Air Dried Oak for “Windsor Chair” Seats and Spindle Rails
mikewxyz
| Posted in General Discussion on
Hi: I wanted to get feedback from experienced chair makers on using air dried oak for spindle- back chair seats and rails. The legs and spindles would be made of kiln dried ash. I’m doing a Thomas Moser style dining chair.
The oak was cut down locally, mostly quarter sawn to 8/4” and has been stored in the barn coming up on five years. Last year I measured the moisture content in a range of 11% – 12%. I think this is as good as it gets for air dried.
I was also planning on using it for an exterior door.
Can I use “as is” or is it preferred to have it kiln dried?
Thanks,
Mike
Replies
Use it as-is. Sticker it in% your shop for a month before your first round of milling. Sounds like great material.
Thanks.
Kiln drying (if done properly) has a couple of big advantages to air drying. First, being kiln dried, the wood is dried and conditioned to a lower moisture content (MC), typically 6%-8% MC versus the 12%-14% MC for air dried wood. For today’s climate controlled homes, this is big advantage as the wood will not shrink or twist, being close to the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) created by controlling the ambient relative humidity and temperature being done in modern homes. Secondly, the heat used for kiln drying kills any pests, molds, mildew and bacteria that might be present in the wood. Another advantage is time. Kiln drying is much faster, taking a much shorter time to dry wood. It takes years in most cases to air dry lumber.
Thanks Lea. I've been on the fence about this for awhile. Sounds like there are votes for either way. I'm mostly concerned about the socket joints coming loose. I just bought Mike Dunbar's book "Make a Windsor Chair". He has done it both ways. One of the differences is that he makes his seats out of pine or other softer wood not oak.