Air Drying White Oak lumber

[CR]

I scored a massive White Oak about 200 years old
I've been sawing it  up into manageable cants with my Sthil 440 Magnum with rip  grind on my blade
Then into the shop to face my Agazzani B-20 and a Lennox CT Woodmaster.
Dam cants are heavy~!!

I've heard lots of things about drying Oak and  that it is always just itching to surface check. Indeed I've  got plenty,

The wood is coming in from out of doors to be stored in my garage.

So far this is what I've read on the interwebs:
Cut it  close to size and stack and wight it.  Maybe just maybe give it a coat of latex  paint on all sides to slow drying.

Is this good information? Is there more I need to know ( there's always more one needs to know isn't there?)

[beenthere]

Yup, and for one the official swear word on the forum is DanG.  ;D

Latex paint will mostly be just a nuisance and will not stop vapor from passing through. An end sealer may work much better for you. Leaving in the log until you are ready to break down the cants would be the best to stop the surface checking.

[WDH]

It is worse to dry it too fast than too slow.  However, I have no experience stacking green white oak boards in a garage.  Normally, I would not advise stickering and stacking green lumber in a garage because of lack of air flow.  With many species like maple, poplar, etc., too little air flow leads to mold and mildew on the lumber which will stain it.  I am not sure how the white oak will fare.

[Dave Shepard]

I'm having some trouble with some WO floor joists splitting in my shop. Probably best to get them outside before heating season, I would imagine?

We Anchorsealed the logs right after felling and bucking. Seems to really help with the splitting in log form.

[CR]

I have  very good air flow and  very dry air in my garage/shop.  Ambient moisture is not an issue.
The spot I  have for stacking it is in a little cove.  I have the room to  be generous with sticker thickness.
The garage does not benefit from direct heat. It doesn't freeze in winter but it's DanG cold  on  the  sub zero days.

I had some really superb success  air drying whole logs and  24" square cants  of Siberian Elm  from the property.
That wood is sooooo easy to dry and treat.  

The Oak seems more finicky.  

[WDH]

I have found that white oak boards need to be near other white oak boards to be happy  ;D.  What I mean by that is when the boards are sticker stacked, they create their own humidity.  Each board is protected by the boards above and below to prevent too much moisture loss.  As each board gives up water vapor, that helps keep the humidity higher for the other adjoining boards versus a board stacked up against the side of the shop or boards that are not married in the sticker stack with other boards.  

Sometimes I would cut a few thick timbers in red oak to have some thick stock for a special use for for table legs and such.  I made the mistake of not stickering these just like the other boards.  The result is that they were too exposed to the air and checked and split like crazy.  It is best for boards of a feather to flock together, I always say  .

CR, the very dry air in your shop will likely play havoc with the white oak.

[zopi]

Stack em outside in an area that stays sort o shady...cover just the top of the stack...the lack of sunlight and higher relative humidity will certainly help keep distortion down and will hopefully allow the moisture content to drop slowly enough to minimize the psycho boards reactions...after they get down around twenty percent or less...move them inside..just my two centavos...

[CR]

 I can create a mini humid area with a tarps for the oak.
I can sticker it all together

Here:
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn223.pdf
they say that presurfacing with a JP wil prevent checking too.
I'm guessing it's because the smooth surface loses less moisture than a rough one

[scsmith42]

CR - you're making this a lot harder than it has to be.   White oak is air dried successfully all the time.  Here are a few basic rules.

First, use a quality end sealer on the ENDS of the logs.  Whomever told you to coat all four sides of your planks with latex does not know what they are doing.

Second, it's best to dry white oak slowly.  Rate of drying is based upon the thickness of your wood, temperature, RH%, and air flow.  In your garage, most likely it is less humid than outdoors, thus a problem with the drying rate.  Stack and sticker outside, and cover the pile with some tin, old plywood, etc.  I would not suggest tarping it, as it will retain too much surface moisture and your wood will mold, then spalt, and then rot.  You need a small amount of air flow in order to wick the moisture out of the boards, but not so much that the surface dries too quickly.  You can surround the piles with a screen netting such as shade-dri if you wish.

For thicker slabs, I prefer to mill them when the weather is cool, such as between November - April.  The drying rate for the first few months will be slower due to the lower temp.

Bottom line, if you end seal what remains of your log now, and wait about another 45 days to resume milling, then stack and sticker out doors (or in a shelter out doors), you should be fine w/o major surface checks.  You will likely experience some checking on the portion of the log that is already milled and exposed, but it should not go more than 1/4" - 1/2" deep, so just allow for that in your cuts.

Geographically, where are you located? 

[CR]

Mili grazi

I'm in beautiful lovely down town Rural Central Western  New Jersey.
It's drive-through-country for the drug dealers.

The ends are sealed & have been since an hour after  I felled it.

I have a bout two months till  snow and so much our of door work  stacked  up undone  that it's almost depressing. .
The weather here  has not  cooperated.  I've had  like  more than 4 feet of rain since before hurricane Irene.  6" just last night.  The days have been beastly humid and very warm.  Work a few minutes  outside and one is over heated  and soaking wet from the un-evaporated sweat lickedy split.

[scsmith42]

One good thing about that humid weather is that it slows down the surface drying rate on the slabs.  For what you're doing, that's a good thing!

Just give it another week or two for the temperatures to drop, and then proceed as I mentioned above and you'll be just fine.

Best of success to you on your project.

Scott

[Dodgy Loner]

Lot's of good information, and I'll just add that quartersawn white oak is much easier to dry without checking than flatsawn. The checking will want to occur on the tangential face, so on quartersawn oak, the checks fall mostly harmlessly on the edges of the boards rather than the faces.