Hello everyone tonight
Well this is controversial topic for sure but one should use common sense in determining the answer.
For starters if you think about it the timbers for an historic barn or other building was never seasoned for any length of time--probably cut and hewn in the winter when there was no sap in the timber, and then framed in the spring, with a raising in the early summer or fall
seasoning wood in the atmosphere (spaced) takes approx 1 season for every inch of thickness, and then providing what use it is intended for more seasoning would be the norm, exterior use like siding --no further seasoning, interior use another season indoors would be the norm, a furniture maker would need wood further seasoned for multiple seasons indoors to climatize to room humidity which would vary again depending on the environmental factors, and the tightness of the home.
We always seasoned lumber outside -spaced- 1 season, and then stored in an open shed for air flow, it was surprising how dry the lumber would be after 2 seasons, we often used it at this point for some interior work, but remember our historic homes were heated with humidistats, heated only when the humidity level called for heat to remove humidity. It was strange because you might go in a building when it was raining outside, and the furnace would be running to up the temperature to remove humidity. We had equipment to store humidity readings so that once in a while we could check to see if the humidity was being kept constant in the furnished houses, really important for the well being of the priceless historic furnishings. It was also really good to trace how staff was handling the overriding manual heating during the course of the winter months
NH
Last edited by northern hewer; 10/24/11 12:32 AM.
