White birch slab.

[chainspinrunner]

We sawed up some White birch the other day. I myself have an 8' X 20'' slab with bark still on outer edges. I have attempted to allow slabs of this size (diff. species) to air dry in my barn throughout the years, which has worked out pretty well. I hear that the White birch can check or split if not dried right? It was sawed on a woodmizer on a wintery day in the ADKs (about 25 degrees F).

My question is....Is there any precautions or methods I should use to dry this piece before it splits on me, or will it split at all if I leave it in a dry cool place?

[Coon]

I have dried many pieces of white birch with and without the bark on.  When I cut my cookies and such that I leave the bark on I do not use stickers at all but rather use 2 or 3 layers of paper towels in between. Place in an area where there is fairly good airflow for the first 3 or 4 initial months of drying.  After the major portion of the moisture content is evaporated I move to an area of less airflow.  When I move the pieces I normally flip each piece over and rotate about a quarter turn.  Make sure that you keep the paper towels layered between each layer of wood as it helps to wick moisture out of the wood and vice versa.  Remember not to drop any round cookies as you move them around as they tend to split. Some not necessarily right away but those that you drop seem to split.

Brad.

[SwampDonkey]

Birch would be the least likely to split as they dry because the radial and tangential shrinkage are not that much different, compared to oak and maple.

[Coon]

Swamp, I find that a good portion of my birch slabs and cookies seem to split when drying.  I don't know why it is but it just does.  I heard of the paper towel trick from another woodworker and tried it.  Seems to work for me.  I am beginning to think that it could be our dry winters suck the moisture out of the wood too fast thus causing the splits and cracking.  Lumber on the other hand does not seem to crack out too much or too badly without bark on.  Just seems to be the cookies and some of the thinner slabs.   ???   ??? 

[SwampDonkey]

Not saying they won't split. Seems like they would be less likely of all. They are one woods that seem to have low defect. I've never had lumber split on the end (yellow birch) in any project, using air dried wood that dried for years. It's top notch stuff in my book. ;D Now I have seen some nasty twist, but it was from reaction wood. Also some cupping if not straight grained material. Hard maple is more troublesome.

[chainspinrunner]

Maybe the splitting has to do with the temperature while we were cutting. We cut, skid, sawed the lumber in the same day 20 degrees F, The logs were good grade and not rotted at all or defected, but as we were sawing the slabs a few split like butter immediately. Could be more than that, tension in the wood maybe. The logs were staright and so was the standing timber. Thanks for the tips and I will try the paper towels!

[SwampDonkey]

Did you get the wood around the pith cut out (juvenile wood)? This was already air dried though, eh? Otherwise, there was some serious tension, if it split while sawing.

[chainspinrunner]

Yes, The pith was cut out. The wood was green and cut off the stump that same day as sawing. Pretty frozen.

[SwampDonkey]

Must've been a lot of tension in that tree. Wood don't dry that fast. Birch often tends to grow in clumps, 3 or 5 stems off one root ball. Probably the worst ones to cut for your needs, they all lean away from one another.

[chainspinrunner]

Roger that

Theses trees were clumped and they were subject to harvests from college students throughout the years which resulted in mutiple gaps in the forest that DID NOT favor the birch.


Thanks for the advice, It's interesting to find out how forest management can influence the products and quality of them.

[SwampDonkey]

This is what you want on that slabber. White birch in a maple ridge. ;)