All the Uses of Kiln Wood and Why You Need It

If you are someone who is looking into using more wood, either for woodworking and building projects, or for burning in a home wood stove, fireplace, or bonfire pit, there are a few things you need to know about wood and how it needs to be treated before you can use it. In particular, the process of drying wood can drastically increase the number of things you can do with it, as well as improve the wood’s behavior in both building and burning scenarios. The following will break down the different uses of dried wood as well as the methods of drying available, including kiln drying. Since the 1980s kiln-dried wood has been the preferred method of wood drying across Europe.

Wood Is Naturally High In Moisture

There are several reasons for using wood, including building projects and burning it for warmth or enjoyment, but whatever your plans for your wood, most likely you’re going to need it to be fairly dry. Wood, as it comes from trees, tends to be wet. This is because trees contain a lot of water (water is what moves all the nutrients and hormones and minerals a tree needs throughout its entire structure in the form of sap).

The amount of water within a piece of wood is referred to as its moisture content. Usually, this is expressed by the percentage of weight that the water accounts for. For wood that has just been cut, the moisture content can be anywhere from 30% to 100%. It is also possible for the moisture content to be over 100% (this means that the weight of the water within the piece is greater than the weight of the wood if it were dry).

With this established, you might be wondering why dried wood is preferable to wet wood. There are a number of reasons, but your particular case is going to depend on what you intend to use the wood for. We’ve broken wood usage into two broad categories: building and burning.

Why Do You Need Dry Wood For Building Or Woodworking?

When wood is dried, and its moisture content drops below 30% the piece will shrink. How much it shrinks depends on the species of tree your wood came from. If you use the wood before it has dried and shrunk, you risk the wood warping over time and being sensitive to moisture conditions. Things like dressers and doors may become difficult to open (or hard to keep closed), joints may swell and pop loose, and flooring might rise.

Why Do You Need Dry Wood For Burning?

There is nothing quite as soothing as sitting by a roaring fire, especially if it’s particularly grey and dreary outside. Studies have shown that human evolution is likely the reason we find a fireside so relaxing. If the wood is being used for a fireplace, woodstove, or bonfire, dry wood is still preferable for a number of reasons. Foremost, dry wood is easier to catch on fire, making starting fires much less of a chore. This also means keeping fires going is easier, and new logs added to the fire require less effort to catch.

Dry wood also produces far less smoke. Not only will this protect your eyes and lungs, but the smell produced will be a lovely fireplace scent, not a gross — something that shouldn’t be burning is on fire — smell. Because the smoke that is produced will be lighter and less colored, this also makes cleaning your fireplace easier, as sooty-buildup on the outside of your fireplace will take much longer to form.

Dry wood also throws more heat as it burns more efficiently. When a log that still has a high water content is burnt, it requires a much higher temperature to burn. Beyond this, a percentage of the energy of the log is wasted by the evaporation of and the heating of water vapor.

Moreover, while wood is being stored at your home, waiting to be used, there is a reduced risk of mold, mildew, and fungus growing on the wood if it is dry. Mold is extremely dangerous to your health and should be prevented in every possible way. Beyond the health concerns, mold smells terrible. As a side note, if you find mold on the wood you intend to burn, do not burn it in an environment where people can breathe in the agitated mold fumes.

Beyond all these practical concerns, using dry wood for burning produces a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing crackling sound. This is one of those things that once you notice it, you can’t bring yourself to go back. If you are someone who cares at all about ambiance, using dry wood in your wood stove or fireplace is going to be especially pleasing to you.

Now that we have established that dry wood is preferable to wet wood regardless of what you intend to do with the pieces, it might be worth discussing the different drying methods available. Generally speaking, there are two ways wood is dried. It can be air-dried or kiln-dried.

What Is A Kiln?

Many people understand the concept of air drying, but few have heard about kilns. Kilns are a type of oven that can produce high enough temperatures to harden, dry, or chemically alter what is put inside them. Kilns have been used by humans for thousands of years to create clay pottery, tiles, and bricks. Since the initial kilns used by humans thousands of years ago, kilns have been tweaked and developed to perfection. Now kilns circulate the heated air in order to rapidly remove excess moisture within wood.

Wood Dried In A Kiln

Wood that is kiln-dried is wood that has been dried in a kiln. This process began in the 1980s and was widely adopted across Europe because of the economic and practical benefits of buying and selling wood with a lower moisture content.

Many people prefer kiln drying to air-drying because the environment is easier to control with precision. Things like temperature, humidity, and steam levels can all be controlled for an exact length of time. This allows the desired moisture content to be decided upon for the wood before the drying process begins, and allows for the hitting of that target moisture content. Depending on what the wood is going to be used for, a specific moisture content might be ideal.

Wood for inside a home is usually dried to around 7%

Wood that is used in construction is usually dried to around 15%

Air-Dried Wood

Air drying wood is typically done by stacking wood out of doors and leaving it alone. You will be required to cover it with a waterproof tarp if it is going to rain or snow. Depending on your location and the type of wood being dried, it could take a few months or even a year for the wood to reach an ideal moisture content.

Air drying can also not manage an even drying the way that a kiln can, often the middle tends to remain a little damp. This can mean that some fungi or bugs still live within the wood. Because of the length of time, this takes, and the impossibility of pinpointing a specific moisture content, many people find air-drying wood to be more trouble than it is worth.

Finding Kiln-Dried Wood

If you have decided that kiln-dried wood is the right wood for your woodworking project or your fireplace there are a number of ways to secure it without buying a kiln and learning how to operate it. For many, the price of a kiln does not make sense unless you are going to be drying mass quantities of wood.

Beyond this, the process of moving cords of wood can be daunting if you’re not used to it or don’t have a vehicle designed to carry these kinds of loads. It is completely possible to order kiln-dried wood for delivery. Experts at https://www.buyfirewooddirect.co.uk/ recommend looking for a Woodsure Ready to Burn seal on the wood you purchase for your fireplace, woodstove, or bonfire pit. It is also wise to know the measurements of your woodstove and what sized logs will fit inside before ordering online. You don’t want to end up having to re-chop each piece in order to have a fire.

Post Air Or Kiln Drying Wood Care

In addition to the drying processes explained above, wood needs to be kept dry after it has reached its ideal moisture content. This is because water can seep back into the wood and require the whole process to be needed again. This is why wood used for woodworking and building is so often coated with a water-repellent sealant. If the wood is to be used for burning, you want to make sure you store it someplace where it will not get wet. If you’re storing it outside, make sure to have a tarp beneath it and one above if rain or snow is expected.

Kiln-Dried Wood And Furniture Projects

Kiln-dried wood will help you avoid the defects and warping discussed above, but will also assist with the building of wood furniture specifically. Typically, kiln-dried wood is much lighter than air-dried wood, which means that it will be easier to move the furniture around. Because drying defects have been minimized by the kiln-drying process, the pieces will be much more workable, allowing you to do more detailed and precise work, as well as shortening the process of treating the wood when all the carving and sanding is done.

Kiln-Dried Firewood

Again, kiln-dried wood is much lighter meaning the work involved in stacking and lugging logs around is minimized. Beyond this, because kiln-dried logs produce far less smoke and gross smells than air-dried logs, they are more suited to food-related activities like roasting marshmallows or hot dogs. Beyond this, the flames tend to reach higher and burn brighter because there is no moisture hidden inside the logs to throw off its performance.

An Aesthetic Note For Choosing Kiln-Dried Firewood

Many people are aware of the aesthetic considerations when choosing wood for woodworking purposes, as the color and grain of the wood can influence the look of your finished product. Not everyone knows that different tree species produce different results when burnt.

Not all tree species are ideal for burning, in general, you want trees that burn more slowly so that tending to the fire is not a constant chore, and you want something that smells good while it’s burning (poplar trees smell especially bad for example). Some tree species that are lower burning and fragrant include beech, cherry, hickory, hawthorn, maple, mesquite, pine, red oak, sycamore, white ask, white elm, and white oak.

These woods are slower burning because they’re harder and denser, meaning it takes longer for the fire to consume them. Cedar and pine are both softwoods, but they offer an excellent aroma if you’re willing to spend a little more time topping up your fire.

Understanding the above information will help you make the best use of the wood you bring to your home whether your aims are woodworking and building projects or cozy nights curled up by a fire. Learning about wood and how it needs to be treated for optimal use can influence your health and safety as well as the outcome of your wood-related projects.

In particular, the process of thoroughly and properly drying wood can result in better-behaved wood for furniture and home repair projects, artistic woodworking, and burning. Kiln-dried wood offers many advantages to air-dried wood including a more thorough dry, lower risk of fungi, mold, or mildew, more precise moisture contents designated for certain projects, and cleaner burning.

As with all projects involving power tools or controlled fire, always ensure that you are taking proper safety precautions. If there are things you are uncertain about, always seek the advice of someone with experience on the topic. Make sure to have emergency fire equipment like smoke detectors and fire extinguishers nearby.