Thread: Drying large redgum burls?

I don't know speciffically about drying burls but to generalize air drying at this time of year can be too quick for susceptable timber, in summer you typically have hot dry days with low moisture in the air and for green timber it sucks the moisture in the timber out too quickly, air drying is still good but you want to be looking at ways of slowing the moisture loss from green in summer, air drying is done before kilning as a large percentage of the moisture in the timber is removed basically for free other than whatever time you spend setting the timber up to air dry, kiln drying is better from the point of view that you have control over temp and humidity and can be done at a rate which suits the timber in question.
Hope this helps

Pete

So for the time being i would probably be better off finding a nice cool place for them and let them dry slowly? Then give the kiln a thought then.

Hardwoods always respond better to a slow air dry prior to kiln. I dry a lot of bluegum for furniture and doors. I give it 6months air, then the kiln. Stability is much improved.

Ok cheers i will do that! It will be great to see these burls dry

There was a thread only a little while ago about drying some redgum (I think) good points raised so might be worthwhile to do a search
We shall need some pics of course when you do something with them

Pete

Yeah, will do mate! i have a few pictures of them now if you wou would like to see the raw material?

A properly interlocked-grain burl should air dry fine without checking.

I've turned green burls and the movement after that, drying once shaped, is usually far less than with green straight-grained timber.

There's a fine furniture maker in Halls Gap who does a lot of stuff in normal redgum and he and his miller have found that a combo of kiln and air drying works best for that.

Good luck with it.

Yeah i have stacked them in a cool place to keep the sun from drying them to quickly! I will do that, let them air dry and then send them off to the kiln! The largest is almost 2 meters across so it will be well worth the wait and effort

Hi guys

Just few ideas that I use that might help. A good way of slowing the drying process is to wrap the stack with a single layer of hessian. This protects the timber when you get 40 degree northerly wind blowing through the rack. Redgum burls can distort a lot if cut green, so have the racking perfectly flat and plenty of weight on the pack. Most of all, be patient. A burl 2 m in diameter probably took 200 years to grow, so don't wreck it in six months by being to keen to get the finished product out the door. Time will reward you.

Cheers
James

Yes we have piled on the weigh and it seems to be holding up well! This is great advice it would be a tragedy to wreck something that is so hard to come by! We are off tomorrow to mill a few more redeem slabs of an average 1000mm so it should be a good day
cheers Jordan