December 27, 2011  

Metal: It’s Like It Grows On Trees

Often, when talking about milling a log, I talk about the potential for it to have metal in it. I take for granted that everyone knows what I am talking about, but I was reminded recently that it is not always the case. I mentioned in an earlier post that a log had metal in it, and a friend of mine didn’t know what I was talking about. He asked, “How does metal get in trees?” Well, I am here to tell you how – any way imaginable. You name it, if it is made of metal, it is probably in a tree somewhere.

This horseshoe is on display at Mueller Brothers Timber.

You see, trees are magnets for pieces of metal. Young boys put them in trees for fun. They might be in the form of one small nail to hold a target or a series of large nails every 12″ to anchor tree house steps. Single trees in a fenced-in back yard are especially susceptible because they are sitting ducks and the focus of much attention. Even adults get in on the action with big hooks to hold hammocks, clothes lines, and bird feeders. Not to mention the trees close to the street that get nails from everyone’s signs.

The beauty of the nail is that there is usually more than one. I always say, “Why put in one nail, when you can put in twenty?” I have often thought that if I find one nail, I should just ditch the entire tree, but that is usually only on hot days, and when I am cutting low-grade logs. Otherwise, I suffer through it, dulling blades and cutting at a slower pace, while I check the log with a metal detector before each cut. On those same days, I often think about a new program that I will start for school-aged children called “Save The Lumber,” where I will teach the importance of hammer restraint.

Nails are removed by cutting around with a chainsaw and then popping out the chunk with a hammer.

The secret to the metal situation is that the trees grow over the metal. Nails that were driven 70 years ago are deep within a log, with no sign on the outside. Certain trees, like oaks especially, will show stains on the end of the logs from the metal reacting with the tannin in the wood, but that doesn’t tell you exactly where the metal is, just that there is metal close. So these things just sit in there, waiting to tear up the saw blade. They usually don’t ruin the blades we use on the portable mills, but they make them very dull and mess up the set (which is the amount the teeth are bent out to provide clearance for the blade). Larger pieces of metal can wreak havoc on bigger equipment though, and be very dangerous. In fact, putting large pieces of metal, like railroad spikes, in trees was a tactic used by activists to try to deter logs from being harvested. These days, all mills have metal detectors, so this is less of a problem at the mill.

A nice wide elm board ruined with nail holes.

I get most of my logs from an urban environment and know that the bottom log is prone to have metal in it (usually between 4′-5′ from the ground, where people can easily reach). For me, it is part of the deal and I work with it. There are, however, plenty of logs that are better not to cut, but I usually suffer through them anyway. I had one recently that prompted this post, and I have put up a photo of the carnage to drive home the point. It was a beautiful 14′ long super-straight elm log that would have produced wide and perfect boards, except for the nails, nails, and more nails. It also happened to be the one that bent up my mill, causing me to make a new part, which I decided to grind on, which created sparks, that, in turn, burned down my shop. That was a log that I should have never messed with!

December 20, 2011  

Siberian Elm And American Elm: Leaders Of The Elm Revolution

I cut elm logs whenever I can – too much probably, because the market for elm isn’t that great. It isn’t because elm is terrible, it’s because most people have never used elm, and most people have never used elm because it isn’t readily available.

Well, I am here to change that with my not-so-new (drum roll please) Elm Revolution. This movement started after I used elm for the first time about 15 years ago and, to be frank, hasn’t quite taken over the world. Alright, alright, it hasn’t gotten much further than me and a few of my friends, and I don’t know why. I think elm deserves a place in the top ten of hardwoods for everyone, with Siberian Elm in the top five for me. My top ten goes something like this:

  1. Cherry
  2. Walnut
  3. Quartersawn white Oak
  4. Siberian Elm
  5. Soft Maple (with character)
  6. Eastern White Pine
  7. Flatsawn White Oak
  8. American Elm
  9. Quartersawn Sycamore (I rarely use flatsawn because it is too unstable)
  10. Red Oak

Note: My choices are limited to species available locally in St. Louis, MO. However, almost every domestic hardwood grows in this area.

The order of the species will fluctuate depending on the job, but both the elms are always in my top ten. If the job will be made completely from solid wood and I have elm available, I almost always present it to the customer as a choice.

Siberian Elm has a unique grain pattern.

Of the elms, the two that lead my revolution are Siberian Elm and American Elm. I like them both and choose between them and other species depending on a few variables. The first is the color of the wood, specifically the color of the final piece. Both elms take stain easily and consistently, very similar to oak, which makes medium to darker colors easily achievable. However, when I am looking for a white wood, the elms aren’t the ticket. Siberian Elm is mostly heartwood, which is a medium brown, and American Elm is usually stained in color (from standing dead after succumbing to Dutch Elm disease).

The second variable is the grain pattern and how pronounced it is. Siberian Elm has a strong grain pattern, especially when stained. It stands out a lot and is not the wood to use if subtlety is desired. However, if you are looking for a showy wood, the elm’s are for you. Siberian Elm is the standout of the two, and commonly has small knots that can range from just a couple per board, to a birds-eye look, and even heavily burled. It is not uncommon for only one in ten logs of Siberian Elm to have straight grain, with the rest having varying degrees of funkiness. American Elm is more consistently straight-grained, refined, and stains with less contrast. The beauty of American Elm comes from the grain itself and not from the growths within it. The interlocked grain of the elms causes a little zig-zaggy pattern between each growth ring that looks like a feather and is best seen in flatsawn boards. The figure has an iridescent quality about it and really pops with a dye stain.

Andy & Tyler (WunderWoods) show off the waviest Siberian Elm boards.

A big issue, and the third variable, is stability. Elms do not dry flat and are more unstable than other woods in service. When I pull boards from the kiln it is easy to tell when I have gotten to the elms. Siberian Elm will dry with cup, bow, twist, and crook, as well as a lot of waves, especially in lower-grade boards like those in the photo to the right. American Elm is just as cantankerous, but doesn’t usually have the waves. It goes strong towards cup and twist. The amazing thing is that after drying and straightening the boards on the jointer, they stay relatively flat. Notice, I say relatively, because they can still move a little if they are not quartersawn (everything is more stable if it is quartersawn). Because of this potential for movement, I don’t use elm where movement may cause something to get out of alignment and stand out. For example, I would use elm on cabinets with larger gaps between the doors, but not on large cabinet doors where I was trying to maintain perfect reveals – it is just asking for trouble.

This American Elm is straight-grained, but stood dead for awhile.

Elm ranks low on the durability scale, which is the fourth variable to consider. Because of this, I only use elms indoors. In the log form it rots pretty quickly and starts to have issues after only one season outside. Both elms can be used for anything inside, including flooring. American Elm is harder than Siberian Elm, which I compare to walnut, but I have done floors with both, and they seem to stand up fine.

Siberian Elm table by Martin Goebel of Goebel & Co. furniture.

Availability may be the biggest hurdle to overcome after you decide to give elm a try. Elm is not readily available in either American or Siberian. American Elm is scarce because it is attacked and killed by Dutch Elm Disease, which has wiped most of them out. They are still out there and get to good size, but are usually only available after they are dead. If they are alive, most people prefer to leave them standing because they have a nice shape. Siberian Elm was brought in as a Dutch Elm Disease-resistant tree and only grows in areas where it was planted (though it does reproduce prolificly and spread from where it was planted). Because of this Siberian Elm mostly grows where sawmills aren’t, which means it doesn’t get cut very often.

The main difference when working with elm compared to other woods, is the interlocking grain mentioned earlier, which kicks hand planes and several other hand tools out of the equation. Other than that, they work like most any other hardwoods.

Jeff Herman (WunderWoods) installs a Siberian Elm front door.

If you get a chance to use an elm, especially Siberian Elm, give it a shot and help move this revolution thing forward. I know a lot of people who have tried them and liked them. As a matter of fact, two of my friends have just introduced furniture lines with Siberian Elm as a choice. Long Live Elm!

December 11, 2011  

Mueller Brothers Timber Sawmill: This Is How To Bust Up A Log

Last week, I went to one of my favorite places; Mueller Brothers Timber in Old Monroe, MO. The sawmill can produce over 20,000 Bd. Ft. of grade sawn hardwood lumber per day. That equals about six tractor-trailer loads or about 200 average size logs. I get tired just thinking about it. I went to buy some lumber to replace a small batch that was burned in my fire. Randy was probably even more helpful than normal because it wasn’t that long ago that his sawmill caught on fire too. It seems like every sawmill has a fire in its history.

While I was there, I wanted to take a photo of their walnut steamer for an earlier posting. Since I had my camera out, and it was lunchtime, I ran around and got some photos of the place. You can’t fully appreciate the operation unless you see it in person, but I thought I would give it a shot. The main thing that you need to see in person is the headsaw, which is the first saw that the log meets. When I tell people about this bad-ass saw it involves crazy hand motions and sound effects by me, but the bottom line is that it turns, grabs, positions and makes a full pass on a log up to 40″ in diameter in about 10 seconds. To reset and make the second cut takes even less. The saw has a lot of power and a lot of blade. I used to have a Corley circle saw with a 48″ bottom saw and 30″ top saw that I thought was very capable. I didn’t measure theirs, but my best guess is that the bottom saw is 60″ and the top saw is 48″. They cut at the same time and allow the mill to process some extra-large logs. They need this capacity because the mill is right next to the Mississippi river and they get some huge sycamores and cottonwoods.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The entire process starts at the debarker, where logs are spun around and processed with a cutterhead that works like a big planer. The object here is to get the bark off, which contains dirt and grit that damages saw blades and to shape the log, so that it sits nicely on the carriage at the headsaw. The debarker at Mueller Brothers is especially good at removing humps and reducing the butt end of logs. After the logs are cleaned up they go to the infeed deck where they wait to be loaded on the carriage of the headsaw. The headsaw is used to quickly get logs squared up into four-sided cants (logs with square sides) for further processing. On bigger logs the sawyer might cut a few boards off at this point to make the cants smaller for the following saws, but they don’t like to cut too many boards here because the kerf (width of the saw cut) is large and wastes material.

After being squared up the cants go to a transfer that leads them through a metal detector and to the twin-band runaround resaw. This machine is also on steroids, but doesn’t have the superfast feed speeds. It is designed for consistent, steady and accurate sawing. This is the point where the highest grade of lumber is produced and it is important for the sawyer’s to get a good look at what they are doing so they can make good decisions. The cants go in a merry-go-round fashion through the twin bandsaws after being flipped to the best face before each cut. The twin bands are big at 8″ wide and let’s just say super long (they use an overhead crane to change them). The twin bandsaws can be positioned to take two boards off of the same side or one board off of each side, allowing for a lot of flexibility and making up for slower feed speeds by cutting two boards in one pass.

Boards that are produced without square edges go to the edger and then to the end trimmer, while boards with square edges follow another path directly to the trimmer. After the boards are edged and end trimmed they go to the green chain, which is a system of chain conveyors that separate the lumber by length and feed it slowly to the stackers at the end of the mill. At this point the sawing is done and then the lumber is either sold “green,” or it is stacked on sticks to air dry and then put in kilns to be kiln dried.

The best part for me is hanging out along the green chain and watching the lumber come out. I will sometimes buy lumber green from Mueller Brothers, and there are times that  I can’t get up and down the chain fast enough to get to the boards that catch my eye before they are buried. This mill can bust up logs fast!

December 5, 2011  

Why Quartersawn Lumber Is So Stable: The 0-1-2 Rule In Action

So, now because of my earlier post, “Have You Heard About Shrinkage,” you’ve been thinking 0-1-2, 0-1-2, slow, slow, quick, quick (if you’ve ever taken a dance class with your wife you’ll get that one), and you are still a little confused. Most likely you got bored reading about the 0-1-2 rule I wrote about earlier and drifted off, but this is where it all comes together.

Lumber basically comes in three categories of cuts, which refer to the angle of the growth rings in relation to the surface of the lumber; flatsawn, quartersawn, and riftsawn. A board can be any of these three or anywhere between these three, and since the growth rings form a circle, the category can even change within a board. That’s right, wider boards can have centers that are flatsawn while the outer edges are riftsawn and possibly quartersawn. That is why I push for an understanding of the cut of lumber and worry less about the name.

Lumber cuts are determined from the end grain, not necessarily from the process that produced them.

To the right are the three cuts in their most pure form (the three in the top right of the log diagram) and others that are thrown in for fun. The “fun” ones are to show that it doesn’t matter what process was used to get the lumber from the log (flatsawing, quartersawing, etc.) or its orientation in the log, it is the growth ring direction that counts. The growth rings of flatsawn lumber are parallel to the widest surface, while the growth rings of quartersawn lumber are perpendicular to the widest surface. The rings of riftsawn lumber are at a 45 degree angle. Remember, these refer to their purest forms and there are many cuts in between (as demonstrated by the “fun” names like Nifty Rifty Flatsawn).

This illustration shows how little quartersawn lumber shrinks compared to other cuts.

The next illustration shows the 0-1-2 rule in action. The three illustrations are table tops glued up from several pieces of wood. The first one is flatsawn lumber, the second is riftsawn, and the third is quartersawn. The numbers represent proportionally how much each piece will move in a given direction (remember that the length moves 0). In this case it is shown as shrinkage from a low-humidity environment, but it could also be expansion if the piece was stored in a high-humidity environment. Either way, the proportion of movement is the same. To make the proportions mean something, make them into fractions. Across the width, flatsawn lumber moves 2 over 1 when expressed as a fraction or 2/1, which simplifies to 2. Quartersawn moves 1 over 2 or 1/2. If you compare those two numbers (2 to 1/2), flatsawn moves four times as much as quartersawn across the width.

If I didn’t just lose you, then you can see by looking at the numbers and the second illustration that quartersawn lumber has the least amount of movement across the width, while flatsawn has the most. This makes the quartersawn the more stable of the two as far as expansion and contraction goes.

The other advantage to quartersawn lumber is its ability to stay flat. While flatsawn lumber has a propensity to cup, quartersawn lumber does not cup, and the 0-1-2 rule is the reason why. All of the heavy internal forces exerted on quartersawn lumber are in the thickness of the wood and going in only one direction, and they have little effect on the shape of the lumber. Those same forces on a flatsawn board are going across the entire face and in an arched trajectory. When these forces pull hard during shrinkage or push hard during expansion, they cause the lumber to take an arched shape that we call cup.

Quartersawn lumber will stay flat and move the least amount when in service. However, it is not so stable that the wood movement can be ignored in construction. When joining two boards, any movement between them that is not proportionally the same and in the same direction must be addressed by allowing the wood to move. Remember the 0-1-2 rule, and look at the boards you are joining to see if the numbers match. It is as easy as 0-1-2.

November 29, 2011  

Google SketchUp Is Free To Woodworkers!

When I started doing drawings for woodworking I used Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is a great program. It is used by designers throughout the world to do every kind of drawing, and it has more than enough capabilities to do nice drawings for woodworking. I already knew how to use it from my previous life as an art director, so I made it work for woodworking. The artboard would allow me to draw up to 200″ at full-scale. After that I had to scale down my drawings, but that wasn’t very often. The beauty of Illustrator was it’s ability to draw anything I dreamed up and to control the printing, which came in handy on full-size templates. I used the templates most often on curved pieces, and Illustrator is great at drawing curves with precise control.

For all of its positives, Illustrator has its drawbacks. First of all, it is difficult to learn, so I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone except those that do graphics for a living. Second, it is made to produce top-quality graphics, which means there are a lot of options but no templates, especially for anything related to woodworking. So, if you want to dimension a drawing, you have to individually draw arrows, layout the text between the arrows, rotate everything, and hope that it doesn’t need to be resized (because it doesn’t happen automatically). The third and biggest drawback is that it only does drawings in 2D. You can fake the 3D, but it is still just a 2D drawing. This became a more important issue as I noticed I was missing details because I couldn’t see the piece from different angles. The details were sometimes related to joinery, but were more often related to scale. A leg, for example, that looked well proportioned when viewed straight on was often actually too thick when viewed at an angle. With Illustrator and its 2D drawings, I just couldn’t see these things.

Obviously, it was time for a 3D drawing program, but I wasn’t interested in learning a new program. I wasn’t sure how much I would really use it, and after 9 years of driving a computer every day, I wasn’t in a hurry to drive more than I had to. For the most part, I wanted to be in the shop and only use the computer when I needed it.

So, my quest began. I looked at CAD programs, VectorWorks, Rhino-something, and others. I loaded them on my computer and tried them for free for 30 days. I used them for a couple of hours at the most, and could tell right away that they weren’t for me. It seemed like those programs were for folks that already knew what they were building but just wanted to get it in a very nice and presentable form. They didn’t seem conducive for designing. They weren’t going to work for a guy like me who often lacks direction until it shows up. I usually need to just work through things and figure them out, and none of those programs fostered that style. I would say they were very IBMish and I am very Macintoshish. Anyway, after a while, I just gave up on it, decided it wasn’t for me and just stopped looking. That, of course, is when the best things happen.

A friend of mine, Ron, who I would say is very IBMish, recommended that I check out Google SketchUp. He said it was free and it was for 3D drawings. I don’t know where he found out about it, but I do know I wasn’t in a hurry to check it out. After all, it was free. Nothing that is worthwhile is ever free. This program needed to cost at least $500 if Ron expected me to look at it (I scoffed). Knowing it was an obvious waste of time but wanting to give Ron a few valid reasons why I wasn’t going to use it, I visited Google and downloaded SketchUp.

It wasn’t love at first sight. The drawing maneuvers are like no other program I have used (again mostly Adobe products). It takes a different mindset to use SketchUp. But it didn’t take me long to figure out the basics – and get hooked. It was cool. In no time I was drawing simple shapes, zooming in and out, rotating, spinning, whatever, and doing it as fast as I could move. That is what I couldn’t believe. The program draws fast. You can slow it down with textures and photos if you want. But if you just want line drawings with some simple shadows for presentation, it is remarkably fast. After you build a piece, you can actually go in it and look at it from all angles – and see things you have never seen before.

SketchUp renderings like this are showing up everywhere.

I started to get excited, but I still didn’t want to spend the time learning a program that nobody used (remember, it was free). So, I started asking every architect I ran into what program they used for the renderings,  and suddenly the common answer was SketchUp. Apparently, Ron let everyone know about the program on the same day.

Now, I use SketchUp on every project and incorporate the drawings into the job for approval. It works out great because I can figure out the details at home and not make any dust or noise. It helps me design the job, make sure everything will fit together and work mechanically, and I use it to dimension parts, which it does semi-automatically and with good control.

This stove by Wolf is available with just a couple clicks.

Another great feature of SketchUp is the component warehouse. This is a spot where drawings hang out just waiting to be used. Here is how it works: Say you are drawing a kitchen, and you would like to show a refrigerator in the corner. In the past, somebody (meaning you) would have to draw it. Not anymore my friend. Just pop in the warehouse, find a refrigerator that you like and paste it into your drawing. The drawings in the warehouse are either uploaded by everyday users of SketchUp or, as is more commonly the case, by manufacturers that want you to spec their product. It is not uncommon for me to find every appliance perfectly drawn and ready to be inserted (for free) into my drawing.

The last and best feature of SketchUp is that it is Free! It is not awesome because it is Free, it is awesome and it is Free! I know at this point it sounds like I am working for Google, but I am not – it just simply works that good. Take the time to download it and give it a whirl. On your first go around do something simple and walk away. The next day, do a little more. Don’t try to learn it all at once and frustrate yourself. Take your time. It will be well worth it.

November 27, 2011  

Black Friday Blowout Event

Black Friday Blowout took on a whole new meaning this year. Unfortunately, the black was from all of the charcoal that needed to be cleaned up and the blowout was from, well, you know, the blowout. It worked out pretty nice because Friday was like a holiday/workday/freeday, so I didn’t feel so bad about working on the mess. There was no real plan except to pull out the tools that have some scrap value and to get the wood stacked and restacked (the fire department tore the stacks apart to put out the fire). I had help from Chris Law and Mike Stevens (thank you both), as well as Mark Soest who is donating the use of his loader, and we got a lot done. By the end of the day, the wood was stacked, the scrap was loaded, and most of the building was out of the way.

The sawmill can be saved. It got hot, but not as hot as the stuff in the building.

The only large tool that I plan to salvage is my sawmill. It is burned badly, needs a new engine, and it is missing almost everything that melts, but it was on the edge of the fire and didn’t get as hot. All of the other tools were inside the shop and are no longer straight, if they exist at all.

I took advantage of this shopping weekend to purchase my first replacement tools; a 6″ orbital sander, a Fuji hvlp system, and a few clamps. These are tools that I know I want new. Most of the rest, especially the bigger tools, I expect to replace with used equipment. I hope to again stumble on deals like a 12″ Crescent jointer for $300, or a 14″ Delta bandsaw for $25, or a Jet 13″ planer/molder that came with four sets of knives for $300.

I am in need of a 10″ tablesaw, a 20+” planer, a 12+” jointer, and/or Crescent Universal Woodworker (the coolest power tool ever). If you know of any of these available at a reasonable price, I would greatly appreciate a “heads up”.

The plan now is to work out of my garage at home, while I work on putting up a new shop. The concrete pad of the original shop is not in good enough shape for a shop floor, but will work well for parking trucks or lumber, so I am building the new shop adjacent to the pad. Next up is to get the electric back on, since it was roasted too.

I want to thank everyone that has offered their support, help and workshop. It is nice to know that I have so many places in St. Louis that I can stop by and make sawdust. Thanks again! Enjoy the slideshow.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

November 21, 2011  

How to Make Charcoal

This afternoon I got a call from a friend that lives near my sawmill/shop and he asked if I had been up there today. Well, the rest pretty much writes itelf.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We went up to check out the damage and maybe see if we could salvage anything, but the salvaging didn’t take long. Everything was vaporized, except the heavy iron, which is still pretty dead. I was amazed at how my tool boxes, which had drawers so full that you couldn’t close them, had almost nothing in them. I have saved a couple “C” clamps and a carpenter’s square so far, but that may be it. It was raining (about 12 hours too late), so we just left. Will find out more soon.

November 14, 2011  

Log Wins, Welding Begins

I own and run a TimberKing 1220 manual sawmill. The manual part means that it is not automated and less expensive than other bigger models. I have had several other sawmills, and overall I am happy with this one, though I would always like a bigger and better one. It is a small entry-level mill, but can still cut a log up to 30″, which is big.

In most ways my TimberKing mill is strong enough to handle the bigger logs, even though it is not really made for them. However, there is one area that I have found severely lacking, and that is the log supports. You see, when you put a log on the mill it may roll off, so the mill has two or three posts that can be raised into a vertical position to catch and hold the log during milling. They also can be lowered out of the path of the bandsaw blade when needed. The posts need to be strong enough to support the log in a resting position, and be able to handle the pressure placed on them when turning a log. They also need to be square to the bed to help make a round log into square lumber.

The log supports on my mill don’t do any of these things well. They are made from dainty little pieces of steel that can bend quite easily and are never square to the bed. Through the years I have bent them back – never to square, but back enough to support the logs. When I want a square cant (squared up log), I take the time to shim the log and use a carpenter’s square to make sure that everything is copacetic.

Both uprights (red) bent like wet noodles

Close-up of the upright, which used to be close to vertical and somewhat straight

Well, this week I finally did it. I put a large elm log on the mill, and I was adjusting it with a big loader when the log just rolled over the supports and off of the mill. It didn’t even notice they were there. The uprights looked like limp noodles, and it is obvious they aren’t going back to any acceptable shape. I bent them more than enough to finally provoke myself into making new ones.

The good news is that I bought the steel to do it a while ago, but have just never taken the time to do it. Looks, like now is the time.

November 7, 2011  

Have You Heard About Shrinkage?

As woodworkers we have developed our skills worrying about shrinkage, many knowing that quartersawn lumber is more stable, but not really understanding why. We know a piece of wood is going to get fatter in high-humidity and skinnier in lower humidity, but to what extent, and how is that going to effect the shape of the lumber. If the lumber that is being used isn’t obviously quartersawn then what will happen? Is it flatsawn? Or, is it riftsawn? Or, maybe, kinda riftsawn?

I say stop worrying about, and trying to name, the condition of each piece of wood when trying to understand how it will move. A simple rule can be applied to the log to understand wood movement, which can then be easily translated to the lumber. Following this rule will tell you how the lumber is going to shrink, no matter which part of the log it came from or the direction it was cut. Just looking at the endgrain will tell you everything you need to now about the lumber you are using.

This illustration shows how the 0-1-2 rule is applied to lumber in the log form.

The end view of this white oak shows how logs crack or check on the ends as they dry out. The cracks open up because of twice the amount of shrinkage in a circular direction.

I call the rule the 0-1-2 rule, which is a simple ratio of wood movement in three directions in a log. The first direction is along the length of the log. Since the movement along the length is negligible the number is 0. Basically, lumber does not shrink in length. The next number, 1, is applied across the end of the log. In this direction the lumber does shrink, and in a ratio of 1 to the 2 in a circular direction, or half as much. The third number is the 2. In this circular direction, the log shrinks twice as much as it does across the log.

This 1-2 ratio is what causes all the kerfuffle in wood movement. Since the two directions aren’t shrinking and/or expanding at the same rate, wood can’t just be thrown together any direction and expected to stay together. These movement forces are great and will blow things apart or break lumber if not allowed to move.

There is a lot more to be said in a complete discussion of wood movement, but this rule lays the groundwork for all further discussions. Study this one and get to know it like the back of your hand. After you do, it won’t matter what the cut of wood is called, you can just look at the end of the board, envision where it came from in the log, and know how it wants to move.

November 3, 2011  

“The” White Oak

This photo shows the color of fresh cut white oak on the left and white oak that was out for hours after cutting on the right.

Today, I was working on the large white oaks from the previous blog post, and I had a chance to snap a quick photo of an interesting phenomenon. On the stack of white oak lumber that I cut yesterday, I added some fresh lumber from this morning. It just worked out that I had two boards next to each other that clearly demonstrated a color change in white oak. This doesn’t happen in just any white oak, it happens only in “The” white oak, the one that is commercially sold as white oak.

You see, there are many different species of white oak in the white oak family of trees, like burr oak, swamp white oak, post oak and others, but none change color like “The” white oak. The change starts quickly after the lumber is cut. The wood goes from a tan color to a tan-pink or even just pink within an hour. However, don’t get too attached to the color because after the lumber dries for a day or two the color migrates back to the original tan color.

“The” white oak is not the only one to change colors after being freshly cut, but it is the only one where the color change is a key identifier. Others that change color include walnut, which goes from a green-brown color to a medium-dark brown color with no hint of green. Another one is cedar, which goes from a vibrant pink/purple to a medium-dark brown. The only other one that changes color like the white oak is ash, which develops a pink cast to it that then fades away in a day.

“The” white oak is in the white oak family and called white oak. This is tricky because it doesn’t have another name that clearly identifies it. For example, in the red oak family, the most desired species is called Northern Red Oak. But in the white oak family, the most desired species is also called white oak. I know that many people, including myself in the past, may be cutting a tree and wonder if it is “The” white oak. If it turns pink shortly after you cut it, it is.

« Older Posts
Newer Posts »