British Hardwoods Online

[Big Log]

In reply to Woodbloke on the air dried/ kiln dried issue, this is one we come up against very often. Air dried in Oak should be around a year for each inch of thickness, this should hopefully give a moisture content of around 20%, 17% in a very dry summer. Timber in a normal heated house will settle at 10% MC. Kiln dried does not mean kilned from green although this is sometimes done with easier drying timbers like Ash, in the case of oak it is first air dried and meerly finished in the kiln to bring it down to a useable MC for internal cabinet work.ie 10%. Timber starts to shrink at around 30% once the free moisture has gone and drying starts in the cell walls. Between 30% and 10% MC a ten inch wide board may end up little over 9 inches wide!
However Woodbloke is right in that poorly kilned timber can have internal stresses, case hardening and leaching of colour.
Having built and run three kilns and sawn and stickered out too many logs to mention I could rattle on a bit. Enjoying the forum though.

 

[xy mosian]

All good fun,

Cut alternately from each side to make sure you're not cutting on a slant, non-square. Keep a wedge handy to put in the saw kerf if it should happen to close up and nip the blade. If the timber is wet or you generally get binding then rub candle wax onto the blade to ease the cutting action. Let the weight of the saw do as much as possible of the work that way you'll not get too much bending of the blade on the 'push' stroke. I have not tried a japanese type pull-saw on rip cutting. Any one else? Work comfortably, that way produces fewer aches and pains.

xy

 

[big soft moose]

Big Log

I'm looking for a decent supplier for a fair old bit of oak for work - we principally need 4" x 4" x8' and would probably be looking to buy in batches of 25 because of storage space - but a total of arround 100

its going to be used outside so it only needs to be part air dried.

Is that something you could do ? and if so for how much ? pm me if you dont want to discuss it on the open board.