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In the spring I was given a piece of an Ash tree that was taken down off a friend’s West Virginia farm because of the Emerald Ash Borer. The piece had been felled for almost a year at that time, and we split 1/4 out of 28” diameter section and I brought it home. A couple of months ago I cut it up into guitar wood - the reference face was a really nice split surface - straight and straight grained. The pieces for the body are shy of 3/16” thick, so they are close to dry enough for guitar use, but I have a 3” X 4” piece for a neck. It is almost perfectly quartered on the 3” side. I would like to build a Resonator guitar this winter and need the neck to be dry (actually I have all the parts and am itching to start).

Last weekend I drew the outline of the neck on the block, then added about 1/2” in all directions. My intention is to cut out this oversized piece, and then even if it dries with a little movement there will be enough to get my neck out of, but at least it will dry more quickly than the full size block. I have not made the cut, because every time I do, I always say to myself “that would have looked better if I moved it over and inch on the block”. I am giving myself some time to look at it more before I cut.

So a question - what would happen if I turned the oven on and put the oversized-cut neck piece in there to dry it? What temperature - 120°? 140? How much time - a week? a month? Better to put it in the oven for some time, then take it out for some time, then back in? How about a pan of water in the oven for a while to temper the drying? I can build a box with a lightbulb to get similar temps - how much time?

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Just read a scientific paper on drying, and a 10" thick piece of oak will take about 30 years to air dry!!!

Ed

See if there is a local mill with a kiln. We have many around here and some are open to accepting odd pieces.

B

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

Drying wood won't happen in a kitchen oven. To dry wood properly it can take about 1 year per inch under good conditions . To kiln dry it this takes a special piece of equipment. We had a Kiln at the sawmill that operated first on air circulation and dehumidifcation to get the wood to about 20% then heat was added , this process from the day the kiln was sealed till the wood was down to 6-8% would take about 30 days. Again that depends on the kiln and the type of kiln.
Now high tech kilns that use RF waves and vacuum can do the process in about 5 days but is often used in specialty woods and Pattern making.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

There is no real shortcut if you want to use it as guitar wood. A kiln is about the fastest method where you would get reasonably stable wood. I want to build a little temperature and humidity controlled kiln, you need to control both if you want to do a good job and as John said, it will take a while.

Ed,
I dried some home-harvested Ash in my garage.
I cut 1/2" planks while the wood was still green, stickered them, and left them in the garage for about 6 months.
The garage temp varied from about 70F to 100F.
Some of the pieces had a tendency to warp while drying.
Worked Ok for a solid top glued to a hunk of Mahogany.

Somehow this tree was in full leaf this year, despite the big missing chunk.
Dan

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wah
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Wah

You look so differen't clean shaven whith short hair!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Ha ha, my kung-fu days are over.
Now I'm just one of those old hippie guys.
Thanks Bryan!

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Love that guitar, Dan! ....and you look quite distinguished!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Thanks Alex!
A storm broke a main trunk of this Ash tree.
Same storm broke of chunk of Mesquite at my neighbor's house.
Used both for this guitar.
Dan

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Wah

Looks like you'll have the rest of that tree to dry pretty soon.

I use my BBQ pit (no fire) to dry sides and backs this last summer. In (A.M.) out(P.M.) Did that every day for about 2-wks and the moisture meter read 8%

A book called Understanding Wood, by Hoadley, gives the theory and practice of wood drying. Amazon has used copies. As I remember, you can harm the wood by drying it too fast. The outside wood shrinks and hurts the inside wood. then, one kind of drying damage can be fixed but another can't. Before I tried home drying experiments I would read Hoadley's book again.

I have never tried this for guitar wood but I use a microwave to dry wood after I have carved it wet. I keep it wet and at the end of the time I am working it will often spray it with water. I then put it back in the freezer. Next time I want to carve I take it out and carve it and do the same. After a few times I now lower freeze it but just carve it and spritz it then put it back in the plastic bag. Finally when I have it carved but not completely sanded or finished I put it in a microwave for about 1 minute. I then take it out and set it in a cardboard box making kind of a tent over it with the plastic bag. When it has cooled I weigh it on a scale and record the weight. I then put it back in the microwave and continue the process until I have put it in two or three times and there is no change in the weight.
From there I let it set in the air for a couple days and then start sanding and finishing the piece.

I found one of those old large microwaves to do this so I could put in a pretty nice size piece.

I dn't have any idea of this would help with drying guitar wood like for the tops or the backs but I may just see the next time I get some free wet wood big enough to work for tops or backs or braces.

Understand I a m a beginner at this and have no knowledge about guitar building but I have done considerable carvings of busts and North West masks.
Chuck

That was going to be my comment.

Ha ha.
Well, Thursday night is still kung-fu movie night at the old Smith place, so I'd better claim my seat.
Hi-yah!

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I baked some maple and cherry boards in the oven, once. Wife didn't much care for the week of burnt maple syrup smell in the house. The cherry was dark about 3/16" deep, the maple lightly toasted.
It was suggested that I experiment in someone else's kitchen.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I do most of my wood drying in this mobile kiln (often unintentionally):

I get a lot of business from those "mobile kilns." Customers seem to find wood drys much faster in them when the pieces are under .120" thick.