# How I dry Pecan



## Woodsman

So I was asked the other day by Kevin if I wouldn't mind posting how I dry pecan. Apparently there are others who don't bother with it because it is hard to dry without at least considering going into the rocking chair manufacturing business. 

I will say right off the bat that I'm no expert at all of this business compared to others. I just know what we tried and what has worked well for us. 

The first pecan that I milled was a nice tree. It measured about 28" DBH and was all of 10' IIRC. I carefully sliced those boards into 1 1/8" planks ('cause the mill was new too), a "mistake" that I would later realize was the only reason I could do anything with the wood. After months of searching Wood Web and reading how others dried wood and how everyone said to dry it, I picked a nice spot under the shed to set up my cross-ties, making sure to get them dead level with one another. I then commenced to stacking all that beautiful wood onto them placing my stickers 24" apart and making sure that I had them on top of each other. When I got finished stacking, I placed some cinder blocks on top of the stack (making sure to have stickers for them to sit on) and placed some rather heavy offcuts on top of them. I would have called this stack a textbook stack. 

In the end, 13% MC, I just hoped that I was able to make some short door rails with what was left, which I did.

After reading some more, and drying some other woods with much success, I figured I wasn't a total idiot and gave it another try. Who doesn't need more door parts anyway, right? After scoring this load of logs not too far from the house, I needed to get milling. We had purchased a shipping container primarily for storage of wood, but decided to give it a go at drying with it since the shop construction was well under way. Those containers have ribbed side walls as some of you know. Those ribs make excellent placement markers for your stickers. So we tried again. The first stack went into with the stickers at about 24" apart while the next stack went in with them at about 12", or every rib of the container. 

It matters little how much weight you place on top of the stack. You still have to take it off the stack at some point. We have stacked it all the way to the roof and then put wedges in between the stack and roof so that there could be no movement at all (with adjustments to the wedges made about every 7 days to keep it tight). This only prohibits movement while stacked. It does help mind you, but when you are going for that "flat as it was originally sawn" end result, this doesn't guarantee anything in my opinion. Although it did help me think that perhaps the stack wouldn't fall over on me when I went into the container.

Another thing that I noticed was the stacks nearest the door were showing signs of warping while the ones ten feet from the door were not. This told me that the stacks at the front are drying faster (verified by moisture meter). The stacks in the back were still flat. 

It may be worth noting that when we began this trial, we were using 1 1/2" thick stickers. I know some of you are scratching your heads right now, but the place that I worked at at the time would have these dinky little pallets come in every three months or so that would have the corners reinforced with them. They were 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" X 24" long. Gotta start somewhere right? We still use them, but we also cut some that were 1" thick X 1 1/2" wide and slightly longer 32" for use in the container. Sure did narrow the walkway. It's also worth noting that we had some stickers that we cut on the mill that weren't exactly 1" X 1", and when they were used, we seemed to have more problems with warping. After that, I ran all of my stickers through the planer to get an even thickness to them and I make them wider so that there's no confusion as to which way to lay them. 

So to conclude, what we found out was that when we placed the stickers every 12-14" apart, had a good solid surface to stack on, and had a place where we could control the amount of moisture leaving the wood in a day, that's when we were able to reliably dry pecan without having it bow on us. I've dried wood from 1/2" thick to 8" thick and up to 24" wide using this method. All I can really say is that it works really well for me. So well in fact that I have a solar kiln now, and am still hesitant to try it out with a nice pecan log. 

I'll try and take some pictures of the container some time tomorrow just to give an idea of what I am referring to.

Reactions: Like 1 | Great Post 1


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## Kevin

Excellent article Wesley, you just earned your first rep. 

I'm going to find a way to encourage others to write such articles this really helps us all. As many times as I have experimented with sticker spacing, for some reason I never thought to use anything closer than 16" with Pecan. I'm going to have to try 12", and also maybe dry it only in my higher humidity months. This has been a very arid summer for us. I've seen the RH get below 20% and that's just unheard of here.


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## davidgiul

Well written. How long did you keep the wood in the container?


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## Woodsman

davidgiul said:


> Well written. How long did you keep the wood in the container?



I usually keep the doors somewhat closed up until the MC reaches about 20%, at which time I open them fully to allow as much air flow as possible. I have the doors facing South to help with this for a good portion of the year. When the MC stabilizes at around 12-15%, that's when I close the doors and turn on a couple of dehumidifiers. I have successfully dried it to 7% this way. It usually takes about another 2 full weeks of running the dehumidifiers to get it to that point though. It helps to plan on them running about mid summer as the heat helps to "push" the moisture out IMO.


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## Woodsman

Kevin said:


> Excellent article Wesley, you just earned your first rep.
> 
> I'm going to find a way to encourage others to write such articles this really helps us all. As many times as I have experimented with sticker spacing, for some reason I never thought to use anything closer than 16" with Pecan. I'm going to have to try 12", and also maybe dry it only in my higher humidity months. This has been a very arid summer for us. I've seen the RH get below 20% and that's just unheard of here.



I've not been able to dry it outside yet. I have tried a time or two with some lesser quality looking pecan with the same results as my first experience. I really believe that you simply cannot let it dry too fast without having degradation of some kind.


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## woodtickgreg

Very well writen article! I have often thought of getting a small container and setting it up for a kiln. I thought about painting the outside black to increase the heat inside for the final stages of drying and because summers are short here in Michigan, It could extend the drying season for me.


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## Woodsman

I see that I forgot to say how long I keep it in the container. 

Usually I plan on cutting in early spring. This gives me a reprieve from the Texas heat that is soon to come. With the container doors facing South, by about early summer, I am able to open the doors up substantially and let the South wind blow into the container. Most times, by fall, it is ready to be unloaded which, lucky for me, is about the time it is tolerable enough for me to begin milling again. It's also quite hot in there in the summer. I have measured 135 degrees at least once in there. So, to answer the question, about 4 months if I cut it in the spring and dry through summer, and about 6 months if I dry it through the winter. We recently acquired this to help speed up the process in the winter.






I haven't figured out what to do with all the dry wood in it this time. As you can see, my lumber racks are about full.


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## Woodsman

A pic of lumber drying in the container. I'd be putting it elsewhere, but I don't know where to go with it at present, so I suppose it will sit here a while longer.

Reactions: Way Cool 1


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