Wood Kiln – DriftlessinWI

Part 2 of my wood kiln tour and my adventures in woodworking with common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). The weather didn’t cooperate with this video, it has been below zero every day for almost two weeks now. The upside was that I got to stress test the DIY dehumidifier wood kiln I made, and I learned a lot about its capabilities.

I also finished drying the buckthorn I milled and ran it through my jointer…WOW! This stuff is very gorgeous, and it has many characteristics in its grain and structure that I have never seen before. I compared it to quartersawn Cherry and flat sawn Black Walnut. Take a look! I think I will make a separate video on the highlights of the buckthorn milling and finishing process.

Related Videos: Part 1 of DIY Wood Kiln Tour and Buckthorn Drying – https://youtu.be/lP5vhE7SXF4

Harvesting and Milling the Buckthorn – https://youtu.be/anzKsypOS-U

Thanks for watching!

driftlessinwi

This kiln can hold 16ft long lumber and has a 4ft H x 4ft W chamber. I reused a bunch of 2.5″ foam board I had, along with lumber from a metal roofing pallet to make the majority of it. It will get to 110 degrees F with just a small dehumidifier running. A tiny personal heater can easily heat the chamber to over 150 degrees for sanitizing lumber.

After milling some giant buckthorn I wanted to test drying it, so I loaded up the kiln with a bunch of silver maple and Osage orange that I am using for a treehouse project. This is not a video on how to dry wood, it is just a tour of my setup…in fact there are many things in the video you shouldn’t do to get the best results, but I am experimenting and the wood being used is for a treehouse and not furniture. I will have follow-up videos that show how well the buckthorn dried, and how well it finishes. Consider subscribing, thanks!