: I have a chance to buy some very nice reclaimed old growth Western Red cedar
: for $4.00 BF ($3.00 US) but it is quite green. I told the man I couldn't
: wait a year for it to dry so he told me he could have it kiln dried.
: Somewhere I read that it is better to use airdried cedar for kayak
: building but I don't remember why. Is anyone out there using kilndried
: cedar for their boat building? Do you have any problems with it?
: William

OLD GROWTH CEDAR, rare stuff! Buy it! I'm not familiar with air drying WRC but have done so with northern white vedar.
and I assume it would be very similar.It drys very fast

Make a little solar drying greenhouse around the stack of boards.
Lay black plastic on the ground and make a back wall of black plastic held with sticks.
Sticker the boards, that is, lay 3/4" X 3/4" sticks across each layer of boards and leave 1" spaces between each board to allow
air flow. Then on the south side and top lay clear plastic over a stick frame. Make a vent low on one end and high on the other.

If you have sunny weather the boards should be dry in a couple months.

Most WRC we use is kiln dried, however, if you have the chance to get air dried wood
it is better because you will be able to bend it more readily with a heat gun.

The natural glue, lignin, which holds the wood fibers together can be reactived in air dried
woods very easily. Kiln drying wood changes the lignin so it will not bend as easily.

If you can bend strips with a heat gun you will be able to more easily align the strip edges.

If all your strip edges are perfectly aligned your hull will be perfectly fair and you will have
less work in every following step of the building process.

All the best,
Rob Macks
Laughing Loon CC&K
www.laughingloon.com