Question
If I have red oak green stickered with sticks that were outside in the weather, and I put it in the kiln, would I get honeycomb in the wood where the stick is sitting? I heard this today and I don't know if it is true.
Forum Responses
(Sawing and Drying Forum)
From contributor B:
I might speculate that if the oak had pre-existing surface checks, which prematurely closed because moisture was absorbed from the wet sticks, I could see those checks under the sticks being driven deeper such that they become bottleneck checks, which though not true honeycomb, from a practical perspective may as well be considered honeycomb. It's always best to use dry sticks.
However, I can imagine that wet sticks will slow drying and then in a conventional kiln when the heat is increased, the area under the sticker is too wet for the heat and therefore checks and honeycombs.
