Just passin on a thot

[james]

Iv heard some guys say that there grandpappy told them(in other words , take it with a grain of salt) that woods that are prone to checking while drying are less likely to do so if first submerged in running fresh water for a year then dried that this takes the sap out and replaces it with water it would be interesting to see some do this with a piece of low grade black locust or four (heart centered , riff, qsawn and flat sawn) :-\ :-\ :-\ just interested to know whether anyone has tried this
being on the road all the time I don't have time to check it out , sides which , all i have is conifer , and :'( :'( :'( no mill...yet
james

[Tom]

James,
I think it is probably more of an old wives tale than a "Granddaddy told me".  My experience has shown that what my Grandaddy told me was on the money. :D

If you read about drying woods written about by the experts, like we have on the forum, even submerged wood is difficult to dry and susceptible to drying defects.  Most have already told us that we need to be very careful in drying the "dead-head" logs that are being harvested from the forests cut over a hundred years ago. 

The only thing I have heard of that will  help to dry wood with fewer defects is soaking it in polyethylene glycol (PEG).  It does replace the water in the cell and inhibits shrinkage that would create checking.

[DanG]

That's all very true, but(ya knew that was comin', didn' ya ;D) I have noticed that with pine that has been kept wet for a couple of years, the wood is VERY heavy when ya cut it, but dries very quickly and very straight.  I can only guess that the bound water has become free, so it can escape quickly.  I don't know if this applies to hardwoods.

[low_48]

Woodturners try lots of techniques like that. They take rough turned, thick wall blanks adn boil the blanks, soak them in a solution of liquid dish soap/water, and soak them in alcohol. All those techniques have been proven to reduce warping and the blanks dry quicker. Seems to me that the idea has merit.