Drying red maple in Middle Georgia can be a challenge because of gray stain and/or sticker stain resulting from a chemical reaction in the wood from higher temps and high humidity. I have even had gray strain and sticker stain when air drying in the winter. Customsawyer and I cut some nice curly red maple in early December. I was concerned about it gray staining because soon after I stickered it, the weather turned wet and it rained it seemed like every day for the first two weeks. I ran a 42" barrel ran on the stack for the first 6 weeks 24/7. The maple air dried to 15- 18% moisture content and went in the kiln early last week. I removed the wood a few days ago and skip planed it.
I stacked the wood with 1" stickers and kept the air flow high. It came out very nice with no sticker stain or gray stain, even with it being so wet with high humidity in the early drying cycle.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/IMG_1360.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/IMG_1362.JPG)
Wow! Wow! Very beautiful lumber!
Very Nice Sir :)
The grey stain you mention is called an enzymatic oxidation reaction. As such it is very sensitive to temperature and the presence of water in the wood. For every 20 F cooler, the reaction slows by half, so at 50 F, it is 1/4 the speed at 90 F. When we had the rain, we had a lot of 40F at night...even slower.
The fans are a good idea indeed...remove moisture at a good speed when the air is 92% or drier, even if cool.
I have seen wood dry well initially and have a nice non-grey outside, but then drying slowed and temperatures were warm, so the core did oxidize to the grey. So, try to keep drying going at' all times when warm outside and wet inside.
Looks good Danny
Now you're cooking!!
Congratulations. You da man!
Those are awesome I know some guitar builders who would love to get there hands on some of that!!! What would you ask per bf ?
It has all been pre-sold :).
I've read articles about using lower temps to initially dry soft maple. I start my SM at 120-100 and rarely have any gray or sticker stain, but I do see gray in the cores of my lumber. Is 120 degrees too high to start out SM ?
120 is a bit high for the whitest color.
The grey core is likely because you do not drop the humidity fast enough. As the wood dries, you need to increase the depression so that the core dries as fast as the shell so you have light colored cores.
Nice looking lumber. I think the stickers are actually ¾" thick but they are fluted. I like the way they worked. ;D
You are right. I forgot that they were "your" stickers :D.
I do believe that the fluted stickers contributed to the positive results, so kudos to the sticker procurement Guy. He is also the same Guy that procured the log ;D. Good job, Jake. That is some fine lumber, and I am proud to be associated with it.
You have always bragged on your memory, but when you have my fluted stickers it seems to be slipping.
I thought that they (the stickers) were mine now. Oh, OK, my memory must still be slippin' ;D.
Are the stickers "H" shape or the spiral configuration?
Some of both.
All the fluted ones are mine and I might share a few of the square ones. :D
I did not see your name on them. I will have to look again ;D.
The maple looks great :)
Danny,
When you go to the sterilization cycle, do you still use the auxiliary fans?
Yes. I leave all six fans running. The two in the unit and the four additional fans.