Large oak board

[ucoulddoit]

If you want to be certain that drying distortion/movement won't happen when you put a finished item into a heated home, you really need to check the moisture constant of the timber with a moisture meter. Air dried planks will usually dry down to aout 16% moisture content outside, but 8 to 10% is needed for indoor furniture, even down as far as 6% if the central heating is on a lot. Even if timber is left outside drying for decades, it will still shrink if taken into a heated home.

 

One problem with using a meter is that it measures the moisture content at the surface. Ideally you need to cut off a few inches from the end of a plank to check the 'inside'. But if you do this a few times the plank quickly gets shorter! I usually just err on the safe side and keep planks in the house or workshop where there is a dehumidifier for 6 to 12 months.

 

My Avatar is a hall table made from cherry from a tree that I cut down in a garden in return for the butt (I do this as a hobby by the way!). It also incorporates, lime from a garden of one of my work colleagues, spalted beech from a butt bought from a firewood merchant and cedar of Lebanon sawn off the end of a tree at a country estate which had blown down in a storm. All of which were free hand chainsawn into sections which could be manhandled into the back of an estate car, taken to a woodmiser for milling, followed by air drying outside and 'conditioning' in my workshop for a year or so. The finished hall table has been in our (well) heated house for several years and shows no sign of movement.

 

This is just one of various things made over the years using timber seasoned in this way, so I am a real advocate of air drying outside and conditioning inside. But it does require patience in my experience.

 

Andrew

[Lm20]

[Lm20]

[Lm20]

Be it a bit late I was going through some old threads, I dug out a photo I was very pleased with it, I went with the danish oil in the end, as always got some great help and advice from you guys.

[astra25]

Iv done this befor with a coffee table size board air dryed it outside for a few years then brought it in the house weight it and kept weighting it every couple of week or once a month written the date and the weight on the wood and once it has stoped loosening wight i know it is correct for my house and ready to be used etc.

Edited March 29, 2020 by astra25