Wood Seasoning

Forestry 240

Defects Due to Seasoning

Wood Seasoning
Most seasoning defects can be minimized by
careful air seasoning.
They can be largely eliminated by proper
control of drying conditions in the kiln.

End Checks
Usually confined to
the ends of the
pieces.
Normally follow the
rays.
May develop into
end splits.

Wood is anisotropic; as it dries below the fiber

saturation point, shrinkage is not equal in all
directions.
Longitudinal shrinkage is negligible, except in
reaction wood.
Tangential shrinkage can be 1.5 to 3 times higher
than radial shrinkage

This differential shrinkage sets up strains,

which, if they become too great, cause
fractures in the wood tissues, significantly
devaluing the product.

Checks
Ruptures along the grain
that develop during
seasoning either because
of a difference in radial
and tangential shrinkage
or because of uneven
shrinkage of the tissue in
adjacent portions of the
wood.

Surface Checks
Result from the separation of the thinnerwalled early-wood cells.
Typically follow the rays, and are confined to
the tangential surface.
More common in rough lumber than in that
planed smooth before drying due to the
formation of checks in the protruding ridges of
rough lumber where the drying is faster than in
smooth surfaces.

Checks

Loose Knots

Checks may close as drying progresses deeper

into the wood.
To minimize, must have less-rapid but uniform
evaporation of moisture by reducing moisture
gradient, shading boards, reducing circulation.

Due to differential drying, encased knots can

become loose during drying since their wood
is usually denser and shrinks more than the
surrounding tissue.

Warping

Warping
Any distortion in a piece of wood from its true plane that
may occur in seasoning. Types:
Bowing Longitudinal curvature, flat-wise, from a straight
line.
Crook longitudinal curvature, edgewise from a straight line.
Cupping curving of the face of a plank so that it assumes a
trough-like shape.
Twisting one corner of a piece of wood twists out of the plane
of the other three.
Diamonding uneven shrinkage that causes squares to become
diamond shaped on drying. Develops in pieces in which the
growth increments extend diagonally, so that the faces of the
piece are neither flat nor edge-grained.

Warping

Warping

Warping

Casehardening
Nearly uniform moisture
content, but residual stresses,
tension in the interior of the
piece (core), and compression
in the outer layers of cells
(shell).
Results from too rapid drying,
where the surface dries below
the FSP first, but cannot
shrink, putting tension on the
surface.

Collapse
Defect that sometimes develops above the
fiber saturation point when very wet
heartwood of certain species is dried.
Evidenced by abnormal and irregular
shrinkage.

Box-Heart Split
A split originating
in the wood
surrounding the pith
during drying.
Caused by stresses
set up because of
the differences in
tangential and radial
shrinkage of the
wood near the pith.

Honeycombing
Internal splitting in
wood that develops in
drying; cause by
internal stresses or by
closing of surface
checks.

Questions?

Redneck Flat-Screen TV