I've gotten hold of some extraordinary wood...Lace Sheoak. It's exotic (highly unique, spectacular figure), and dense enough that I don't think it would require stabilizing. However, I'm told that when it was cut (recently) the wood was still relatively fresh and "damp" inside.

I am real excited about this "new" wood (it's rare, hard to get hold of stuff...there are only a couple of guys bringing it into the country from Australia and I got real lucky as one lives nearby me!). Short of sitting around waiting for several months for it to dry out naturally, does anyone have any thoughts to speed up the proccess? This morning, someone suggested putting it in the microwave for a short time...Any thoughts?

Dennis Greenbaum

Yeah Baby!:smokin

do you have a dehydrator? throw it in there for a couple days maybe.

Dennis,
The microwave might cause too rapid expansion of the moisture which can't help the wood. (ever have something explode in the micro?)
Get a smallish box, put a 25 watt lightbulb inside, put the wood in there, preferably supported, and loosely cover the box. The low wattage bulb will generate enough gentle heat to slowly dry it out.
We used this on Guam in '45 to keep clothes from mildewing.
:D

Although the dehydrator sounds like a decent idea, I would prefer not to have to purchase anything new in my attempt to dry this wood. The bulb in a box certainly sounds easy enough and do-able...if it worked in the humid jungles of Guam I imagine it'll work in the intensely humid summer days of Baltimore:eek: :eek:

Thanks for the idea Gbomb (aka my Dad)...you come up with a few pretty good ones every now and then...:D

Dennis Greenbaum (Gbomb...get it;) )

Yeah Baby!:smokin

Dennis
Do you have a picture of this sheoak. I have a chunk that I picked up at the local exotic wood shop that has been sitting for a couple of years. I tried a couple of handles out of it and found the lace part was a fair bit softr than the oak part, if this is the same stuff. If it is the same I can ship you a dry piece gratis.
Steve

I'm sure you can dry it in your micro wave. I have done green birch burls. Put your machine on defrost and set your timer for a very short time such as two minutes. If the wood is just a bit more than warm, you have the right amount of time for that temperature, otherwise try just a little longer until this happens. Once you have this let the piece cool, and then put it through a couple of more times. That should do it for you. Frank Niro.

Never done it, but one of my penmaking books talks about it. It says no more than 30seconds at a time, remember you are not trying to cook the wood, just dry it. It says to weigh the wood on a gram scale, nuke it, allowing the wood to cool between cycles in the microwave until you have lost the weight in the wood to get to your desired moisture percentage. Other option for me has been to stack it to maximize air flow and let 'em sit on the shelf. Good luck Dennis
Dan

This thread will show a sample photo of Lace Sheoak from the same supplier who sold me mine. My piece is very similar.

http://www.aussiefantom.com/merchant2/graphics/00000001/laceblock.jpg

Really cool-looking stuff. Steve, is this the same as what you have? With the softer lace, are you saying that created a problem with your handles...enough to dissuade you from using it again? Wonder if it would benefit from stabilization...

Dennis Greenbaum

Yeah Baby! :smokin

That is some wild looking stuff! Looks like it would go good with some kind of Damaskas. Random pattern or pool and eye. Send Frit a chunk;) Good luck with drying it.

Dennis
Here is a pic f the sheoak that I have. After picking it up I remember this as being definetly too soft on its own for scales. Stabilizing would work great. Let me know if you want me to ship you this chunk. It is around 12" long.
Steve
http://www.fototime.com/B07BED0CA8D2F7C/standard.jpg

Steve-

I think yours might be a little different variety than mine...the pattern of your wood's figure is far more consistent. (The supplier showed me "regular" Sheoak...that's what yours looks like to me. I don't know if it worked for you but if you click a 2nd time on the pic I posted above, it'll offer you the option of looking at a really tight close-up. Then you can see just how "wild" the figure is...

I do appreciate your offer and your wood looks quite nice, but I'm especially intrigued by the crazy drama taking place in this wood...very much like irregular tongues of flame...in a bowl of spaghetti :D. To be on the safe side I may just go ahead and send it out to be stabilized.

Dennis Greenbaum

Yeah Baby!:smokin

dennis -
can't help you with the rapid drying part as i keep my stuff in a drying box (maxi version of your dad's suggestion) for months at a time until ready to use it.
but david brodziak uses sheoak often and only uses a 2 part polymer finish on it - so it appears you are right that it shouldn't need stabilizing:
http://www.omninet.net.au/~brodziak/gallery/galleryimages/pic63.jpg

Now just look at that will you...I knew this stuff would make a beautiful knife handle. That is VERY nice indeed!

Thanks for that look-see...8o :p


Dennis Greenbaum

Yeah Baby!:smokin

Dennis, I picked up a piece from Tom also. Very nice wood! I'm sending a couple of chunks off to WSSI for stablizing although I think you could get away with not doing it. It's going to be gorgeous. :)

Peter-

Real curious to know how that goes...I've already contacted Tom and told him to expect me back sometime this weekend.

I spent last Saturday learning to hollow grind with Larry Mensch (I had a great day!...Oh my God, but his blades are incredibly exquisite!...about as close to flawless as I've ever seen,...He's the region's best kept secret...Ask Ron Nott, he'll tell you).

Larry only makes fixed blades and loves gorgeous woods. When I showed him the piece of Lace Sheoak I bought, he just about went nuts...I promised to pick up some for him.

Dennis Greenbaum

Yeah Baby!:smokin

Dennis and Steve, the wood you have is both of the same type, just different cuts from different trees, and most likely growing in different conditions. Lacey Casurina (or sheoak) is fairly stable stuff, but relitively soft and discolours easily. It stabilizes very well which seems to fix both these problems.
I have tried to dry wood in the microwave with some success, if the blocks are oversize it works quite well. It is not however a good way to dry burls or very dense woods.

Steve,,,,,,,,,,

good info, steve.
thanx

Yeah I agree with Wayne...Thanks for the great inside poop...

I need to suggest to my supplier that he check out this thread...I imagine he'll be more than a little interested...very good info here (of course!;) ).

Dennis Greenbaum

Yeah Baby! :smokin

Hi Dennis,

I'm sure he'll be interested! This thread prompted me to buy some wood from him! :)

-Darren

Did the microwave thing on some wet olivewood. After 20minutes there was a loud crack and when I opened the oven, there were bits of olivewood everywhere and a very charred smell, like I'd cooked the cat or something.

There is laced sheoak and flame sheoak and there are different grades too, I gave mine away to someone who was going to do some stabilising because it was too much trouble in its unstabilised form. Its got quite an open grain and would NEED a very hard finish to really work well on knives. Jason.

Originally posted by Jason Cutter
Did the microwave thing on some wet olivewood. After 20minutes there was a loud crack and when I opened the oven, there were bits of olivewood everywhere and a very charred smell, like I'd cooked the cat or something.


http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~rhaslip/Rex/workshop/microwave/microwav.htm

I had a micro wave cookbook. In it was a how-to on drying flowers. It said to bury the flowers in kitty litter and cook that way. It had pics of dryed flowers that looked fresh. I guess the clay wicks away the moisture.

thanx for the link, mike. i had forgotten having seen that until i read through it.

So there's hope yet. .. The bottom line is ? DON'T NUKE IT, HEAT IT... I don't have much in the way of unseasoned woods now, but it may be worth a try. "Green" woodturner's blocks are easy to get and some are exceedingly nice pieces. Cheers, Mike. Jason.

http://www.thewoodsmith.com.au/WoodShop/tblankstwo/

http://www.righteouswoods.net/rose_sheoak.html

http://www.akc.iinet.net.au/supplies.html

http://www.wn.com.au/djarilmari/timbers.html
(CHECK OUT THE RED MORREL BURL.. IT MAKES WONDERFULL
HANDLES.!! )

I've been drying a LOT of wood in my microwave with excellent results. I use the defrost setting for 5 minute cycles. Let it cool completely, then run it through again (up to five times). I usually have a bunch of pieces set up for drying and rotate them through. As one is cooling, I microwave the next batch, etc. I bought a moisture meter to test the MC and I have <10% after only a month or two of sitting out after the microwave treatment. As a side note, I heard WSSI will send back any wood that's not below 10%, because the stabilizing won't work properly. Some of the oak burl I've done this way is still about 20%, but I'm going to run it through the microwave again. I have yet to ruin any wood and have some great burl to put on knifes. Now if only I could build blades fast enough to keep up with my wood supply :D .

-Dave

Now if only I could build blades fast enough to keep up with my wood supply i hear that, dave. :D thanx for the testimonial.