I have a heated crawl space under my kitchen addition where I'm
drying a fair amount of soft maple, river birch, slippery elm, and
mulberry (which will probably only be good for firewood). I I'm
drying it in cross-stacked split quarters and I probably have more
than I will ever use. The problem with where it is being stored is
that I have to crawl through what used to be the basement windows
into the crawl space to get at it. I had better pull it out and
resaw it while I'm limber enough to get in there.
Tim
On Jul 3, 2009, at 10:10 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
On Fri, Jul 3, 2009, Andrew Hartig <[email protected]>
said:
Has anyone on the list had much experience with Holly for peg wood?
I've just come into a few small log sections of Holly from a recently
felled tree;
loverly. short pieces will have about as much loss at the ends as
longer
pieces do, percentage wise this means more loss to end-checking.
Seal the
ends with paint or wax so that moisture goes out more slowly.
Split into
quarters if the grain allows that, if it is too inerlocked for
splitting
saw it on a bandsaw (make a carriage to grip from the ends and
stabilise
it thru the band saw, if you dont want to work with a carriage, snap a
chalk line for a guide).
Use scraps of the same wood wood for stickers, darker woods might
leave a
stain; you might get away with dried maple or sycamore stickers. The
point of a sticker is to space the wood while it dries so air can
flow all
round. Stickers should support the whole stack of wood, align them
vertically to each other, use enough of them that no piece is
likely to
sag enough in drying to prevent you getting the intended yield. If
the
tree grew tall and straight you should be able to get some wood
decent for
inlay or pegs. If it grew in an exposed position it may have a
twisted
trunk (which might show in the bark, and when you split it)
revealed some hidden knots and other flaws
very common with all trees, less so when grown in crowded
conditions like
mature forest.
Unfortunatly for both of us, I have never had the opportunity to
work with
green holly, so dont have the experience of how small to take it;
too much
exposed side wood will speed the evaporation process to the point
where
internal stresses can cause harm.
You can monitor the WC periodically by microwaving small samples
(weigh
them before/after.
Be sure you have ample air flow, also keep from direct sun; an open
shed/leanto on the north side of a building, rafters of the garage,
something like that. I use shelving in my garage for the few small
pieces
of green willow, elm, yew, oak, and maple I have done.
--
Dana Emery
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