture can be damaging to told, and results in short lasting completed projects. Wood that is no longer part of a living organism is in a search for equilibrium between the moisture in and around the wood, this usually means that as soon as the wood is of the tree it begins drying. The moisture in wood, or rather, the constantly changing moisture levels in wood result in the wood to warp and change in size, this iss especially problematic when the wood is used for structural reinforcement, for example. The equilibrium usually causes shrinking in the wood, and when equilibrium is achieved too quickly it can serious damage the wood. For these reasons it is important to control the equilibrium process.

There are two main processes to dry timber; kiln, and air drying. The focus of this page is air drying, as kiln drying requires a large kiln.

Air Drying Timber: The technique of air drying consists mainly of making a stack of sawn timber (with the layers of boards separated by stickers) on raised foundations, in a clean, cool, dry and shady place. For successful air drying, a continuous and uniform flow of air throughout the pile of the timber needs to be arranged. The rate of loss of moisture can be controlled by coating the planks with any substance that is relatively impermeable to moisture; ordinary mineral oil is usually quite effective. Coating the ends of logs with oil or thick paint improves their quality upon drying. Wrapping planks or logs in materials which will allow some movement of moisture, generally works very well provided the wood is first treated against fungal infection by coating in petrol/gasoline or oil. Unfortunately drying wood is a labor of love, and does not happen over night, it usually takes several months and up to a couple of years to dry the wood to a point that it is safe to work with.