I believe jeffe has posted on this issue before, but I probably lost the thread.

I'm looking at a very nice blank--my first Turkish--and the vendor says it's 10%, ready to cut.

Three years air dried.

My suspicion is that this is still a little wet.

The blank is truly beautiful--seduced, once again--so it's a grave temptation.

flaco

In spite of serious financial constraints, I hope to make each project better than the last.

I expect this means I'll get deeper and deeper into trouble.

Oh well.

Back to stoning the receiver, again.

Belay that.

I did a search. Doh.

flaco

Wood will reach a point of equilibrium with atmospheric humidity. At that piont it is "dry". In a desert climate that maybe about 6-7%, in a coastal area it may be 10-12%. I use a moisture meter to check my wood. You could take a piece of walnut that has been in your house for a long time to someone with a meter and get a good idea of what is "dry" for your area.

Flaco,
remember, if you have a moisture meter (get one.. 25 bucks, harbour freight) and are commited to that pattern, you can test for water on the roughed out stock (once bandsawed) ..

of, sure, it CAN be turned at 15%... and it will twist like a worm on hot pavement.

10%... easy target, for a moist area.. i think that the only way wood will get under 10 in houston is actually DURING a fire.

jeffe

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
Flaco,
remember, if you have a moisture meter (get one.. 25 bucks, harbour freight) and are commited to that pattern, you can test for water on the roughed out stock (once bandsawed) ..

of, sure, it CAN be turned at 15%... and it will twist like a worm on hot pavement.

10%... easy target, for a moist area.. i think that the only way wood will get under 10 in houston is actually DURING a fire.

jeffe

Ok, so I'll claim gross ignorance here (at that, an honest statement)- so what you are saying is that 10% is ok, but 15% is too wet? Honestly, I wouldn't know a moisture meter from Ethel Merman.

I have blank (black Walnut, I believe) here that has been languishing in my closet since I bought it from Bill Soverns about a year or two ago. At that time, he had several for sale in the classified here, with the the statement that they'd been drying for years. It is nothing special or eye-popping, but I'd like to have it shaped and turned for a sporter on a Pre-64 action. Any Ideas where to start?

SBB

jeffe et al-

Okay, it looks like I now have a blank. I am paying a lot of money for this--a man with better judgment and my bank account would never have bought it--but I'm depending on the vendor, who is, I believe, major, and sells almost exclusively very expensive wood.

The blank will go directly to the cutter. Who knows what the relative humidity is where he is? Not to mention, it's winter there, and he probably has the heater turned up.

As to me, I'm half a block from the beach, and it never gets really dry here. Okay, maybe sometimes. When the Santa Anna winds blow.

Super Bon Bon-

Well done. I'm fairly new here, so didn't see Bill's batch that you probably have, but he cut some blanks earlier this year that were exquisite.

You need either a pattern--so you can fit your action/barrel--or a cutter, to do both for you.

If you've done any inletting before, it's recommended that you inlet--and bed--your pattern, and then send the pattern and blank to a cutter with an extremely accurate machine.

Rumor has it that the blank will then require a minimum of work to finish inlet.

Which is always nice. As it's sort of scary to start inletting an expensive piece of wood.

As to Ethel Merman, it's unlikely you'd mistake her for a moisture meter.

And we'll never see her like again: Contemporary singers have to be pretty.

Our great loss.

flaco