When can you use freshly cut wood for inlay?

[warfrat73]

A couple of weeks ago I cut down a fairly small Butternut that was too close to the house.

I was cutting it up today to use as firewood. And found that the heartwood has a bit of stripeyness and silking. I did a little reading and found that it's supposed to take on a pretty nice luster when finished.

Obviously can't use it right away, but how long would be an appropriate time to wait to use it for maybe rosettes or other inlay (nothing structural)? I know it's not the most practical thing, or the most figured wood... but I do like the idea of using something that I cut down and processed myself, even in a small way.

Any practical way to speed that up... greater surface area being the obvious passive way.

Obviously, I don't have a kiln to dry it in.
IMG_20210606_134247.jpg

[JonWint]

If it's veneer/inlay thickness (<0.1"), has air contact on both sides, and acclimates in your guitar building area, I'd be OK in at least a week, two preferred.

[printer2]

As inlay it will not be structural to a great extent. Stick a piece in the oven.

[warfrat73]

Originally Posted by printer2

Stick a piece in the oven.

The thought had occurred to me.

[John Arnold]

Stack the wood on dry sticks and put a fan on it. The thinner the wood, the faster it will dry.
Butternut is relatively easy to dry without excessive warping or cracking.

[RoyBoy]

Air drying hardwood lumber generally takes a year per inch of thickness, IIRC. Resawing it to closer to final thickness will speed that up drastically. A moisture meter would obviously be the ideal way to know when you're there. If you have a machinist's caliper, you could monitor it's width at a given point and dry it until it's no longer shrinking.

Depending on how thin you resaw it- besides stickering it, I'd put weight on top of the stickers to minimize warping as it dries. If it's green, expect it to move a lot and need flattening once dry. Obviously, you want to resaw it over thickness, I'd go 50% over size from final thickness to play it safe.

The last thing you want is to glue it in and then have it shrink, opening gaps around the edges.

[charles Tauber]

Butternut is a very soft wood. It would not hold-up well to any high-contact areas, necessitating any butternut inlays be in areas that don't get much contact. It would work well in a rosette, for example.

[Frank Ford]

If you cut it to inlay veneer thickness, I'd say pretty much any wood will be dry enough by the time you can get to work on the lnlay . . .