Posted by Frank on July 28, 1998 at 13:25:50:
In Reply to: Green oak wood posted by C Gill on June 15, 1998 at 07:18:53:
: 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.