Woodchuck question first it was poplar now its mahagony

Federico

Federico

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Sep 5, 2000
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Woodchuck question, why is my cured wood misbehaving:mad: Today after spending many hours thinning down half inch thick mahagony boards with just a 12" AK and a finger plane (which has really made me realize that I need to buy a new plane), I was rewarded by 1/4 boards that liked to split and splinter every which way.:mad: 2 years ago when I bought the mahagony I used some right away, and they carved like a dream (sound familiar), now 2 years later (the boards look beautifully cured) they dont want to cooperate (again sound familiar). What is going on here? I had always thought that I was supposed to cure wood so they wouldnt do exactly what theyre doing now. Am I curing em wrong (ends sealed boards standing up in my room)? Any recommendations on how to deal with this darned splitting problem? Soak the boards in water, oil, etc...? Its been a mighty dry winter, could that be the reason all my boards are angry? My name is Fred and Im a woodchuck.....:confused:
 
Storing wood indoors has its drawbacks - your air-conditioning system acts as a dehumidifier. That may be at least part of the problem.

Also, the boards should be laying flat, not standing. And be sure to stack them with spacers so that they don't lay against each other and trap moisture.

And then there's the idea that you might have just bought a poorly treated set of boards...:(

I have mahogany pieces that are at least 6 years old and have been stored loosely in an open box. No problems so far...
 
Fed, I can only suggest feeding the wood some orange or lemon oil on a regular basis while you work it until you can seal the final shape. And perhaps try to rely more on sanding/sawing. If you use blades make sure that they are as sharp as you can get them, and make several passes taking thin shavings, instead of trying to hog off a lot in one pass. Are long cracks growing on their own (internal stress), or just when you carve it?

I'm working with a piece of peach root right now which I sorta quick cured by boiling the sap out, and then gently microwaved a bit over a few weeks to constant weight. (Don't recommend this unless no patience or no way to get aged wood--mixed success rate). Some light cracking, which I stablized with the oil. I can smoothly carve it with light passes, but trying to get thicker shavings results in very short splits or chunks coming up. Yet the wood seems pretty tough and resistant to denting. I guess I'd be leary of putting it on a big chopper though.
 
Pen I chose to store indoors since I wanted to normalize the wood to my work area conditions. The board stood for 1 year and half, then 6 months ago I cut them to working sizes and stored them flat (pencils for spacers). Dunno if the real dry winter had much to do with anything, but when I bought them (I have the greedy habit of buying a batch of wood and using some right away while storing the rest) they carved like a dream.

Firkin thanks for the tips, do you think mineral oil will work (I have more of that than any other oil), Ive given up on the current project (time constraints), but will try and use them again for another. These boards have been mighty frustrating. One moment nice clean shavings will come of, and then poof a long stress crack. Even my coping saw is causing these cracks. :mad:
 
Fed, like I've said before, I'm no expert.

If you've got long cracks suddenly propagating, it sounds like the wood has internal stress. I think it's possible for some woods to get too dry. Or at some point storage conditions changed too fast. I don't know if it's possible to completely "unset" stresses except by holding in very constant conditions for a long time and hoping. It seems like the best curing methods avoid creating the stresses in the first place. It seems to me the bigger the piece, the bigger the problems. Have they warped? When you get a crack, mark the ends and see if grows on it's own. If the cracks are already there inside the wood, and you are merely cutting down to where they are, I don't know if there is any thing that can be done. Maybe a long soak in oil?

Dunno about the mineral oil, maybe if its diluted with mineral spirits/turp? The orange oil I'm using has some mineral spirits in it an it's not very thick. It seems to penetrate pretty well, and just disappear into the wood. I wipe of any excess. I can imagine that some oils may not penetrate as well and give problems at final finishing time. On a thin slab handle, one should probably be careful not to get things so oily that glueing up is a problem.

On quesionable stuff, I try to start of with a fairly oversized piece and, keep using the oil as I work it down with sawing, carving and sanding with the hope that by the time I get to final shape I've removed the material with cracks, and they havent' grown enough to affect the final shape. I just apply it after each session and go slow. But I'm playing around with free hardwood from tree-removal, (most of which I've sealed the ends and am planning to store for a longer time to try get a proper cure) and I'm not so concerned with losing part of it. If I'd bought the wood, I'd be a bit bummed too. Maybe an expert will give us both some tips.
 
Thanks for the help Firkin. Im startin to think maybe the board was crappy to start with, and Im just finding the cracks.:( The boards hadnt warped, and at the start they looked like they would be very nice to carve (the 2 years of curing had given them a nice warm color). Oh well I guess Ill seal em in oil and try again in the summer.
 
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