We all know lumber comes from trees, but trees were not designed for lumber. Man has to take something that naturally grows in a cylindrical shape, dry it out and make it rectangular. It’s a peculiar ...

Editor’s note: This column was produced before Gene Wengert died in 2025. It is printed here in memoriam. Question: How much does lumber shrink in drying? We process red oak and yellow poplar mainly. ...

End checks are a common problem when drying wood. Sometimes they aren’t too destructive and don’t travel too far, but other times they make the end of the lumber completely unusable or make a nice ...

In the mid 90’s, when he started to advocate to his colleagues a new method for speeding up the drying of timber, which would be capable of drastically reducing the time and money spent on this vital ...