May I ask whether you air dry Sweet Chestnut for a time before they go in the kiln so the tannins don’t hurt the kiln unit. This is something I’ve read elsewhere and was curious as it looks like you might have the same unit as I have from Logosol uk? Cheers!
Hi Lindsay, I would say from my experience that The Chestnut had a lot more tannic acid than oak and yes the elements have suffered noticeable corrosion. From my experience I would discourage you from kilning Chestnut at all if possible. The boards that I kilned suffered a great deal cell collapse, I’ve not had this problem when drying Oak from a green state so made the assumption that Chestnut would behave similarly, despite warnings from the saw mill. The 1/2″ planking stock that I air dried has dried perfectly and evenly, this is the only way that Would dry any sort of Chestnut from now on. Other issues to note are that, if the log isn’t cut yet and there is a possibility of using a stainless blade this will help keeping black specks off the surfaces from the outset. Also put the boards in stick as soon as possible as green chestnut on green chestnut will start the black staining process. Once dry, the black staining issue is far less of a problem. I have found that a non-sappy pine is best (ideally spruce) for sticks, don’t be tempted to use chestnut offcuts. Hope that helps, and if you want to see what I mean by cell collapse I can send a pic of a board end….. J.
Devon craftsman 
May I ask whether you air dry Sweet Chestnut for a time before they go in the kiln so the tannins don’t hurt the kiln unit. This is something I’ve read elsewhere and was curious as it looks like you might have the same unit as I have from Logosol uk? Cheers!
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Hi Lindsay, I would say from my experience that The Chestnut had a lot more tannic acid than oak and yes the elements have suffered noticeable corrosion. From my experience I would discourage you from kilning Chestnut at all if possible. The boards that I kilned suffered a great deal cell collapse, I’ve not had this problem when drying Oak from a green state so made the assumption that Chestnut would behave similarly, despite warnings from the saw mill. The 1/2″ planking stock that I air dried has dried perfectly and evenly, this is the only way that Would dry any sort of Chestnut from now on. Other issues to note are that, if the log isn’t cut yet and there is a possibility of using a stainless blade this will help keeping black specks off the surfaces from the outset. Also put the boards in stick as soon as possible as green chestnut on green chestnut will start the black staining process. Once dry, the black staining issue is far less of a problem. I have found that a non-sappy pine is best (ideally spruce) for sticks, don’t be tempted to use chestnut offcuts. Hope that helps, and if you want to see what I mean by cell collapse I can send a pic of a board end….. J.
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