Question to people who make pipes...

[shimrra]

What is the best way to cure your wood? i have access to a lot of fresh wood, but as i found out from my first try, working with green wood is a mess, and a LOT harder than dry wood.

so for those of you that have done this kind of thing, how do you cure your wood?

right now i have a small log sitting in a garage that was added onto my house that gets to 100*+ during the day, i figured the heat would dry it out fast, but idk, is a cool, dry place better to season wood? (i figure it would take longer)

i also have an electric welders "hot box" made to dry arc welding electrodes i was thinking of tossing a smaller piece in there and see how that does, it drys out damp rods in ~3 days, or would that be so fast it would just crack the wood no matter what?

 

[smoker]

Hi shimrra, in answer to your question yes the wood is better left to dry out in a dry place if you can this will help prevent cracking from being force dried. I have been told to leave wood to dry out aprox 12 months before using it. This of course is just my opinion others may differ.

 

[cacooper]

Greetings,
It depends what kind of wood you are referring to. If it's for pipes, personally, I only use briar, and it comes to me already boiled, dried, and aged, ready to carve. Some pipe makers age and treat their briar further, based on personal preference.
As far as other woods, very slow drying would prevent splitting and cracking. Cherry is especially prone to splitting, even when dried slowly. An old Ropp cherry wood pipe I have split down the shank after smoking it several times. Even when dried, cherry doesn't seem to adapt well to moisture and heat expansion over time.
Briar is the preferred wood for very good reasons. Excellent thermal resistence, moisture absorbtion, and overall durability over many years of use and/or abuse. Not to mention neutral flavor characteristics.
My recommendation: Stick with quality briar from trusted sources. Then you don't have to worry about drying the wood.
Just my .02 cents.
CACooper

Cooper Pipes

www.PipeandPouch.com

 

[pstlpkr]

If you harvest hardwood limbs (for example) You should store it in a dry place and "standing" upright in a position that will allow the sap to continue to flow. If the sap flows in this direction >>>>>>>, you should stand it so gravity will assist the flow through the wood. This will help dry it a bit quicker. This has worked very will with Oak I have worked with.

 

[docrx]

Being a pharmacist i recommend antibiotics for curing. :wink:

 

[marmal4de]

being a pharmacist i recommend antibiotics for curing.

:rofl:

 

[unclearthur]

The rule of thumb for air drying wood is one year per inch of thickness plus a year. For making pipes , buy some briar.

 

[rick777]

yup, well aged briar is king for pipes.
I was hoping to use some cherry my father had aged for several years. Now "retired", the wood is 2000 miles away. (Main use was for rifle stocks.)
Trying to aggressively accelerate the curing process for any wood will result in cracks and other defects.
There is no quick and surefire way I know of to cure wood suitable for making anything that would be under duress, let alone a pipe.
We did use a custom built curing cabinet for our rifle stocks to prep the aged planks before carving. Mostly to remove any residual humidity, or to cure laminate stocks. (complicated process)

A friend had a large commercial wood curing oven we used occasionally, but the results were mixed.
I suppose one could try steaming the wood for quite some time. Then drying it in a curing cabinet or something similar. The attrition rate might be kinda high. Will take a lot of time too.

Need to get as much if not all of the sap out, then cure. Most cured wood you find in a lumberyard is simply aged and the sap has dried into a resin, which I don't think is all that good for a pipe. Makes a fine house, cabinet or table though.
well, that's my 2-bits. Happy curing!

 

[ejames]

Here is a guy who has been making pipes from several different woods for a quite a while.

http://www.pipecraft.org/about.html

I have used Mulberry with good results and just finished one made from Persimmon. Can't say how it smokes or holds up to the heat because I sent it off to a friend.I like to use other woods simply to gain experience-to practice on and sometimes just to experiment. Cheaper than briar,it's not a big loss if I screw one up which luckily hasn't happened-yet.