Tips for drying butternut burls

Butternut burls are dried much like regular lumber. Also, a source for further information on drying burls. 1998.

by Professor Gene Wengert

Q.
How should butternut burls be dried?

A.
For drying butternut burls, treat them almost the same as lumber, except do several things to keep them flat--use stickers about every 12 inches; use weight on the top of the stack (maybe 100 pounds per square foot--a couple of concrete parking lot bumpers?); and dry them with plenty of air flow in a dry location. (Fast drying is preferred as this creates dry fibers on the outside of the piece--these dry fibers are nearly twice as strong as wet fibers, so they can more easily resist the tendency to warp.)

There is also a suggestion for other species (butternut dries easily, but many other species are hard to dry) in DRYING EASTERN HARDWOOD LUMBER, U.S. Dept of Agr. Handbook No. 528 (out of print--available in most large libraries, or in small libraries via interlibrary loan).

Professor Gene Wengert is Extension Specialist in Wood Processing at the Department of Forestry, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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