Band Saw Lumber-- Sawing Firewood into Usable Boards.

There is a part 2 to this video, but it’s not likely to ever be made. It would show me patiently staring at this stack of wood for a year – even Travis’s considerable skill with time-lapse photography couldn’t make that interesting. Nonetheless, there is some important information to gleaned, beginning with the reason behind my patience. This is not to let the wood dry, as is sometimes presumed, but to let it stabilize. Wood is in constant motion, owing to its unique relationship with water. Wood is hygroscopic, it is constantly absorbing and releasing water as the conditions of its environment change. It swells when it takes on water, and shrinks when releasing it. But it doesn’t move equally in all directions. On the average, a board moves up to 8% of its dimension tangent to the annual rings, 4% radial to those rings, and 0.1% along their axis, parallel to the wood grain. This uneven movement can cause the wood to warp, cup, and twist as it absorbs and releases moisture. It is extremely prone to this distortion during the drying process. When a tree is first felled, it’s chock full of water. There are, in fact, two types of water in green (freshly cut) lumber – “free” water that fills the cells, and “bound” water that saturates the cellulose fibers that make up the cell walls. As it dries, wood loses its free water first. This may take several months depending on the thickness of the boards you’ve cut, and the wood shrinks only a little during this stage. But as it begins to lose the bound water, it shrinks at a faster rate. Because the outsides of the board dry faster than the core, the uneven shrinking causes the boards to warp, twist, and cup – unless you do something to prevent it. Fortunately, wood also “creeps” – that is, you can get the cellulose fibers to realign and change the shape of the board simply by applying constant pressure. This is why sawyers carefully stack freshly cut boards in evenly spaced layers to dry – the weight of the stack itself provides the pressure needed to convince the fibers to cooperate and keep the boards flat. Often they put additional weight on top of the stack where the boards aren’t under enough pressure to prevent distortion. In small stacks there’s not enough weight to provide the necessary pressure. So I added the baling wire loops to generate that pressure. When the wires are tight enough to hold the boards without shifting, they will also keep the boards relatively flat. While it's drying, store your wood in an unheated, un-airconditioned, un-dehumidified space. (All these things alter the relative humidity, and the whole purpose of this exercise is for the wood to reach equilibrium with the prevailing RH in your geographic location. Only then does the wood stabilize.) A shed, a carport, or a barn works well. You can also stack the wood outside, off the ground, and cover it with exterior plywood or roofing to ward off the rain. Leave the sides of the stack open to the wind so the air can circulate. Avoid tarps. Unless properly "tented" so it doesn't touch the wood, a tarp may trap moisture and encourage fungi to grow. A few months down the road, there’s suddenly something happening! There’s some movement in this monotonous Part 2 video as I yawn, pick up my screwdriver, and check the wires. As the wood shrinks, the wires will slowly loosen and the pressure decreases. You may have to tighten a few wires to keep the pressure where it should be. The wires are aligned radially with the annual rings (where the movement is less), so you won’t have to do this often. But it is something to check on every month or so. After drying a year per inch (25 mm) of thickness, the wood will have reached equilibrium with the relative humidity in its location. It’s not dry – it never dries completely. Because it is hygroscopic, wood retains about 1% moisture content for every 5% of relative humidity. If the relative humidity in the barn where you’ve stored it is 50%, the wood will have about 10% moisture content. After some time has passed, you may want to test the moisture content. If you don't have a moisture meter, cut a block from a board at least 3 inches (8 centimeters) in from an end. Weigh it on a sensitive scale (wet weight), place the block in an oven for 2 hours at 200-250 degrees to dry it out, and weigh it a again (dry weight). Subtract the dry weight from the wet weight and divide the result by the wet weight. Multiply that result by 100 -- that will give you the moisture content in per cent (%). Wood normally stabilizes at 8% to 12% moisture content, depending on where you live. Once you're sure the wood is no longer continually losing water, it’s ready to be worked. Or almost. There’s another step to this drying process. The relative humidity in your barn is not quite the same as in your shop. So bring the stack into the shop and let it rest for two weeks letting the moisture content in the wood arrive at equilibrium with the relative humidity in the shop. (Stage directions: Nick stops staring at the stack in the barn and brings it into his shop. Curtain falls for 14 days to denote the passing of two weeks.) This is called “shop drying,” and it’s a critical part of the process. Fortunately, it’s also the last. Time to snip those wires and make something. See you in a year – and two weeks.

this is the reason I love the internet, just that man, sharing knowledge.

I use cheap woodglue at the end of the board. put it on with a paint brush then i use news paper, the news paper has woodfiber in them and then i use more woodglue over the paper. This way the wood will never crack. I learnd this metod of my grandfather. We all have our metods for the endgrain. As allways great video

This was so interesting and informative! I really enjoyed the video and your presentation!

Can there be anything more satisfying in life than building a piece of furniture from a tree you have cut down and milled yourself ?.

I'm 50 years old and learned something new today , Thank You very much !

This gentleman can be a really good story teller with his voice. Honestly I don't need to know any of this stuff but the video is so authentic I watched till the end anyways.

Wow. A man that actually knows something worth knowing. Awesome video. Thank you for sharing, sir. Good to know there are real men like you still out there. Salute.

You give dimensions in mm! Someone who understands the imperial/metric pain.

You, sir, not only do a wonderful job of explaining how to accomplish this task, but the way in which you explain it is a pleasure to watch. You have a great "stage" presence, and I look forward to watching more of your videos.

Nick - Really is a delight hearing what you have to say - I always teach my children -"It is not about what you know, it is about who you know " Listening to your tipps in this and in other videos has really spoken to me. Thank you

This is the best little educational hobby short I've ever seen. Interested people are interesting, and I love this.

I love your videos it's like sitting down to a lesson in school from your favorite teacher. Keep up the great work!

I like your wire binding trick at the end. Keeps it under tension and still moveable.

I never in a million years would have thought of this. Thank you for making this video.

Very nice for small boards. Securing down your boards to the stickers is something a lot of people forget to do. I’ve done lumber with an Alaskan chainsaw set up. But that’s for big boards. Thank you for showing

By far, among the best woodworking videos I’ve seen, and I’ve seen A WHOLE LOT! I wish I came by your videos sooner, but sure am thankful I did come to find it. God bless you my friend, a true woodworker you are!

Beginning woodworker here. What a great tip this was. I was contemplating if I could justify a bandsaw investment for doing veneers , but what a great usage of a bandsaw this is. Now I get more use of my chainsaw as well.

I've had this video on my watchlist for a while now. I am so happy I finally got around to watching it. The guy is fun to watch and gives clear instructions. Now I am off to watch the update.

It gives me such great pleasure to finally find a new/old take on some of my all time favorite PBS shows! I can’t wait to dig into this show!! Thanks