I hope you had a great Christmas. After reading your reply, the first thing I did was to read your mill post.
Against The Grain, this family-run business was sure a great find. I could see how you would have a hard time picking out the pieces to purchase. The ambrosia maple round is just beautiful. I also see that you purchased a slab of black walnut, or is that butternut I see loaded into your car?
Storing lumber inside works. The key is to make sure the temp is not too high. If the wood dries out too fast I'm sure you know what happens, this is especially true with rounds.
Freshly milled live timber dries at the rate of about an inch a year, so drying time depends a lot on the thickness of the slab. Of course, creating optimal drying conditions speed up the whole process. I know that is a lot of time. Different species dry at different rates. All coniferous dry in less than half of the time of deciduous trees.
Depending on when the lumber you bought was milled, it may already be dried to a great degree. All of the slabs I mill, I date so I can keep track of how far along they are in the drying process.
There is a big difference between a slab being wet from the weather or being moist from the resins and natural saps in the tree.
A slab of wood that has been drying outside in the elements for several years will have expelled much of these saps. Mother Nature may have soaked the slab many times, but once it is kept in a dry warm place for even a few weeks, it will be pretty dry. Working on a project, and then having it split or cup is always a bummer. The moisture content you are looking for is between 7% - 8%. I have a moisture meter that I use, they are relatively inexpensive. For testing the moisture in 6/4 or greater, a prob type moisture metes allow you to take readings towards the center of the slab.
I must say, I was a little surprised to see so many beautiful pieces of lumber just sitting out in the weather.
Air drying already takes a lot of time.
Good luck with the projects you have planned.
Here are a couple of posts I recently did, Ambrosia/Spalted or Blackline maple
https://hive.blog/hive-123046/@thebigsweed/i-get-a-woody-over-wood
What a great reply thank you! I need to read this in more detail but it sounds like you have great experience in this I could learn from!
Hope you had a great Christmas! I'll reply again later!
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More than happy to be of help, and any help that I can offer, just ask. Thanks for the engage tokens, greatly appreciated!
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