GGs,


Hi!  Haven't been monitoring the list for a while -- but I thought I'd
share this thought (inspired by a conversation with my brother).

With "normal" lumber producton, the slabs and boards are stored in a stack,
stickered -- e.g.
https://lostartpress.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/img_5937.jpg?w=640

This approach maximizes the yield, as the weight of the stack prevents all
but the top of the pile from warping as it seasons.  It's also probably a
more space-efficient way of storing the wood.

However:  it also seems like the wood would dry "under tension":  it
**wants** to cup as it dries, but it's being prevented.  This means that if
your final product (e.g. a coffee table) ever got sopping wet, then dried
again (e.g. in a flood?  really bad humidity?), the wood cells would
expand, then revert back to equilibrium:  the wood would move, and your
product would likely be ruined.

In contrast, if you seasoned each slab such that it was free to move as it
dried -- yes, you'd lose some yield because you'd have to plane away the
cupping, etc.  But the resulting wood **should** be in complete
equilibrium:  you should(?) be able to take a seasoned board, soak it for a
month, set it under the carport (in the shade), and (hypothetically!) have
it return to the original equilibrium shape.

1) Has anyone experimented with the stability of wood seasoned **not** not
under tension?

2) Anyone feel like starting a "boutique" lumberyard where the wood is
dried "naturally -- into a state of equilibrium"?  You could put each
board, plank or slab onto a giant drying rack (kind of like in a commercial
bakery, or in a warehouse), which would take the place of stickering:  each
layer would be separated, which would allow air circulation -- but each
piece of wood would only be one layer deep (i.e. nothing weighing it down)
-- and you would still maximize the storage per footprint.


--Travis (Brisbane, Australia)