Drying Wood

[Rocker]

hello everyone.

Back in early May I bought 100 bf of 8/4 walnut from Jeff. At the time it's mc was north of 35%. At the picnic, I took possession of 50 bf of Kyle's Dawn Redwood. Its mc was about 16%. I also got 100 bf of Jeff's green qsas and its mc was about 25%.

I stickered it on my back porch, with the kind tolerance of loml, and left it there until the last week of July. Then, I moved it all to my attic. (Company is coming and we will need the back porch).

I just checked the mc of the wood and was delighted to find that the Dawn redwood is now 6%, the qsas is 8% and the walnut is 10-14%. All with no degradation. I guess my attic kiln is doing the job.

Wouldn't you know it...the walnut is next up on my rocking chair list. Fortunately, I have a few pieces of 8/4 walnut in my shop that I can use to start the walnut chair. I figure the rest of the walnut should be done in about 2 weeks.

Now, in late August my ex-wife and her husband will be bringing me some 8/4 Black Cherry and some 8/4 Sugar Maple that they harvested from their acreage on Hunger Mtn in Vermont. This wood will be used to make heirloom chairs for each of our grand daughters. My ex and I have been divorced for over 35 years, but it has only been in the past 5 years or so that we have discovered that we could be friends and share the mutual joy of watching our grandkids grow up. Jim, her husband, has a saw mill up there and he uses the cut-offs to heat the boiler in their maple sugar shack in Feb/March as well as to make wood for his many projects. We will be having a family reunion while they...and everyone else is here...and I've rented the same picnic shelter over at Jordan Lake that we used for the North Carolina Woodworker picnic. Should be a great time!!

For the heirloom chairs for my grand daughters I will try to adopt a theme for each of them that mirrors some of their interests or characterists. For Mariko, I will make a Japanese themed chair since she is Japanese and they live in Japan. (Her mother and my son, John, are both research scientists there, working on figuring out "dark matter" and other physics stuff that is way beyond my ken.

Lila and Tara are my son, Kirk's children. They are Swiss/American children and they live in Vermont. Lila is a violin player...so I intend to make her chair with a stringed instrument theme. Tara is also a musician, she plays the piano, and I am having a harder time coming up with a theme for her chair. Fortunately, she is a very mature young girl and I am sure she will help me figure it out while she is here.

Regards,
John (Rocker)

[Kyle]

I'm glad it dried well for you.

good luck with your projects

[jeff...]

John, glad things are coming along, I'm really wanting to see a rocker made from the QS American Sycamore it's some really neat looking wood.

Thanks