rdesign":ku6pl42a said:
if you buy waney edge boards they are going to have sap wood and the centre planks will have heart wood when buying boards these areas should be excluded from the cubic foot measurement. sap wood is fine except for might want to be treated for woodworm as it is what the little beggars what as it has loads of energy in it!
Sapwood in American cherry and American black walnut is not a fault in the American grading system, so you're going to get sapwood even where the boards are square edged. You can't buy imported waney edged American cherry or black walnut in this country as the American practice at the large commercial sawmills is to crown cut the log rotating the log through either 180º or 90º after cutting off two to four boards from one face, and eventually boxing the heart. After the boards are cut out the edges are straight line ripped ready for packing in a kiln, then seasoned, and finally removed from the kiln, graded, and stacked and bound in square edged stacks ready for shipping.
I am aware of at least one timber merchant here in the UK that from time time has imported either cherry or walnut logs from North America and processed them meaning they've been able to offer waney edged boards, usually simply through and through sawn. Occasionally smaller or specialised North American sawmills convert roundwood, and sell the resultant spectacular waney edged boards to discerning clients. Most of this production is aimed at specialised high end buyers in North America, but they also sell these boards to overseas buyers, including buyers in the UK and elsewhere. In most cases these boards tend to be from exceptional trees, either very long and/or wide, and/or very large with prized figuring, etc, and as you can imagine these boards sell at a premium.
As to regular run of the mill square edged walnut and cherry from North America, the sort most of us buy, it's very likely that just about all of it will have been steamed in specialised steamers to change the colour of the sapwood so that it closely matches the heartwood, superficially at least. The problem is, in my experience, that as soon as you start machining the wood it isn't long before you cut through any sapwood that's changed colour during the steaming process and its whiteness reveals itself. What you do with it after that is down to the designer and maker, eg, cut it out, leave it show, or undertake a sap staining routine.
Common furniture beetle is fond of walnut, and especially fond of its sapwood, as you say, and if it's being stored in a damp and cool shed, treating might be a good idea, but if the walnut is made into indoor furniture then nowadays, with climate control and decent insulation, etc, in most habitable buildings common furniture beetle is not likely to be a big problem. Studies show that a wood MC of 12% is a particularly harsh environment for the grub that causes the damage to survive. Most indoor furniture nowadays won't get up above about 13% MC for any significant length of time, and for long periods of the year it's likely to be below 10- 11% MC, so the grubs don't get much chance to do their damage, and are more likely to die than chew up the wood. It is possible of course that indoor furniture may be stored in relatively damp environments, eg, during house moves, etc, and there is obviously some increased risk in those circumstances of common furniture beetle becoming a problem, especially if the furniture experiences higher MC levels for extended periods. Slainte.
