seasoning oak

[Dave Hancock]

Hello

getting ready for a 24' sailboat and am interested in cutting some local white oak for the framing (keel, stem, floorboards and such). By the time I get the extension put on my garage, I'm hoping that it'll be properly seasoned. Any thoughts on the best way to season it slow to avoid checks and splits. I'm thinking of a light coat of red lead on the cut faces and tar on the ends. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

-DRH

[Meerkat]

Oak being kind of bland, some cayanne pepper might help :D :eek: :D

[centroid]

dave,
i'm in the same stage as you are right now. what kind of a 24' boat are you building ?

i was going to seal the ends with a wax and water base paint made for that purpose. tar seems a bit messy. then paint a combination of linseed oil and kerosene for the rest. how much is the red lead per gallon ?

[DougC]

Dave, this time of year all you need to do is seal the ends and stack the wood with wood spacers (stickers)between layers of planks. Make sure the wood is up off the ground and covered from rain and snow (old plywood works fine -- tarps can trap condensation). It's also helpful to weight the whole pile (may prevent twisting and warping). If you start the process in the summer you need to be more careful. In high temps and direct sunlight the wood can dry out too quickly and check. If you sticker your wood now, by summertime it should be dry enough to dry fully without problems. One year per inch of thickness is a pretty good rule of thumb. Try to set aside more than you think you'll need. No matter how careful you are something usually checks, twists or cups. :mad:

[Wayne Jeffers]

What Doug said!

Be sure to line up your stickers (wooden spacer strips) vertically so you don't stress the wood in the stack. And I would emphasize weighting the pile. Oak wants to warp as it dries and the weight will help keep it straight. While covering it from rain & snow, make sure air can circulate well all through the stack.

Wayne

[Seth Wood]

You'll need more than tar on the ends; it works, but other stuff works better. Like about six coats of ugly latex paint, or oil paint. Or best of all, use Anchorseal: it's what many loggers and sawyers swear by.

[Paul Griffin]

Dumb question, but how would you weigh the pile down without stressing the wood?

Paul

[Bruce Hooke]

First make a 'bed' for the lumber to sit on that will keep it flat and at least 8" or so off the ground. Cinder blocks are good as a base but make sure to put some scarp wood between the cinder blocks and the oak. Your oak will only be as flat as this bed is so take the time to get everything carefully lined up.

For stickers use dry wood to cut down on the chance of staining from mold or fungus developing under the stickers. Make sure the stickers are exactly lined up from one layer to the next otherwise the boards will get warped by the unsupported load. Also make sure that there are no long unsupported overhangs. The stickers should be no more than 16" apart so you will need a lot of them. Try to avoid having pieces that stick out beyond the end of the pile because they may dry too fast.

Try to get the coating onto the ends of the logs the day you cut down the tree. Small checks can start quite quickly and once started are hard to stop. In winter this is less critical because the drying process is greatly slowed down by the cold weather but it is still good to get the end coating on as soon as is reasonably possible. Aluminum paint is one good end coating. I see no reason to coat anything other than the end grain.

To weight down the top of the pile put some old boards or plywood on top and then pile on the weight. Try to focus the weight on top of the stickers The idea is to restrain the boards so that they have to stay flat while they dry but you obviously don't want weight on the good boards anywhere between the stickers because then the boards will warp.

The ideal drying location is somewhere out of the rain and sun but with good air circulation. An open shed is, of course, great, but you can do fine by covering the top of the stack with old plywood and finding a shady place for the stack.

Monitor the progess of the pile. If you see deep surface checks developing then cut down on the air circulation to slow the drying. If you see mold or mildew showing up then find ways to increase the drying rate.

You can check the progress of the drying process by weighing one of the boards. Once the weight stops dropping the wood is as dry as it will get without moving it to a drier location (or waiting for a warmer and drier time of year).

According to R. Bruce Hoadley's excellent book Understanding Wood 1" white oak should take 80 to 250 days to reach 20% moisture content. The wide range is because of the seasonal factor. Wood cut and stacked in the fall will dry very slowly through the winter whereas wood cut and stacked in the spring will dry much more quickly.

White oak has a reputation for being somewhat hard to dry without checking so cutting and stacking it in the fall so that it dries slowly at first will probably benefit you in the long run.

[Wayne Jeffers]

Paul,

So long as you line up the stickers vertically (and use plenty), the only stress on the pile will be the compression stress from the weight. There will be no bending or twisting stress, except perhaps on the top layer of boards. If you have large concrete blocks that will span the stickers, bending stress on the top layer will also be avoided. My grandfather ran a sawmill and I can remember stacks of lumber probably 15 feet high stickered for air-drying in the yard of his mill.

Wayne

[Paul Griffin]

Thanks for the great info.

Will the sawmill coat the ends for you?

Paul

[bud]

Something like this:

http://www.nbm.org/Exhibits/past/2000_1996/images/Wood/stacks2.jpg

[cherokee]

i'll add a few sense here to the weighting suggestion.in my opinion and experience if the oak or other wood warps/twists or cups in the drying(req's weighting to resist this)it is because the piece has combos of excessive grain slope/crossing grain, and/or internal stress from its growing condition-that wood i don't want in a boat personnaly. i've resawn green eastern w.oak for a folkboat reframeing and let it dry in winter standing vertically-it was good straight grained stock with no grain slope.it dried the way it was sawn-straight.to diverge-in wood aircraft building there are mandated regulations pertaining to grainslope-15:1 max. defects allowed/not allowed,etc. an certificated airplane cannot be repaired/or built using anything less. this info and knowledge is not common in wood boatbuilding anymore it seems, but can be useful.aircraft spruce and specialty, and wicks are two aircraft building supply co.'s which sell books and faa circulars which address the issues if anyone wants to know more. true a aircraft structure is much more strenght/weight critical and thus the wood material is engineering- critical. but our boats are dynamic also and longevity and durabilty derive from material quality and craftsmanship....so it goes :rolleyes: john

[Bruce Hooke]

Originally posted by Paul Griffin:
Thanks for the great info.

Will the sawmill coat the ends for you?

PaulPaul -- in some cases the sawmill may already have coated the ends, but it basically comes down to the sawmill -- they are very 'individual' operations in my experience so you'll just need to check with sawmill you are planning to work with in order to get an answer to this question. I'd guess that a sawmill that focuses more on high-end wood would be more likely to coat the ends whereas a sawmill that focuses on pallet wood, or other lower grade stuff, and just saws better quality lumber when good trees happens to show up in a load may not have much around in the way of stuff to coat the ends.

[Jack Heinlen]

Some good stuff here, but I don't think anyone except Bruce brought up your idea of painting the cut faces. Seal the ENDS well with paint, keep the stickers lined up, and keep it covered on top are the three most important things, IMHO. After you start selecting, milling and shaping you can paint with red lead or linseed oil or both. And don't forget, wood checks. A boat ain't a Stradivarius.