Drying and sterilizing large pieces?

[Broncman]

I am getting ready to mill quite a few mantle size pieces of ash. Plan is to spray with Timbor immediately after milling and then reseal the ends with anchorseal.

I have a kiln and can starilize as well.

My thoughts are to air dry them for about a year, then???

Does it hurt to run a sterilizing cycle if they are not fully dry?

Thoughts on how to properly dry and sterilize large pieces around 4" thick?

[K-Guy]

The wood must be below 25% or you could get defects.

[doc henderson]

that thick you cannot go too fast, so air dry makes some sense (unless it goes to fast).  may need to limit airflow and keep shaded.

[YellowHammer]

Sticker them, stack them in a shady but not stagnant spot and let them air dry until they get under 20% at least, 15% is better, then put them in a kiln and heat to 150F for a couple days.

The "year" of drying is subjective.  So, let them air dry until they are ready, it may take a year, it may take a couple, and with the extreme thickness of your slabs, they may (will) crack anyway.  There is tremendous drying stresses in thick pieces of wood, there will the cracks....  

[doc henderson]

you say a bunch... is that 10 or a hundred.  you could get a scale and weight them off the start and follow the loss of moisture/weight.  you could do an oven dry sample to check initial MC and use that as a starting point.  in the first moments a small sample will have the same moisture content as the big mantles.  if the logs have been dead or sitting a while, there may well be a difference in outer vs. inner MC.  so, you could do the dry wright on a log cross section of a representative section.

[Broncman]

Thanks for all the advice guys! Doc, I have about a dozen  trees to do something with. Smallest I want to fool with is 12" diameter and a few monsters that are over 3" diameter.  Most are 18 -20" diameter. 

Being new to all this, I got a lot to learn. What ash I did saw when I got my mill , it was prone to cracking, but I did not seal it or keep it in a shady area. Just under a bunk with tin cover.