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:wconfused: I steam wood to get it wet and make it easier to bend. Do you mean air dried and kiln dried? Once the wood is dry, it realy doesn't matter how it got that way, though there are some woods that tend to color slightly differently depending on drying method.
Walnut is often steamed to blend the differences in the whitish sap wood and the darker heart wood. Unfortunately the steaming does that well but tends to remove a lot of the beauty in the color of the Walnut. Steamed Walnut is kiln dried. Air dried or kiln dried Walnut that is not steamed will have much richer color, and obvious a stronger contrast between the sapwood and heart wood.
European Beech is often treated the same way too, for the same reasons, and also workability.
They can intermingled in the same project but getting a good color match would be difficult.
Dave
European Beech is often treated the same way too, for the same reasons, and also workability.
They can intermingled in the same project but getting a good color match would be difficult.
Dave
Last edited:
J
jeff...
Walnut is often steamed to blend the differences in the whitish sap wood and the darker heart wood. Unfortunately the steaming does that well but tends to remove a lot of the beauty in the color of the Walnut. Steamed Walnut is kiln dried. Air dried or kiln dried Walnut that is not steamed will have much richer color, and obvious a stronger contrast between the sapwood and heart wood.
European Beech is often treated the same way too, for the same reasons, and also workability.
They can intermingled in the same project but getting a good color match would be difficult.
Dave
Dave is right
good explanation there DaveI have about 200 bf of kiln dried cherry and about 100 bf of the steamed and wanting to do some kitchen cabinets. The boards freshly dressed the color match is real close between the two which is hard to combine two different lots of cherry. I was wondering if, as the cherry darkens will my results be noticeable.
Some one will have to help me. I do not know what steam drying is. Wood is most often steamed as a part of steam the bending a process that does take some moisture content out or the wood. The steam acts to heat the wood softening the legin (material that binders the wood cell together) allowing it to bend. Once cooled the new shape will be maintained, and the moisture content of the wood will be lower than when you started the process.
There are two thing that make Kiln dried different form Air dried. Air dried wood will always have a slightly higher moisture content for a given humidity level. Thus making it highly desirable in wood bending projects.
Kiln drying often interjects moisture to control humidity. While it is possible to kiln dry wood with little effect on color most, if not all, kiln dried wood lacks the beauty gained by air drying.
DaveO is right on that steaming does, in a more extreme way, what kiln drying does to color.
In short I would not mix the two in most cases.
There are two thing that make Kiln dried different form Air dried. Air dried wood will always have a slightly higher moisture content for a given humidity level. Thus making it highly desirable in wood bending projects.
Kiln drying often interjects moisture to control humidity. While it is possible to kiln dry wood with little effect on color most, if not all, kiln dried wood lacks the beauty gained by air drying.
DaveO is right on that steaming does, in a more extreme way, what kiln drying does to color.
In short I would not mix the two in most cases.
J
jeff...
Actually steam is injected into the kiln chamber to bleed the heartwood color into the sapwood. This is why there is a great amount of walnut sapwood allowed per NHLA grade rules. After the walnut is steamed for some length of time, the load is kiln dried according to it's kiln schedule.
Air drying does not bleed Walnut heartwood color into the sapwood, thus you have much more colorful walnut when dry. Same goes for kiln drying without pre-drying steaming process. Regular Kiln dried walnut is just as colorful as air dried because there is no bleeding of the heartwood into the sapwood.
You'll be hard pressed to find un-steamed walnut commercially, because they steam to get the most sell-able wood from the log. Ever notice Walnut that's bland in color with no defined differences between the heartwood and sapwood? That' steamed walnut...
Later
Air drying does not bleed Walnut heartwood color into the sapwood, thus you have much more colorful walnut when dry. Same goes for kiln drying without pre-drying steaming process. Regular Kiln dried walnut is just as colorful as air dried because there is no bleeding of the heartwood into the sapwood.
You'll be hard pressed to find un-steamed walnut commercially, because they steam to get the most sell-able wood from the log. Ever notice Walnut that's bland in color with no defined differences between the heartwood and sapwood? That' steamed walnut...
Later
I found the answer to what is steam dried. I have always known it as Elevated temperature Kiln drying. The URL http://owic.oregonstate.edu/pubs/for55.pdf
will get you to a letter written by U of Kentucky that will tell you more than you may want to know about drying options.
will get you to a letter written by U of Kentucky that will tell you more than you may want to know about drying options.
Now that I know what is meant by steam dried I can avoid the side discussions of air dried in the same Project.
There is no reason not to use steamed dried (elevated temperature kiln dried) and any other type of kiln dried lumber.
I am sure you will check your color and grain match as you would on any other project. If there is a difference you will note it here. So if it looks good it is good.
Happy building
There is no reason not to use steamed dried (elevated temperature kiln dried) and any other type of kiln dried lumber.
I am sure you will check your color and grain match as you would on any other project. If there is a difference you will note it here. So if it looks good it is good.
Happy building
M
McRabbet
The article citted by Fred in his post has been added to the Wood Reference category of the Download Library. Thanks, Fred!!
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