Dry or not ????

[Arausio]

How do you tell when wood is dry what are the signs of it that would be easy to notice in all wood

[Dagwood]

well there is some areas in which the answer may vary. is the wood in question found wood. has it been sawed and stacked. is it drift wood? all these differant types will vary the drying time. loads of found wood can be determaned by weight and sight. for example if i find a nice piece of wood and pick it up ill feel its weight. the lighter it is can (but not always) determin its dryness. This will change with diff types of wood. also look for bark on or off if its a found pcs. if the bark is completely gone chances are its been there a while. ill still place pcs in my building for a while if i have any doubts. But the sure fire way to determin is with a moisture meter. however i have found these are quite expensive for me starting around 70 dollars. but its a great way in takeing the quess work out of it. good luck in you quest and im sure some other will have a simpler way in telling you their methods. their are some great guys and girls in this forum

[Tom-H]

To me, it depends on what your planning to use the wood for. If it's for a cabinet or other piece of furniture that's one thing; and carving is another. When I built cabinets I purchased most wood from a supplier of cabinet level wood and requested the use of their meter to check the wood at purchase. For Basswood to carve, if at a supplier I ask if I can make a sample knife cut on the end of the board. I think I can now tell by the way the knife cuts whether the Basswood is not dry enough or too dry. When I order on line from Heineke, I trust them to have Basswood that is properly dried. Most of the time this works.

Tom H

[mdallensr]

If you're looking at commercially available wood, such as boards from a DIY, it's most likely kiln-dried and will be marked "KD". A lot of lumber, such as 2 x4 studs, is pretty green and wet, not that you really want to carve 2 x 4's. Mike

[brent]

Remember the weather "rock"? Just kidding

[Arausio]

Okay sooo ill detail it a bit more

Im makeing walking sticks im cuting down the trees saplings mostly form the forest i live in Ontario its been snowing theirs no snow currently ( dont know if weather will mean anything) it is cold outside but no freezeing

Some off the trees i know are poplar some i dont know for sure i have striped them all of their bark and cut off a bit of the knots along the branch

The tree im not sure off their second layer of bark seems to turn red fast i have no clue what tree does that

how long would that tree if anyone knows and poplar tree take to dry

[sashadoc]

Here goes. I use Poplar a lot for walking sticks. You are right in cutting them in late fall or early winter because the sap stops flowing. Good move. Most of my stock I take from stands of young Poplar. I take the straight ones with about a 2-2.5 inch base(big end). I cut them about a foot to a foot and a half longer than I intend the finished product to be. I remove the bark and the sap wood(red stuff) and let it stand in a warm,dry place for about a week. I carve it pretty much green and leave the ends (remember checking) until last. By the time I'm ready to finish the ends it has pretty much checked (split) as much as it's going to. I cut the ends off to my desired length and finish. Now this has worked for me and may, or may not, work for you. My advice, try a simple carving and see if it works for you. Trial and error is always a learning process. You can't go wrong as long as you learn something from the experimentation. Hope this helps.
Tim

[Arausio]

well i have 11 branchs not all poplar all are in a shed outside laying down drying now all are strait i went for curvy branchs or ones that looks special iv had some out their for well over a month and only had cracking happen once and when i see the crack i coverd it in candle wax which supriseinly works great i just need to know the best way to tell if they are dry so i can start sanding then carveing then staining ect

[chipmunk]

the way i sometimes check is to cut a 45% off close to the middle a/ putt hot glue in it let sit a bit if u can flick the glue off it's still green if it sticks good the wood is dry the hot glue willn't stick to green wood up to 20% the glue will stick cheaper then a meter

[Arausio]

I cant cut it tho o.o if i read that correctly