Kiln Drying for Live Edge Slabs in Virginia
We can now kiln dry standing green timber inside two weeks time for any of your specialty live edge counter top, table, commercial bartop or oversize conference table needs. Museum Resources sources the materials we use for complex architectural mill-work of kitchens, restaurant bars, and office spaces.
Microwave Kiln Drying for Greenwood Slabs
A microwave kiln brings these benefits to the table:
- reduce the chances for warp
- remove pests and sterilize
- lower costs from above problems
- shortens work cycle to 7-10 days
Museum Resources can begin with live standing lumber and get to a kiln dried live edge slab as thick as you want to specify in two weeks time.
Previous drying techniques required the natural moisture bound in the wood’s pores to be pulled out over lengthy time periods by the natural evaporation process, or dangerous chemicals. The uneven moisture distribution or differing speeds often caused warping – the thicker the plank, the more likely that it would dry with warping on it’s length or bowing on it’s narrow dimension. The microwave kiln drying technique applies stabilizing pressure across the plank within the drying process. The heat from the microwave boils water out the natural linear pores that transport water up and down the plant’s living tissues. Plants contain a vast network of conduits made up of xylem and phloem tissues. Water and nutrient transport are powerful enough to flow from the roots of a redwood all the way up to the leaves.
Successful Slab Drying in Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic
Grain ‘figure’ is common term for the shape, structure, pace, and overall look and feel of the open grain of the board we prepare for you. We have several generations of experience selecting and preparing finish grade woods. We’re really excited about the possibilities the new drying technology brings to change market sensibility and share our love for the beauty of wood in restaurants, homes, and offices. The scientific name for wood tissue is xylem; it consists of a few different kinds of cells. The cells that conduct water (along with dissolved mineral nutrients) are long and narrow and are no longer alive when they function in water transport. Some of them have open holes at their tops and bottoms and are stacked more or less like concrete sewer pipes. Other cells taper at their ends and have no complete holes. All have pits in their cell walls, however, through which water can pass. Water moves from one cell to the next drawn up to the top of the plant through the pressure difference created by evaporation from the leaves.
Changing the market through price and availability
We have been installing wooden counter tops for 10 years throughout Virginia, but that has been in the face of their difficulty to produce. The difficulty has been reflected in their pricing. As we iron out the production challenges in 2018 consumers can expect to see a basic ‘showroom’ style presentation that will allow them to see the complete grain figure (in the rough) before the final finish carpentry is begun. We believe the up front awareness and lower costs will lead to healthy growth in the use and popularity of these live edge planks and slabs. Organic may be a buzzword in today’s design world, but we feel the appeal of wood products stem from our familiarity with them from our environment. It’s like God wanted us to build with wood – and if you ask Noah he’d tell you he was ordered to build with wood right, God even told him the species he needed to use! It was gopher wood – which might have been more instructions instead of a genus or species….ok we’ll lay off the bad jokes!
Touch the good vibes of wood
What is good design – can you feel it in your touch – will your body intrinsically know?
Lay your hand on one of our wooden counter-tops; you won’t feel the cold of granite, concrete or stainless steel. You won’t feel the hollowness of a Formica covering chipboard, or the mix of cool and foreignness of the resin based plastic one-piece. Wood’s natural balance of heft and lightness – bounce and absorption – it feels natural! Whether you are outfitting a kitchen, dining room or office space root your room’s harmony on a large slice of exposed wood grain. We don’t want to go all the way out onto the thin limbs, but we’ll stand on the trunk of good vibes and say that wood has supported all our good decisions, political negotiations and loving family dinners for several epochs of human experience. Let us craft you a piece that brings good roots of natural peace into your home.