Drying Burr Oak

[timbermillers]

Does anyone have any hints or tips on drying burr oak?

 

I have a butt which is about 30" diameter and about 15' long. The bottom half is burred all the way round and the top will produce "pippy oak". It is still in the round and will be until I find out a sensible way to dry it as I don't want to end up with a heap of logs!

 

Any advise gratefully recieved.

[Kraftinwood]

Hi, if you have a portable saw mill or bigger or maybe know someone that has you can cut it into planks, store it with sticks between each plank to let the air through it. You should protect it from rain at the top and also out of direct sunlight. I t is best to seal the ends but normally you can cut a few inches off either end to get rid of any small checks when it is air dried. Generalising wood dries at the rate of an inch a year so if its a three inch plank then it will need about 3 years.

You can store it in the round for as long as you like but it will never dry out properly until you cut into sections and end turn on a lathe. Leave inthe largest lengths you can, I see lots of people cut trees into 4 or 6" pieces, the pith, heartwood and sap wood all then dry at different rates and it is only good for firewood. An old tip is to cut it into sections twice its diameter.

I turn most of my wood green, but you can store each section on its end (and end seal or wax top and bottom and stand on sticks or a pallet to keep off the ground) until you can blank it that is put on the lathe and take down to say double the wall thickness that you eventually need. Make sure that the sides and bottom are uniformed i.e. the same thickness or you will have some pieces drying quicker than others and there a good chance it will crack.

You must control the drying so straight away put in a large paper sack (potato sack), there are other ways you can store in shavings, I even know people that have buried their blanks in the ground !! not sure if it works though. Some turners boil their wood succesfully but it is all initially trial and error and after a few years you will hardly loose anything once you have perfected the drying process.

Specifically re your burr you will see that you need to make up your mind what to do with it either plank it or section up and store it depending whether you will use it or if you will sell it, as above I always turn burr green so do bear that in mind if you are selling then nows a good a time as any and you let others worry about the drying process. Hope that helps any questions please ask.

Kraftinwood

Woodturning Large Bowls and Hollow Forms, Australian and Native Burrs.

[timbermillers]

Thanks for your advise.

 

I have a Woodmizer so no problem milling it. My biggest concern in the surface cracking that I have seen on the test samples that I have cut. Due to the fact that burr is basically knots, an even dring is essential to stop cracks propagating through the planks.

 

I have milled tons and tons of oak, ash, elm etc and dried it successfully too but didn't know if you can apply the same process to burr. From what I have seen so far it looks a bit tricky.

 

I am looking to sell it on, so green blanks for turning look like a good option for some of it.

 

Thanks for your help, keep it coming!

[Big J]

I don't know very much about them, but a vacuum kiln might be the best way forward. They apparently cause very little defect in the drying process, even on quite thick, difficult boards. A wood carver customer of mine has one - I'll pick his brain about it next time that I see him.

[wills-mill]

You need a really gentle drying regime for burr, it's delicate and grumpy stuff If you get loads of cracking in Oak of any type, then you are rushing things.

 

You can control your drying rate with shallower sticks than usual. Most people use 1/2in or 3/4in for 'normal' timber in a yard situation, you'll need to go down below 1/2in and keep the airflow over the timber down with a bit of sacking or screening to windward. As usual keep direct sunlight off.

 

You can also slow the drying with a light coating of a finishing oil, you're not trying to seal it to death, just slow the exit of moisture.

 

A lot of the old saywers I've spoken to also wouldn't even consider milling pure burr slabs at less than about 2 1/2in. Once the drying's got done, you can resaw- it just seems there's so much movement in thinner joinery boards that there's loads of wastage when it comes to planing.

Weirdly, really thin stuff is really stable as you've found. Presumably it can dry quickly and lose the internal stresses before they crack and damage the timber...

[Rob D]

I've had a few bits and pieces of burr oak in the past.

 

But they always seem to have little tears and around the burrs etc. I don't see how you can dry it without it tearing a bit....

 

I've got some to mill soon so will keep an eye on this thread.

 

My plan at the moment is to mill it around 2.25", stick it until starts getting warmer then kiln for 24 hours and make it into furniture and oil it. I've done this with a couple of discs a year ago and the burrs are still looking really intact. Obviously the disc has split (backed on plywood to keep stable).

 

But the oil seems to help slow down the drying as well as gluing things together a bit.