Drying Blackwood

[Bob Connor]

Sensational winters day here in Geelong today so we decided to dry some Blackwood.




Dropped it from 25% down to 21% in 4 hours.

[matthew]

Love it

[Dennis Leahy]

hahahahahaha Next time you do this, put a couple of bras on the line with the wood, for emphasis.

A shot like that has to go on your website, with a very serious caption, "Unlike other Luthiers, Mainwaring and Connor's tonewoods are air dried the proper way!"

Dennis

[Rick Turner]

I hope that's a joke...

I've re-sawed thousands of guitar sets of all manner of timbers, and what I've learned is that the best way to dry guitar wood is to sticker it in stacks with plywood pieces on top and on the bottom, also stickered so the first and last surfaces of the guitar sets have the same exposure to air as the rest of the stack. Either get weight on the stack or use bungee cords to apply a fair amount of pressure. Then control the drying rate by first covering the stack with sheet plastic, taking the plastic off once a day for a half an hour. Do that for about a week, and then gradually allow for more and more time uncovered.

This minimizes cupping, warping, and the potato chipping that can too easily happen to timber allowed to dry too quickly.

Also it's best to do the resawing as soon as possible after the billets are cut from the log. This is so the moisture is still distributed equally in the billet and there's minimal tension in the wood. If the surface dries while the core is still wet, you'll have a tough time resawing without the wood curling and binding.

I'll get some pictures of my resaw operation the next time I cut.

[Bob Connor]

This where they end up but no joke.

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[Rick Turner]

Bob, you might want to consider either weights or bungee cord. Bob Taylor used to stack his wood as you do; then he started using steel banding, but as the wood dries it shrinks and you lose the pressure needed to keep it under control. You could easily add bungee cords to your existing setup.

[Stu]

Wouldn't tweaking the wingnuts as required do exactly the same thing, Rick ?



cheers, Stu

[Bob Connor]

The reason for hanging 'em on the clothes line in the first place was to dry them out a bit before stickereing them.

Blackwood has a tendency to devolop black mould if you sticker it while it's really wet, particularly under the stickers. This mould will go all the way through a 5mm guitar set if you leave it leaving a black stain.

So I'll be unpacking these at a regular interval in the initial stages to check on them.

I'll definitely have a look at a spring loaded system though.

It's a pain in the bum having to screw up the wing nut when the rack as half full.

[kiwigeo]

Ive started using bungy cords...they're cheaper than those bldi threaded rods. If I wanted to make some real money Id go into business making those bldi things.