Two Great Books on Milling and Drying Wood

[Paschale]

Hi Everyone,

As a newbie to milling and drying wood, I came to the forum and received a tremendous amount of help.  To supplement that information, I stumbled on two terrific books on the subject.  I'm sure many of you have them already, but if you're like me and still new to the whole process, they certainly are fun and interesting reading, and if you're like me, they'll fan the flames of your desire to mill your own wood.  The first one, Wood and How To Dry It is a Fine Woodworking publication.  It is a compilation of articles on the subject of drying wood that appeared in the magazine during it's first ten years of publication (1975-1985).  It's a little over 100 pages, and there are 41 articles in all, ranging from understanding the science of wood and how it grows, to various methods of drying, including air, kiln and solar drying.  There is a large variety of articles covering many other topics,  including ones on horse logging, chainsaw logging and woodlot management.  One which I think would be of particular interest to all of the portable sawmillers is an article included from 1982 which discusses the new and burgeoning industry of portable sawmill production, including a discussion of the Wood Mizer saw.  I can't give enough praise to this book.  Besides valuable articles, it's filled with photos and diagrams, which helped me tremendously when I recently milled and stacked my first tree.  I referred to it often, and find that I continue to return to it again.  At $9.95, it's a steal!  You can see excerpts of this book here:  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/091880454X/qid%3D1036643882/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-8431478-8272968

The other book is called The Conversion and Seasoning of Wood by William H. Brown.  This is another valuable book, but very different from the previous book.  This seems to take a more academic approach to the entire topic, and is quite exhaustive.  There are formulas and charts throughout the book, and in a way, it feels a little bit like a textbook.  I didn't find it to be a page-turner, but the knowledge imparted is quite valuable.  It's written by an Englishman, and he writes specifically of the various climates found throughout Britain, but all of the basic information seems to be adaptable to wherever one finds oneself.  He focuses on the most efficient means of cutting wood to avoid waste, which seems to me to be a vital part of the whole operation.  I think it's a great book to have on the bookshelf.  This book is a bit more expensive, but you can get it for under $20, so it's still a good deal.  You can find excerpts of it here:  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0941936147/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/102-8431478-8272968?v=glance&s=books

For those of you in Michigan who want to support local stores, I found and bought one of them at the Wood Source and one at Johnson's Workbench, though as I recall, in each case, I bought the only one they had, so I don't think there's a huge demand for them.  Anyway, I think they're both terrific books, so please excuse me for the LONGWINDED post!

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Paschale,

Thank you for the info, Ive just ordered the first book!!  Brilliant.  Let us know if you find any more gooduns!!
Cheers
Charlie.

[WoodChucker]

Hey thanks for the heads up on the books, I just ordered both of them from Amazon for $28.90 with free shipping. It's gonna be a long winter and this will help kill some time.

R.T.

[Ron Wenrich]

Here's something I got off of Ebay.  It cost $9.95 plus shipping.  Just put sawmill into the search.

There are 6 government publications on a CD disk.  It uses the PDF format.  Some of these are older, but the information is still quite good.

Here's the list:  Circular Sawmills and Their Efficient Operatoins; Uses for Sawdust, Shaving and Waste Chips; Electric Moisture Meters for Wood; Dry Kiln Operator's Manual; Drying Hardwood Lumber; and Air Drying of Lumber.

I have a circle mill manual, and it is quite detailed.  I've worn mine quite a bit.  I've senn the Dry Kiln manual.  It is 258 pages and quite detailed.  

DonT start bidding against each other and drive the prices up.   :D

There's also a used MD mill over there from Oregon.  Starting price is $5000.

[Larry]

Two more books.

Understanding Wood -- A craftsman's guide to wood technology by R. Bruce Hoadley.  I consider it to be a reference book and check it all the time when I have a wood question.:P  I think it is a must have book for anyone sawing or drying.  It is a little pricey.

Another one is Gunstock Woods and other fine timbers by Virgil M. Davis.  More for somebody sawing gunstocks but it does have descriptions of a whole bunch of domestic and foreign woods along with some pretty color pictures.

Larry  

[Tom]

Good post, Paschale.

[SteveS]

Here is a pretty good site to find certian books or to compare prices. It deals with both used and new books.

http://www.allbookstores.com/book/compare/0941936147

[Tom]

You guys need to consider submitting that stuff to the "Links Directory".   A place to find good books would come in handy.

[Don P]

There's a bunch of Ron's pdf's and a few more free here 8)

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/tmu/Techlinespublications.htm

I download em while doing something else and save them to my desktop to read later.

[Bro. Noble]

On another thread, we were discussing sawmill and forestry videos that the Mo. Cons. Commission loans out.  I was looking at their website to try to get information on them (with no success) and found some publications that can be downloaded.  I don't remember their website, but I found it be searching  Missouri Conservation.  Then clicked forestry and then education/literature or something like that.

Noble