wrote:
For a long time I was puzzled why woods from elm, mulberry, hackberry
were not used as much even though in plentiful supply. And with my
recent experience of using timber beams of hardwoods I think I may have
answered that question. For I find that drying these timbers some of
the crack horribly. Perhaps it is my method of drying them, perhaps
exposed too much to the sun.

Is there a science study of how wood beams dry and avoid cracking. Some
of the mulberry and elm have fissures in the beams so big that I can
stick my hand into the fissure crack.

So is this cracking due to my novice drying or is it because some wood
cracks badly in drying and that is why they are seldom used in the
commercial industry. Or does industry glue up the cracks of timbers and
I just never noticed.

So anyone have information as to wood drying and avoiding huge cracks.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies



Yes, there is a technology and art of wood drying.

Google

Wood contains two types of water. Free water which will flow from a recently felled wood if it is squeezed in a vice. Bound water which is contained within the cell walls. It is the second of these, bound water, that gives us the headache of drying wood.
The problem is that wood gives up the bound water from its end and side grain at different rates. Also wood will lose water from the surface the surface at a faster rate than from its core. The result - splits in the ends and sides. It is possible to try and compensate by painting the end of logs so that water lose is slowed down. However, this will not prevent wood splitting. It is also advisable to leaf freshly felled timber for a number of months and let it lose some of its water naturally, before sawing in planks of 100mm (4 inches) or less.