Posted by Andy on February 14, 1999 at 10:44:09:
In Reply to: Re: Green oak wood posted by Frank on July 28, 1998 at 13:25:50:
: : I have a chance to buy green oak at a savings. I am building
: : a V-Dory, can i use the wood green? If it needs to be dry,
: : how long will it take to air dry?
: : thanks
: I'm completely inexperienced as a boatbuilder, but have harvested and played with oak for years. You cannot make anything worth a sh*t from green oak - it will twist, check, shrink and do all manner of horrifying things. There are some who treat it with polyethylene glycol for green use, but I do not know that this is applicable to baots and would be quite a risk in any event. Oak, *when properly stickered and stacked*, takes at least a year per inch to air-dry - longer is usually the case - and you do not want kiln-dried oak because it is much more brittle. Do not waste your time and money building with a material that will self-destruct for certain. Find properly air-dried materials and pay what they are worth.
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Any wood will do the above when air dried. Kiln drying immediatly breaks down the cells and stabilizes any wood, even makes it somewhat water resistant, or in its ability to recover back and forth from wet and dry. Oak seems to be the preferred wood when it comes to furniture, cabinets, paneling, flooring. Hundreds of years ago the old sailing vessels, they used to run around like crazy looking for good solid oak keels (and they didn't have kilns) Oak has been used very successfully in marine work, even today for decking, interior work, if it is sealed properly it will last forever. I've read stories of people with oak on thier boats and they seal and varnish just about every year, and they love it, it looks beautiful. Oak and Ash are about the two strongest woods I know. I wonder how many 100
year old barns with oak beams are around, dovetailed together, they are impossible to pull down. If you have an old wood boat with mold or fungus, and decay in the bildge, dump some polyethyline glycol down and soak it for a couple weeks. It will destroy the spores, waterproof the wood, and make it look like new again.