can u freeze dry wood

[jason1977]

i was just woundering what people thought if cold weather will take the mc out of wood that is split and still round.  i now when corn is left in fields the cold will take the mc out of it.

[Paul_H]

Yes,it works well if u freeze dry them in January and stack them til October,then u r good 2 go.

[beenthere]

Not fast, but moisture will evaporate so to speak when frozen. Ice cubes in the ice trays get smaller. Freezer burn is a sign that moisture is evaporating. Freeze dried food is another.

Moisture won't evaporate near as fast when frozen, but it happens. Slower in unsplit wood (not sure if that is "split and still round" or not ? ).

[SwampDonkey]

  Paul     A freezer kiln.

Jason it will dry a lot more in the warmer months over the same time. Cut it dormant is the traditional method, bark is tight. But, they used to have to use snow and ice to haul sleds of wood and they neither had crops to tend nor a whole lot more stuff to be busy at in winter.

[CX3]

I have noticed that if green wood is split and stacked it will dry out in freezing temps.  Especially if the wood can thaw and re freeze.  But of course not as fast as in june.

I am not sure if the old timers were thinking of "tight barked" firewood or not.  My opinion is they dropped firewood trees in the winter to guarantee they had ample supply of dry wood the next year.  Kind of like I do.  I hate not having some good seasoned wood

[SwampDonkey]

Not so much the tight bark, but the saying in these parts was "cut wood in any month with an "r". Which can be translated a few ways I suppose. Best time of year to split your firewood is wood that was cut in the late fall and winter and still not dry. Splits a whole lot easier. I've never seen wood dry too much in winter around here, mostly just near the surface. A fellow can test it by weight loss of water over the winter, oven dry the samples and figure the MC%. Freeze drying is done in a controlled environment, out in the open environment the numbers can be all over the map in a 24 hr period.

[Al_Smith]

 In all these years I never experianced frozen wood until about a year or two ago .Cold as the dickens, huge pile of red oak and the largest honey locust I ever saw,4 footer plus . Late cut in Sept by the trimmers ,big heavy long pieces .

I threw every thing I had at it including a 125 Mac . Lawdy about like cutting concrete .Gave it up until the stuff thawed out .

To the question though .Yes it will dry some in cold weather .

[pineywoods]

Not so much the tight bark, but the saying in these parts was "cut wood in any month with an "r". Which can be translated a few ways I suppose.

That's a new one for me. Old folks around here used the same saying for when is wild rabbit good to eat..   food  food

[doctorb]

Around here, it's oyster eatin' time in the "R" months.  doctorb

[Warbird]

Yes, it will dry during winter.  I've been heating with wood for a lot of years in a place where we get very cold winters.  In my experience, the RH of the air has a lot to do with how fast wood dries, freezing temps or not.

[red oaks lumber]

around here venison is fair game any month with "r" jurne julry argust

[Al_Smith]

Around here, it's oyster eatin' time in the "R" months.  doctorb

I'd heard that when I was in Norfolk many moons ago .

I can take or leave the ersters but I surely do miss the crab cakes ,Maryland style,yum .

[Just Me]

Nothing to do with freezing really, but I always wondered what would happen if you used liquid nitrogen to freeze a piece of wood and shattered it?

Thought of it when I was having a wart frozen off, and of course I wondered about wood........

[SwampDonkey]

I know it splits a lot easier frozen, we split lots of it by hand. When it was seasoned it was almost impossible to split hard maple and yellow birch by hand.  Pound your darn guts out. It's a lot different that splitting white birch.

[MudBud]

Just me....years ago when working with liquid Nitrogen we tried a few different items, some I can't mention.  We started with a rose, froze it...looked great until we dropped it.  Then we got into some creatures...nuff said.  I don't know how much you would need to shatter a piece of wood!  Best thing is to get a pan of it and soak the wood into it, the longer the better. 

How about Dry Ice? 

[stumper]

When ice transforms into a gas it is called sublimation.  

The problem with expecting wood to dry in freezing temperatures it the structure of the wood.  H2O frozen in cells traps the H2O frozen in the cells beyond so it can not get to the ait and disipate.  Drying wood effectively (without high heat) requires temperature changes above freezing.  The normal temperature changes that occur in a 24 hour is enough to do the job.  The gas expands as it warms and contracts as it cools, this effectively pumps the moisture out.  

Freezing a tree will not have the same effect as afreezing a rose.  I think a program like Mythbuster tried it and no it does not shatter.

[jim king]

I know when you do freeze dry taxidermy in a vacumn the flesh turns into a styrofoam like material.

http://freezedryco.com/taxidermy_freeze_drying.html

 



NAOMI

This is truly an amazing process! It's really her, and she looks just like she always did! How wonderful knowing she will always be with us! We are thrilled that we can help others who are grieving the loss of their pets, giving them the opportunity to see and touch their pets again.

[bandmiller2]

For years I stacked green winter cut wood agenst a dark painted block wall with an overhang.The sun and dry air sucked the moisture out wall pointed south, after one week you could see cracks in the endgrain.By spring the smaller pieces would ring when struck. Frank C.

[Al_Smith]

  Oh my my my ,I've heard of some rather ingenious methods of splitting wood but the liquid nitrogen takes the cake .

I have a pretty good idea though that ingenious or not once the price was compaired to just plain splitting the stuff as it's been done for eons would prove more cost effective .

I'll have to admit though it is an alternative method .