Fig. 27.
Split or rift stock is stronger than sawed. If you wish a piece especially tough and durable, as for an axe handle or a stout pin, it should be split out rather than sawed, unless the wood is very straight-grained, because the splitting is sure to be in the line of the fibres, thus avoiding "cross-grain," which cannot well be entirely prevented in sawing. If the grain is straight, there may be no practical difference in the result between sawing and splitting, as in the so-called rift flooring, which is really sawed, but with crooked-grained pieces the difference is marked in such cases as the block shown in Fig. 27, from which four pins can be sawed, while but one can be split out. That one will be straight-grained, however, and stronger than the sawed ones, which will be cross-grained.
Try your best to get well-seasoned wood for your nice work. If it is not dry before you use it, it must of course dry afterwards, which is likely to cause cracks, warping, opened joints, and often the entire ruin of the article you have made. You will have to trust the dealer, or some friend, until you have had enough experience to judge for yourself, for it is no easy matter for an amateur to decide, except in case of very green stock, which is of course wet and soggy.
There are two ways of drying wood in common use. One is the old-fashioned way (commonly known as seasoning, weather-drying, or air-drying) in which the wood is gradually seasoned by the natural process of exposure to the air (but protected from the weather), that is, letting it dry of itself.
Do not believe the statements so common in books that it "takes lumber" some definite time, as one year or two years, "to season." It all depends on the kind of wood, its shape and size, the condition of the atmosphere, and various circumstances. For some rough work (a pig-pen, for instance) there is no advantage in seasoning at all, because the stock can just as well dry after the work is done as before. For many kinds of common work one or two years is sufficient for some kinds and sizes of wood; for a nicer grade of work two or three years is none too much, while for very nice indoor work four years or more is not too long for the stock to season. There is very little danger of its being kept too long. It never will get perfectly dry (see [Appendix]). Whether it is dry enough or not depends on what you want it for.
To save time and money the artificial way (known as kiln-drying) of shutting it up in a room and drying it quickly by steam or other heat is now used, and, so far as drying the wood is concerned, this process can do the work well and much more quickly than the old way—sometimes too quickly. It is no exaggeration to say that in factories where cheap furniture and other common articles are made nowadays, a standing tree is felled on Monday, the log rolled into one end of the factory, and before Saturday night the finished articles made from it, all varnished and complete, are sent out from the other end of the shop—and some articles are turned out even quicker.
In the natural process of air-drying the moisture gradually and slowly works out to the surface and evaporates, until the wood is seasoned, though never absolutely dry, and the stock is firmer, more elastic, and less affected by heat and cold, moisture and dryness, than if kiln-dried. The latter process tends to dry the outside and ends of the lumber too fast for the inside. It certainly lessens the elasticity of the wood and weakens it. Making it so unnaturally dry (as if baked), as is often done, only makes it more susceptible to the atmosphere when taken from the kiln, and, unless it is at once protected from the air in some way, it will reabsorb moisture until it gets into a more natural condition; but that will not fully restore the loss of elasticity (see [Appendix]). The deterioration in the quality of the wood can be plainly seen by any wood-worker, and is often a subject of remark in regard to oak.
The kiln-drying "takes the life out of the wood," as workmen express it, but just why this is so is not easy to explain, for the structure and properties of wood are very complex. I have seen too many illustrations in my own experience and that of others to have any doubt of the fact, however, and lumber left for years to season naturally, "stands," as the expression is, better than if kiln-dried—a fact which is, I think, generally conceded by wood-workers who have had experience with both kinds.