Can You Really Dry Hardwood Fast? Here’s the Truth

As woodturners, we all want the same thing. As much wood as possible, for the best price possible.

The cheapest way to do that is usually greenwood. Freshly felled logs, storm damage, tree surgeons clearing jobs. If you’re prepared to put in the effort, there’s incredible value there.

But it comes at a physical price.

Most beginners search for ways to “dry wood fast” because they’ve just processed their first small batch of green timber. The thinking is simple:

'' Great, I did it. Now how do I do it better and faster? ''

Sauno kiln drying greenwood bowls only

Breaking down logs, cutting blanks, managing weight, sealing end grain — that first haul can be exhausting. When I first started processing serious volumes of greenwood, I quickly realised that having the right setup matters. A solid cutting station makes a huge difference, which is why I later wrote about Setting Up a Simple Cutting Bench for Woodturning Blanks. It saves your back and keeps things consistent.

The bigger problem, though, isn’t cutting. It’s drying.

And like most beginners, I tried to dry hardwood fast. Most of what I tried early on failed.

In this post, I’ll go through what didn’t work first, and then what I actually use now.

The Pressure of That First Batch

The biggest issue with cutting greenwood isn’t the cutting itself. It’s drying your very first haul.

When you start out, your shelves are empty. You’ve nothing seasoned. You’re excited. You want bowls turning next week, not next year.

So you rush. I certainly did. I rushed the rough processing. I rushed the drying. And I paid for it.

I built my own DIY kiln at the time (I wrote about that here: Make Your Own DIY Wood Drying Kiln). It worked in principle, but I didn’t respect the process.

I opened the door too often.I adjusted the vent holes too aggressively.I tried to “help” the wood dry.

What I actually did was case harden the first batch.

The outer fibres dried too quickly, the inside stayed wet, and I created internal tension. The wood looked dry and even tested as dry with moisture meters. It wasn’t. Secondary movement later proved that.

I go into the mechanics of moisture movement and why bowls crack in more detail in my post, Wood Moisture – Why Bowls Crack as They Dry.

That batch taught me a lesson. You can’t bully wood into drying.

Moving to a Sauno Kiln

After leaving the DIY kiln behind, I invested in a Sauno kiln from Logosol Ireland.

This system was different. It could introduce steam and bring the temperature up to around 70°C. The steaming process helps burst cell walls and equalise moisture movement, which genuinely allows faster drying — when done correctly.

But again, enthusiasm got ahead of experience.

My first batch into the Sauno included:

• Greenwood bowls with 2-inch walls

• Blanks that were 3 inches thick

• Some at 4 inches thick

I was so excited to have a real kiln that I left good sense behind and put in every scrap of greenwood I could find. That was a mistake.

Sauno kiln first attempt – mixed bowl and spindle stock

If your bowl stock is 2 inches thick, then any blanks drying alongside it should also be around 2 inches thick. Mixing thicknesses creates uneven drying rates.

Worse again, I mixed species of different densities in the same batch. That’s asking for trouble. Denser hardwoods dry differently to lighter species. They shouldn’t be treated the same.

The kiln wasn’t the problem. My ignorance or my impatience was.

The Paper Bag Method (And Controlled Experiments)

Around this time, I had so much wood in rotation that I could afford to experiment.

One method I tested properly was the paper bag method.

It’s very low cost and surprisingly effective when done correctly.

Here’s what I used:

● A strong brown paper bag — in Ireland, the Pennies bags are actually ideal

● A freshly rough-turned greenwood bowl

● End grain sealed with glue applied (dried overnight)

● Wet shavings from that same bowl, placed inside and all around it

● A drying rack with airflow all around

● An oscillating fan to keep air moving gently

● A dehumidifier set low to regulate room moisture

The key is not just heat. It’s controlled, gradual moisture reduction.

This method works best when the bowl has been rough turned to an even thickness. It’s not magic. It doesn’t make wood dry overnight. But it slows down the outside while the inside catches up, reducing cracking.

Two Kilns, Same Mistake

Around this time, I bought a second Sauno kiln.

Between the two of them, I could now dry a serious volume of stock. I followed the manufacturer’s instructions carefully, but what I didn’t yet understand was that those instructions needed fine tuning specifically for hardwood bowls. The kiln was more suited to drying stock lumber rather than bowls.

This would effectively be my second and third serious drying attempts. I hadn’t salvaged enough usable stock from the first batch, so I was still under pressure.

Kiln one went on first. Kiln two followed a few days later.

Everything looked good. I was monitoring the drip from the top vent, watching moisture escape, convincing myself it was all under control.

Then impatience crept in again.

After a few weeks, I increased the gap in the top vents.

That single decision cost me about 30% of the stock in both kilns.

Cracks started appearing unbeknownst to me. Some subtle. Some terminal.

I wanted wood faster. I lost wood faster. That was the lesson.

Drying wood requires patience. Not intervention.

Other “Fast” Methods I Looked At

When you’re determined to speed things up, you start researching every shortcut available.

Some I tested. Some I decided against.

Microwaving

The microwave method is well known. You heat the bowl for short bursts, remove it, bag it while cooling, weigh it and then repeat until the weight stabilises.

In theory, it works for small pieces. But many of my bowls were 12 inches or more in diameter. Realistically, this wasn’t practical for me. I never bothered trying it seriously because I knew it didn’t scale to the type of stock I was processing.

Desiccants

I did experiment with desiccants.

I started with cat litter type products on small pieces. Later, I sourced 20kg of silica gel and ran a proper test on small oak blanks.

The theory is simple:

● Completely immerse the bowl or blank in silica gel

● Ensure it is evenly surrounded

● Allow the desiccant to pull moisture out from all sides

In the video I watched, it worked beautifully. The maker had a small bowl ready to finish within days.

My result?

Every single oak piece cracked.

The desiccant dried them aggressively. Too aggressively. The endgrain areas cracked wide open. Oak may have been the wrong species to test this out on but it certainly showed me the most extreme negative.

The theory wasn’t wrong. The application to denser hardwood stock was.

I abandoned that method quickly.

Household Dehumidifier & Fans

Before settling on the methods I use now, I also tried a much simpler setup.

A sealed off area. Racks of wood. An oscillating fan running continuously. A basic household dehumidifier.

And yes, this method can work.

If the fan runs gently 24/7 and the dehumidifier is used sparingly to control overall room moisture rather than aggressively strip the air, you can achieve reasonably steady drying.

The key again is control, not force.

If the airflow feels too direct on the wood surfaces and you begin to see checking starting, you can hang a sheet or light barrier between the fan and the wood. Plastic sheets with vertical slits will do the same thing while allowing some air through, this would be better than full sheets.

That breaks the direct blast and creates indirect, circulating air movement instead. Gentle movement is far safer than constant direct air hitting the end grain.

That said, there are a few important cautions.

Most household appliances are not rated to run continuously for months at a time and high moisture content areas might not be the best for them either. If you go down this route, I would strongly recommend having a second fan and a second dehumidifier so you can alternate usage and reduce strain on the motors.

This setup can be cost effective.

But it is not maintenance free.

You need:

● Fire safety in mind

● A fire extinguisher(s) in the area

● A way to monitor the room without opening the door constantly

● Discipline not to over-dry the air too quickly

And I would not recommend running this kind of setup inside a living area of a house.

Dedicated outbuildings or properly separated spaces are far safer.

Like most drying methods, this one works when monitored carefully — and fails when pushed too hard.

Where I Was Going Wrong

Looking back, the problem wasn’t kilns. It wasn’t desiccants. It wasn’t technique.

It was pressure.

I was trying to force wood to behave on my timeline. Wood doesn’t care about your timeline.

Once I accepted that, things improved dramatically.

I stopped chasing speed — and started managing moisture.

What I Do Now

The first major change I made was stepping away from kiln drying bowls altogether. I'm not in a rush to make bowls for shops and instead I concentrate on direct sales. Slow suits me fine these days.

For bowls, I returned to the paper bag method, but with discipline.

Every week:

● I remove the bowls from the bags

● Turn over the bowl interior shavings

● Adjust the shavings

● Check moisture levels in the paper

If the bag feel very damp/wet, they either get moved closer to airflow or replaced with a new dry bag.

The brown paper bag method requires four things:

● A stable temperature environment day and night

● Bags folded over properly so no wood is exposed

● Enough shavings to keep the bowl surface away from the bag

● Gentle air movement so moisture evaporates from the paper

● A dehumidifier set low, just enough to regulate the room

I had an insulated container for drying lots of bowls. This method can be very labour intensive when you have 70 or 80 bowls drying at the same time. The end results are better though. Very few failures and the wood keeps it's natural tones where a kiln can darken them. As I am not specialising in bowl production, this method suits me just fine. If I feel the wood is almost ready, I'll give it another month to be sure.

Once the readings on the bowls are around 9 to 10% moisture content or I see an oval foot they are removed to my dry store in the house where the wood will reach equilibrium with the moisture content of the room. I recommend allowing 2 weeks to 2 months for this stage, just to be sure.

Note: Beech can be dried in paper bags as long as you are very diligent about changing the shavings or the bag each week. Allowing the bowl to sit out for a few minutes before going back into the bag helps. Beech will develop mildew if not checked often. Ash, Elm are perfect for this process and won't suffer the same way, largely because they have a lower moisture content than Beech when cut.

Remember, if you want to dry wood, the main thing you need at every stage is Control.

Drying is just one stage in the overall process. If you want to see how I move from log to finished piece, I explain the full workflow in my post, My Process: How I Approach Woodturning from Log to Finished Piece.

Spindle Blanks – A Different Approach

For spindle blanks, I used an insulated Barna shed with drying racks installed. I showed photos of this setup in my post on How to Process Logs for Woodturning, where I go into more detail about rack spacing and airflow. I also have an image there for better clarity.

A fan gently pushes air from the intake vent towards a rear vent, creating a slow, consistent current. These are located on the external walls, high up near the ridge top.

The temperature rises gradually during the day and drops gradually at night. Moist air comes off the wood during the day as the temperature comes up and the fan in theory pushes the moisture out via the rear vent. The key word is here is gradually.

I often say never “shock” the wood.

By shock, I mean rapid extremes. Sudden heat. Sudden drying. Sudden moisture loss.

Those quick extremes cause immediate stress and, very often, immediate cracks.

If you avoid shocking the wood, you’re already halfway there. After about three months I remove the wood to a secondary drying location but quite a lot of moisture has already gone by this stage.

I should also mention that I very carefully inspect each piece for insect activity and if I spot any signs, the piece does not go any further with the rest of the batch.

Can You Really Dry Hardwood Fast?

So getting back to the original question. Can you really dry hardwood fast?

You can speed up drying. You cannot remove time from the process.

Wood is a natural material. Drying wood is, in many ways, an unnatural act. We are asking something living to stabilise in an environment it didn’t grow in.

There are controlled drying systems that can produce predictable results when properly set up and properly monitored. They require space, insulation, equipment, and a good understanding of moisture movement.

Glenn Lucas has one of the best controlled drying setups I’ve seen so far, using an Arrowsmith dehumidifier inside an insulated truck body split into two sections. It produces very predictable results. Unfortunately, they are no longer being made.

But that kind of system is a serious investment. It’s not realistic for most beginners.

If you are just starting out, you don’t need industrial solutions. You need control.

Control of thickness. Control of airflow. Control of moisture. Control of impatience.

If you want wood quickly, the best thing you can do is start drying it today.

Build rotation. Always have stock processing. Always have stock drying. Always have stock ready.

That way, you’re not forcing this week’s wood to be next month’s project.

Because in the end, the fastest way to dry wood…

Is to stop trying to rush it.

Thanks for Reading,

David

About the Author

I’m David Condon, a woodturner and small business owner based in Tralee, Co. Kerry. I’ve been working with wood for most of my life at this stage — 11 years as a carpenter and over a decade running my own woodturning business.

Over the years, I’ve learned that woodturning is as much about patience and problem-solving as it is about tools and technique. I work mainly with Irish hardwoods, teach woodturning full-time, and spend most days learning something new in the workshop myself. On this site, I share the same practical knowledge I pass on to my students, shaped by experience, mistakes, and time spent at the lathe. If you’re interested in learning in person, I offer woodturning lessons in Tralee, with details available on my Woodturning Tuition page.

© David Condon Woodcraft – All Rights Reserved.

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More Woodturning Pages to Explore​

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