Well? I guess I prepare and use. We have lots of hardwood forest in our area; I buy rough cut Oak and poplar, walnut and other local hardwoods by the pallet from the Amish Auction? normally fresh from the saw mill and normally wet and cheep! ($40 $50 pallet?) The wood is normally about 8-12 inches wide from ? - 2 inches thick. 10-16 ft long ( I normally buy the mixed pallets not really paying much attention to the types of wood in it? it varies depending on what the mill is cutting at the time.
Using 2x6 & 3/4 inch bolts... I built Racks 8 foot wide hanging from the trusses in my pole barn and place the wood on those 5 racks with lots of spacers? Stacked about 5 ft deep. It gets HOT up in the top of the pole barn in the summer? I do get a little checking, cupping and splitting? (Those boards get cut up and burned in the wood stove which has a huge appetite during the cold months)
I rotate using wood from the racks depending on how long I have had it? the one I am working out of now has been on the rack about 3 years? and is good and dry? I am going through a lot more wood now that I am working in the shop more and working on our church? especially of the thin stuff now? that I have taken up scrolling? will have to go for a new load soon and be more picky. (So far My roofline in the pole barn is still not sagging)
When I get a project I want to do? I choose a likely looking board and plain it to the desired thickness and use
Like for Christmas ornaments this year? I pulled down a piece about ? thick of red oak about 10 inches wide 16 foot long and planed it down to about ? thick on my plainer? was beautiful! Cut it up into smaller pieces with my chop saw and it lasted most of the month?
I also get slab firewood at the saw mill (cut off?s) Burn a lot! Get it by the trailer load for the fire in the house or shop, Whenever I see walnut, good looking spalting, winge sassafras or any board for that matter that has good looking grain I rescue it from the burn pile and throw it in the stack I have in the barn to dry.
