Travis (Gye Greene)gave his "2c worth on stickering:  I don't believe in it,
because I'm
creating internal stresses in the wood during the drying process.  I'd
rather have a lower yield, but with stable wood that doesn't cup should it
ever get wet.  Also, drying "loose" lets the wood cup, rather than split."

Someone, maybe Walter Rose in "The Vilage Carpenter," wrote about how the first
stage in drying pitsawed slabs or thick planks was to lean them against long
horizontal poles, forming sort of tent-like or tunnell-like structures. I think
the axis was oriented to let the wind blow down the tunnel formed. The writer
used to play in the structures formed. After a few months or a few years, I
forget which, the timber would be stickered for the rest of its year-per-inch
drying time. This sounds like the intent of the stickering, at least in rural
English practice, was more to save space than to keep the boards dead flat.


Tom Conroy