This is a telling photo. First notice in the background you can see long boards spaced out to dry. Air drying takes a lot longer than kiln drying, but air drying allows the board to keep 100% of it's strength. The kiln often weakens the wood.

Max Baldwin is shown here feeding two foot boards into the SANDMAX wide belt sander. This process opens the grain so when the sealer is applied it can soak in deep. The standard technique is to use a moulder (like a planer) to surface the boards, but when sealer is applied it soaks in blotchy.