: I have a source for northern cedar at $1/board foot (flat sawn). The down
: side is it is not kiln dried or even air dried (very much). My question
: is: If I cut it to 1/4" thickness, how long should I let it dry
: before stripping the hull? Has anyone here used "green" wood for
: their boat? I figure it shouldn't take very long at all to dry given the
: thickness, provided I lay it out properly. Once it has air dried a little
: I plan on running it through a thickness planer to get it a uniform
: thickness and then cut the cove and bead. How does this approach sound? Do
: I worry about how dry it is at all prior to stripping? It's not dripping
: wet, but it definately hasn't dried too much.

: Another question for those of you who have cut your own strips is how many
: board feet did you use? I will be using a thin kerf blade in my table saw.

: Thanks for your help. Mark: You are better off putting it on stickers in its rough form. If you rip it now you can get a lot of fuzzing or raised grain that will be real hard to get rid of later. If you did rip it now you might have to plane both sides later to eliminate the raised grain, so plan ahead and leave it about 1/16" thick.

Try doing a test with your saw to see if you get raised grain. If you can get it to 1/4" it will dry within a week to 6-8% moisture content.

The board footage depends on how clear your boards are, but you should be able to get 1200 lf of strips from 50-60 Bf of clear material.

Michael