I have several English walnut blanks from a tree my grand father planted. Nothing fancy. They have been air drying for 8 or 9 years and are 3" thick for varmint stocks. Is it possible to build a small portable kiln to dry one or two blanks. What temp would be required and how long. Or is it even needed??? I read once where someone made a vacuum set up to dry wood. That sounds interesting if it would actually work. Appreciate any help.

Do you have access to a moisture meter to check on current moisture content?

You can dry stock wood too quickly and end up with checks and splits.

8-9 years should yield a perfectly dry and stable blank.unless was stacked outside!

All fist class blanks are air dried

Please leave the kiln out of this equation.
Thanks,
Stephen

Thanks for the replies. The blanks have been in my unheated wood shop which is insulated and tight. So far no or very little rust on tools. I'll have one done this winter and see how it goes. I guess I always thought blanks were air dried and then had to be ran thru a kiln.

Ray H,

Please throw us a bone (picture) of the first stock.
I am going out on a limb here .... as I believe that kilns are used mainly for commercial grade building materials with fairly straight grain flow and I'm sure there are variances in temp, time, etc. from one species to the other.

C-bolt, I'll have Jack Mt Stocks duplicate my stock, he has my pattern for a 700 SA Varmint stock. He's done a great job in the past. Turn around is very good plus he's a good guy. It'll be a month or so before I'll take it up to him. He's about 2 1/2 hr drive for me.

Cool.

Hi Ray, welcome to AR. I think you’ll find it a great forum with worlds of expertise in a lot of areas.
Good luck with your stock. It will be nice to have a stock from a family tree.

Guys, a word about Ray, if I may. He is an extremely experienced small caliber wildcatter and rifle builder. His varmint stock design allows a slightly wider flat to ride a varmint bag.
He also offered his expertise to a friend and I building wildcat 20 Ackley Hornets. I think he’ll be a good addition to our group.
Larry