Drying and milling the wood

  When i bought the wood it was soaking wet. Quite heavy too. So I had to get it dry. I'm storing it at the shop I'm Foreman of. I have lots of room and will be building my canoe here too.

  I let the wood sit for a couple weeks, testing the moisture content with a reader, it started reading at 32% moisture. But I think it was more as my arm reads at 32% ( don't think it can read any higher) A week later it was around 23%. 2 more weeks later 13% . i figured now was a good time to cut into the cedar and see what it was like. This old growth cedar has incredibly tight grain.

  I started cutting at just under 5/16 thick with a fairly thin blade on the table saw. first thing i noticed was the wood was still quite moist in the centre where the moisture reader couldn't read. So I'll have to let it dry some more. I cut 4 of the 5 boards into strips knowing they would dry alot faster with more exposure. I kept the last board in case i want to use it for anything else. My goal is to end up with a fairly light canoe. So using cedar where i can will help with weight. I joined one edge of the 16 ft boards by hand as i have no electric joiner. Plus my training is mostly hand tools. So i enjoy using them whenever i can as a spent years collecting and then finally building my toolbox for them. It's not a finished toolbox as i've a few more tools to get. But it's coming along nicely. I want to carve the front side some more too.