How To Dry Oak Lumber

Getting this lumber to a place where it can be dried and planed is the next step towards
some beautiful kitchen cabinets.
Video of cutting these trees down: • Harvesting Lumber From...
Video of yarding these logs: https: • Timber Into Logs
Video of the milling these logs: • Sawing Logs into Lumber
Huge thanks to Gerretsen's Building Supply and J and B Wood Products for helping us!
Enjoy EC? Join Essential Craftsman Academy!
essentialcraftsman.com/academy
This is the best way to support Essential Craftsman and you get a LOT of perks as a bonus!
Did you know we have a podcast?
Spotify spoti.fi/39ezy3d
Apple apple.co/33dbrJQ
Stitcher bit.ly/3NWy8sY
KZbin bit.ly/2n4HCLG
Buy a knife from Cy Swan here: greenvalleyforge.com/
Second Channel (Podcast video, family, misc content) bit.ly/2n4HCLG
If you are going to hire a contractor for a big project PLEASE read our ebook first!
amzn.to/2v6qZ6j
T Shirts, Hoodies, and other Merch: bit.ly/2C7JFRv
Instagram / essentialcr. .
Twitter / ecnatwad
Facebook / essentialcra. .
Like the music? Spotify Playlist Here spoti.fi/3NzAnTg
Amazon Affiliate Links:
Amazon Store amzn.to/2pcUk8G
Makita 18v Impact amzn.to/2R9uamN
4 ft level amzn.to/389qsQa
Utility Knife amzn.to/2RjVRJL
Palm Nailer amzn.to/2LhvTTd
Spencer Tape amzn.to/2EQWxPy
Carpenter Bags amzn.to/2XeBaC1
Belt bit.ly/3MsdijV
Hammer amzn.to/31y4q66
Tape Measure amzn.to/2WYg23Q
Skil Saw amzn.to/2UcQyLi
Video Equipment and Misc.
Main Camera amzn.to/2WG9qSC
Secondary Camera amzn.to/32tS2Vx
Microphone (for narration from office) amzn.to/2WquPnM
Wireless Microphone amzn.to/2IGpNto
Other Wireless Microphone amzn.to/397VmxJ
Tripod amzn.to/2XOJcOd
GoPro amzn.to/3znHgTA
GoPro Tripod amzn.to/3aL8pFH
Battery Bucket amzn.to/3GVR9cV
ActionPacker amzn.to/2l7Msqv
Learn more about Essential Craftsman
essentialcraftsman.com/
Thank you, be safe, and be grateful.

[@davidpage459]

Truly hard to explain a process that you have 30 years of experience in and not over explain it. Great job.

[@bigbob9702]

When I lived in NE PA, we harvested hickory, chestnut oak, white oak and red oak off my property. We stickered it, dried it and used it for a brand new kitchen for the wife. The chestnut oak went to become furniture and I’m holding some nice white oak for a roll top desk I want to make some day. When it’s all said and done, factoring in all costs, I’m not sure if it’s cost effective. BUT knowing where it all came does a man’s soul good. There something very gratifying about that.

[@WeirdSeagul]

must be a billion dollars worth of lumber in those sheds in the current market :). Another quality video EC

[@MmeHyraelle]

Specially oak. The cooper wood.

[@mikaylamacdonald4384]

Thank Joe!

[@inyaface07]

It took me a minute to realize what you meant. I couldn't figure out why the current market would influence the weight of the lumber. But I'm guessing you're from the UK. :)

[@WeirdSeagul]

@@inyaface07 yea i should have put dollars

[@marcob1729]

Where’s the security detail 😆

[@donrad]

Oxalic acid solution will get rid of the stains without damaging the wood fibers. Commercial products are available.

[@oldtimefarmboy617]

Far too many people do not or can not understand that a little inconvenience today can save them from a whole lot of inconvenience in the future.

[@dielauwen]

Wood is cut in quarters. You have 5/4 rough cut. The stains and such can be a plus if you like artistic attributes. Too many people want straight grain, no nots, no figure, no stains, and so on.They like Composites.

[@rranger1014]

All great points!

[@tryonco]

I’m a lifelong woodworker… appreciate good lumber therefore…. This was a great lesson… very interesting. Thank you!

[@jamesdickens7666]

Quote of the day: “The rule of thumb…that we never follow is…” 😂

[@darrenjensen5775]

Hey Scott and Nate, congratulations on the million subs here on KZbin. Keep up the good work!

[@darrenjensen5775]

Not sure what material that KZbin button they mail you for reaching 1 million subs, but if you can forge it down into something, you should!

[@alberteinstein5421]

10:36 The smell there up in the mountains, in the woods next to stacks of lumber has to be amazing. Always wanted to live in the mountains just for the smell (which I know from vacations)

[@alasdairmunro1953]

A joy to see so much care taken over the handling of wood. A complete contrast to the way big industry handles it. It’s going to give nice boards.

[@themarkfunction]

If it doesn't get too personal, could you talk about your cost per board foot after all these expenses, and compare it to store-bought lumber? Might help people get more understanding of the value in DIYing something that most of us don't have the know-how or contacts to do. Thanks!

[@jonowylie6811]

I second this! Would be really good to learn

[@levicmcguire]

+1

[@rgbrown90]

I've always wanted a forklift like those on the truck

[@stevenslater2669]

Now I know how that fork lift unloads and loads itself on to the trailer. Pretty clever practical engineering. And all that beautiful oak lumber. Lots of work to get to this point but think of the future Wadsworth projects!

[@saltwaterinmyveins]

Spider-lift or Moffet

[@rgbrown90]

Not too sure , thought it may have been a palfinger.

[@jx14aby]

What an incredible machine that truck and forklift. Modern technology is amazing.

[@zachv1942]

Not really that modern.

[@1962vid]

Great to see lumbering as a natural process. Cutting the trees, rough cut stack, and a local drying operation.

[@Customisbetter2]

Blown away by an office desk without a computer on it!

[@bob_frazier]

Those clip boards on the wall? Thats a spread sheet!

[@zachv1942]

Yea now your relying on a clipboard not to get lost. Also there was one.

[@678friedbed]

@@zachv1942 digital files can get lost, deleted and ruined also

[@pavelow235]

The lumber looks beautiful, hope great things are made with nature's gift.

[@SchysCraftCo.]

Cool wish I could smell it.

[@williamsmith7221]

Wow congrats on a million subs that's an incredible accomplishment!

[@glenncallahan9037]

We use that strapping for shrink wrapping sailboats in Mystic, CT. , when we're not building homes! Sir...you are a hero! god bless.

[@David7pm]

another fine production! Congratulations on 1 MILLION!!

[@martinwalters1954]

Vertical grain Oregon white oak. My god, that must be worth a fortune at today's prices. Btw, I'm from Coos Bay. There's a great little two man mill over there called Shinglehouse Mill. Great guys. They do custom milling for special architectural requirements. Anyway, great video. Learned a lot.

[@Jeff-fs3rn]

Nice to see Ken.

[@heily-3806]

Very interesting, was wondering if you could give us an idea what it cost for their services to dry the lumber.

[@mrkrause3]

Thanks guys!

[@cinemaipswich4636]

Bryan May, the guitarist from Queen, bough a slab of timber that came from above a 600year old fireplace. Now that is what well cured timber is. That is why his guitars sound the way they do. Instrument makers crave such things. Back in the 1950's Yamaha made lame guitars, but they went on a buying spree and secured stock from old buildings and put them in store. Now they make some of the best instruments that money can buy.

[@DrJohn493]

Learned some important stacking and drying tips to apply on the next batch of lumber my saw spits out. Never even occurred to me to turn over and weight the drying lumber but it makes all the sense in the world.

[@terrygleeson5429]

As a cabinetmaker, I look forward to seeing what you end up with. Hope you can get those book matched boards reunited. Greetings from across the pond in Sydney.

[@joshmajor8662]

You just helped me more than I could ever convey!!!! Lol I’m redoing my wood storage since the world went crazy and all, gotta repurpose more now haha thanks EC!!!

[@essentialcraftsman]

Yay!!!!

[@joshmajor8662]

@@essentialcraftsman Haha YAY!!!! Indeed Lol 😂

[@ringerson4x4]

Cutting a relief groove in the stickers, I hadn’t heard that before, interesting.

[@jakehop-]

It's brilliant advice!

[@toddavis8603]

Nifty nylon banding! West Coast is cool.Oak is a gift from God.◇St. James 1:17◇

[@normandhalv]

Maybe a L shaped list (turned over) of rust proof metal would be great? I guess the lumber staks are so heavy it would get marks from the lumber

[@verteup]

cutting relief grooves in the stickers has absolutely no effect whatsoever.

[@verteup]

@@normandhalv any kind of steel will stain wood. There's a reason they use wood stickers.

[@JohnDotBomb]

Wow, I'm really looking forward to see how this small mill works

[@ZipKickGo]

I'm watching as you guys explain stickering and sticker stains, I'll tell you, they are the bane of my woodworking existence. We have sent back thousands of board feet of premium white oak and oddly it's always white oak usually that has sticker marks. Now these aren't like water stains where it's just the surface, when these occur, the stains pull all the way through and the entire length of lumber is spoiled because it has a stripe every 12". I can't very well make a stained staircase with a permanent stripe. These are caused by using green stickers in a kiln or letting a stack queued for the kiln to sit outside in the rain and then go into a kiln when saturated. It took us months to get the mill to reorganize their processing and thankfully it wasn't just us giving them this feedback which helped a lot.

[@TheYaegerjeusmc]

Wow! There’s obviously a need for local, experienced mills!

[@ZipKickGo]

@@TheYaegerjeusmc it was just one mill, any other mill we used had better white oak. But at the time we had an account and it paid to use them exclusively.

[@icryostorm3727]

do you think using stickers from the same log is the answer - or just any species but dry dry?

[@ZipKickGo]

@@icryostorm3727 Just gotta keep it dry, it's the moisture in and around the sticker that does it in. Some mills use a different style of sticker that has air gaps to reduce sticker stains but it's just gotta be dry.

[@heartsky]

1,000,000+ subscribers...you're a class act!

[@roybolster-coates1866]

Thank you for you videos, with the years of experience you have shared, I have learnt such a lot from them by applying some of the lessons to my small building business.

[@drew5334]

Loving this content! I've always been curious about how lumber is prepared before it arrives on the shelves. Fascinating to hear they weight it down with a thick concrete slab, I'm guessing to keep the boards straight as they dry so they don't warp with humidity changes. Keep it coming!

[@pnwRC.]

I though before that these were going to be some special & fabulous pieces of lumber. With them being professionally dried AND planed, I know for SURE these will be some very special boards that will be worth a fortune when completed!

[@moobcars6490]

Love all this foresting content! Keep up the good work!

[@EyeintheSky999]

Thank you for the field trip

[@steveking4966]

yep, agree with all that , 12/13% finish, the next issue is central heating / air con which can require lower moisture content, ideally i like to store dry timber where it will eventually live. A major issue is placing wooden furniture inside houses with too high heat or excessive aircon which can require 9% , main reason i do not like modern houses with low humidity , we did the interior for a prestige house in London UK they cranked up the temperature (80°F) and the dried timber moved, caused a real problem for us as it was a £750 000 contract, drying is important as is the final placement of the work and heating ventilation management after making and in use for the first few years, great video series though!

[@dannyp1439]

Know how, wisdom, and an easy watch. Keep up these great videos. They are invaluable skills and life lessons.

[@josephmetzler5037]

I sure enjoy your show and love to see where I grew up. Your knowledge and advice has made KZbin so useful and pleasurable again! . Please keep it up and I will watch for more! Joe

[@richardmason7840]

Thanks guys. Appreciate all your work. Enjoy Elohim !

[@johnyeary6695]

I would love to go work with this man, seems as though he has an unlimited amount of knowledge and something about his way of speaking is pleasant.

[@tomhoyer2313]

Great exposure to the sawmill and drying side of the wood game. Air cured leaves the wood very stable.

[@nathanrice3890]

This really is true craftsmanship.

[@10tacleMatt]

I love those piggy back forklifts, we almost always get our lumber deliveries with those riding along. The ones with the crabwalk wheels are amazing too when trying to get up a tiny Californian driveway!

[@saltwaterinmyveins]

That’s some serious boat building material!

[@todaywithtrevor9082]

This was super cool! You know how you kind of know the process but not really! This was very neat! Always appreciate your content.

[@brycehinton7860]

Hey I'm early! Great job EC. Love seeing this beautiful lumber. Can't wait to see it's final form in a few years.

[@HoneyGlzedHam]

I can't wait to see it either

[@cmm170526]

Very interesting to see how things work. Great company 👍🏻

[@olafbigandglad]

Back to the blacktop road. Nice Tom T. Hall quote.

[@stanervin6108]

Love those Signode tools!

[@zevgoldman6769]

If you have access to an empty, but soon to be filled grain bin you have access to a free and trouble free means of drying your lumber while knowing it will dry flat. Your rough lumber is placed on the bottom of the bin and the newly harvested grain is then pumped into the bin. The heat from the grain and the air forced by blowers into the bin will do a fine job of drying the lumber. The weight of the grain on the lumber will keep it flat. It is a poor farmer's drying kiln. A thorough sweeping and vacuuming of the bin's concrete floor is a must as is a layer of good plastic to keep the lumber from resting on the bare concrete.

[@andymastercarpenter2380]

Great job thanks for explaining the process learned a lot.

[@bartramdilks26]

Great video Scott.

[@windyhillfoundry5940]

Hey Scott, I was surprised it's just a year per inch there. I guess your humility is about the same as here. I had a mill years ago, I use to paint the ends of the boards when seasoning

[@nannesoar]

5:55 now thats a workin mans shirt

[@xoxo2008oxox]

Question: Couldn't you have marked the sets - ends - of the grades/matches before you stacked and wrapped? I've seen nylon strapper - cordless- that melts the bands secure. Pretty neat. What a great lumber company you have access too, and some great storage/drying tips on the stickers!

[@austen9556]

I don’t think he really started with that idea in mind just got there and figured it would be a good idea but idk

[@andydsimmons]

Really cool set right there Nice job 👏👍👌

[@1010tesla]

5:26 I need to know if that computer is still functioning!! that office is a time machine

[@justinfiorini3142]

Madrone is such a beautiful tree, I don't think I've ever seen madrone lumber

[@MasterCivilEngineering]

Amazing video

[@georgegroot9704]

I've worked in eastern hardwoods a lot, both furniture and flooring. My experience has been with more high production than high quality lumber. We air dried 4/4 lumber 6 months to a year outside and uncovered, usually keeping a couple million board feet staged. Then, steam kilns to 6%. We used cross slotted stickers on maple and hickory to prevent staining, but solid stickers on red and white oak. Its a pretty interesting process in my opinion.

[@or251j]

Love your channel.

[@honthirty_]

Hmm, curing madrone. Ok, impressed.

[@firemanj35]

Great information thanks

[@gawdzalien2811]

Wahoo new content!!!

[@jamesfarnham1976]

Good stuff!!

[@TonightWeGrill]

Man your channel is awesome!

[@DanDoBrickFilms]

Very interesting!

[@cousindave1]

Another quality video. Has EC ever done a bad one? 🇬🇧

[@sb1806]

We haven't seen rain in Eugene for months.

[@PerchSniper]

Excellent

[@michaeldougfir9807]

My bro-in-law watches you too. I explained about Ken, who I was happy to see in this episode. Sy is appreciated too.

[@Will_DiGiorgio]

I spent 5 years on a steel cut to length line, banding thousands of skids with 1 1/4in high tensile steel strapping, 30 years later I can feel the arthritis starting in my hands from bending the straps for the clips...

[@rranger1014]

Mercy!

[@eddieh3509]

Great vid. Just one thought I had: if having the oak sawdust on the timber is a problem, you could perhaps hit it with a leaf blower after you stack it.

[@rranger1014]

Yes, essential.

[@fromulus]

I want to move to Oregon and work there. I think I just want to move to Oregon. Massachusetts native over here.

[@alec4672]

Bob is an interesting guy, he should start his own KZbin channel 😂🤙 he's got a natural ability to explain intuitively like you.

[@keithparady2594]

That’s wicked kool I’d like to know more about the process

[@doolittlegeorge]

"season" not dry but again spot on advice for how to make a premium product *THE ULTIMATE PREMIUM PRODUCT* absolutely.

[@ogeoffreys]

Over in the UK we use a chemical called oxalic acid to remove those black stains from oak. Would assume you could get that or something similar in the States 🤔 congrats on the open dates for the spec house viewings btw!! If I didn't have such a large pond to cross, I'd be there for sure to have a look around!

[@kevinthomas895]

Seems like we are long overdue for a mail time video

[@SamFBM]

you really remind me of my science teacher mr Carroll i had in school in 2016 he was the best teacher in school and youre the best on youtube. if you ever come to the uk you guys would get on well and look alike too hahaha

[@mattberg916]

Very interesting! I just cut up a few 4-5" ponderosa pine slabs. I have no clue what I'll do with them. My sons will probably be laughing and cussing me after I'm dead and they have to get rid of them. Lol

[@artyschopy]

I love this channel and all these Oregon characters and artisans that get featured on it. Such a reaffirming contrasting to other things that Oregon has come to be associated with.

[@phillipanderson7212]

The strapping on your sawmill lumber is called muletape in tennessee

[@WideAwakeHuman]

The older I get, the more I see.. The more I really despise how the huge companies have been allowed to just gobble up entire industries.

[@kylek9432]

If Scott walked around with one hand in his pocket and a backpack on his shoulder, he'd be Rick Steeves!

[@craigburgher6097]

Hi Scott

[@lazerblade2]

I guarantee you the dude with at least forty clipboards hung up in his office would benefit from a course in Microsoft Excel.

[@auvis1]

Thanks for the lessons. Can you use dried western red cedar for stickers on 8/4 burr oak slabs?

[@MrPanohead]

As long as it's not metal staining (no steel banding around oak..) and just from the tannins it should be fine. They are usually gone after surfacing. Metal stains can run quite deep.

[@thefirstmissinglink]

I have yet to see anything made from Arbuda. Such a beautiful tree.

[@bob_frazier]

Oh, and the heartwood is hot pink when you first cut it, but it dries to sort of a Western Maple color. Crazy wood stresses, tortures and contort. Hard, dense, and really takes a nice polish. Arbutus/Pacific Madrone.

[@5x535]

David Link That same outfit, J&B Products Knows how to dry and mill Madrone. I saw an amazing floor out of Madrone and I can tell you as an experienced woodworker, that there is no wood from anywhere in the world that looks more beautiful and exotic. It was stunning! Hard to work with though. Painfully hard. It will make you cry when you get everything just right and done----and then come back in the morning---and it is all checked up. All a feller can do at that point is cry.

[@thefirstmissinglink]

Yep it's one of the things I really miss about the Olympic Peninsula!

[@markosborn1394]

If those stains are just tannin stains, oxalic acid will remove them quite easily.

[@dannorris1406]

Agreed, this isn't a big issue. Oxo will get rid of them. Either a hot water mix or a mix with methylated spirits. Remember to neutralise with a few rinses afterwards, as it can affect some finishes.

[@leftfootforward1040]

Neutralise with bicarbonate solution.

[@Zerostar369]

How does this process compare to radio frequency vacuum kilning?

[@3bnjo3]

What species of wood are the stickers made of?

[@swh797]

I get most of my oak lumber out of trees blown down by tornadoes or hurricanes and I paint the ends of the logs with wax impregnated paint to keep the amount of checking to a minimum. I did not see that you did this and was wondering why not.

[@duanelundgren7985]

I suspect you may be *somewhat* like me in this regard.... I'll never live long enough to learn as much as I want to about things that I am INTERESTED in!!!!

[@aarong8933]

What do you or anyone else reading think about getting a 3 phase electric swingblade sawmill instead of gas. I hear it’s cheaper to run and longer lasting than a gas engine. I have single phase power at my house and would put on a phase converter to run the electric sawmill and also a four sided planer/moulder.