Wood craftsmen, how to prepare wood for furniture construction?
Woodworking is an ancient practice, which over the years has not lost its charm and which today, just as in the past, requires experience, passion and dedication. A versatile, durable and natural material, wood conquers for its ability to create exclusive settings in which warm and welcoming atmospheres linger. These abilities derive from the fact that it is a living matter, and as such it must be "prepared".
It would be unthinkable to take freshly cut wooden boards and use them for the construction of furniture, because that wood that fascinates so much for its natural veins that give it an extraordinary visual effect contains a quantity of water inside which, if not eliminated, it would lead to swelling and cracking within a short time. Besides developing aesthetic defects, the use of wood not subjected to drying would inevitably lead to the formation of fungi degrading biologically.
The wood artisans know this well, and for their most exclusive creations they choose only wood that has been properly treated through drying processes carried out to perfection.
How to dry the wood?
To correct the hygroscopic characteristic of wood it is possible to resort to two different procedures: natural or artificial.
In the first case, the wooden boards are stacked in the air, in a dry and ventilated environment. By eliminating the water you get wooden boards that can be used for the construction of furniture, but in how long? It can take years to reach an ideal hygrometric equilibrium situation. Air-dried wood takes an average of one year for every centimeter of thickness to reach humidity levels below 20%.
The artificial drying process allows to obtain the same results, in much shorter times. But the advantages of this process certainly do not end with the possibility of significantly anticipating processing times. Let's think about what would happen if, during air drying, some boards were affected by fungi. If on a surface inspection they are not detected, they could contaminate the entire stack.
Wood drying and optimal humidity levels
How much humidity can be removed with the drying process? To prevent biological degradation problems it is necessary to reach wood moisture levels below 20%. When we talk about timber destined for the production of furniture, the percentage drops further and it becomes important to be able to reach about 10%.
A natural drying carried out in a workmanlike manner allows to reach a maximum of wooden boards and beams with humidity percentages equal to 12%, while the drying carried out inside a special oven allows you to regulate the process and thus obtain wood. with the desired percentage of humidity. Only in this way, therefore, wood craftsmen will be able to guarantee materials capable of ensuring their products durability and inalterability over time. It could be furniture in walnut, birch, cherry, pine, beech or any other wood: surely the furnishings will be presented in more or less dark shades and with more or less marked veins, depending on the variety chosen, but if the tables they will have been subjected to a perfect drying process, the result will always be of high visual effect and the piece of furniture will show all its refined elegance for a very long time.