Expert: Jamie Yocono - 10/27/2006

Question
Hey Jamie. We have a cabin up on Lake Superior and I found some beautiful
fallen birch that I cut up and plan to make two queen birch headboards. The
wood seems fairly dry and solid but I was wondering if you would use
preservative/stain on the bark or just leave it. The finished headboards will be
inside---obviously I guess. Appreciate any help. Thanks John Gray

Answer
Hi John,

This turned into a long answer, so grab a cup of coffee and put your feet up!

I build custom furniture with kiln dried hardwoods, so most of my lumber comes to me at 6-8% moisture. The Birch you mentioned using for your headboard is called green wood, and depending on how long it's been cut, it could have a moisture content of over 50%. That's going to be a problem for you. As wood dries out from being inside a temperature controlled home, it will shrink. And if you've built something that doesn't allow it to shrink, like with screws and glue, it will shrink anyway, and thus split apart.

You need to dry your wood out before you build with it. For how long? It's hard to tell. You said it seems fairly dry, but the only way to tell for sure is with a moisture meter. You can buy one at most hardware stores, if you really want to know exactly.

Now don't get me wrong, when I was in college, I took a few wood carving courses and we used logs right off the tree, bark and all. What we did was coat them in varnish, and every day we carved on a fresh area, we re-coated it with varnish. The idea was to seal the wood so that the moisture couldn't get out, but instead, left the wood slowly. And the varnish slowed that down. So if you want to keep the bark and all, I would recommend coating it with regular polyurethane. It's going to take a lot of coats, possibly 4 or 5 coats, maybe even more. You don't want any portion of the log to be able to "breathe" and lose moisture too quickly or it will crack.

Also-to slow down the moisture loss, you may want to store the wood outside, in a garage, for a while. See-if you bring it inside a warm home, it's going to lose it's moisture too quickly, and probably split wide open. So you want this wood to be acclimated SLOWLY. VERY SLOWLY.

Now if you're thinking about cutting it into boards, that's a whole different story.  

You need to air dry it. That entails cutting and carefully stacking it, to get it to lose it's moisture slowly. You won't want to use the varnish to stop the moisture loss. So there are two ways to accomplish this. One would be to acclimate your wood by storing it in the same environment (climate) where the headboard will be resting when it is done.  That may or may not be possible; I wouldn't want a stack of wood in my bedroom!  I would think that acclimating your wood inside your home could take a long time, due to the wood's high moisture content. You might want to check it with your moisture meter to track the drying progress. When it stops dropping, it's probably ready to be worked.

The other way is to try to dry it outside, in a covered area, like a garage or shed. You would need to sticker the boards, which means stacking the wood with spacers in between each board, so that air moves freely around the each board. I usually cut up scrap 3/4" boards into 3/4" x 3/4" strips, about 2 feet long. Lay down some of the strips, then place a board on top. Make sure there are plenty of sticks so the board won't sag. Then, place another set of sticks on the board, right over the area where the sticks below are. You want your sticks all aligned so prevent sagging and warpage. With the use of these sticks, you create air spaces all around your boards.

Leave your wood uncovered, but in a dry area, stickered for a month or so, then check the moisture. You want it to dry slowly, to avoid cracking. Check your wood periodically, and when it drops to 8-10%, you should be able to start your headboards. I don't have any idea how long it might take, but it could be a while if the wood is fairly wet.

Your question reminds me why I only work with Kiln-dried lumber. Drying wood takes a long time, and it's a pain in the neck! But I'll say this- air dried lumber has a much prettier color than kiln dried lumber. So it's worth it. If you can afford to be patient and wait until the logs are dry, you're going to have an awesome headboard.

OK, good luck, I hope this helps. And if this answer was helpful... please take a minute and rate my service. Thanks!

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV
www.wooditis.com