First project

[mimbo81]

Hi, sorry if this is a bit long.

I've recently started a little project for our home. I'm really pleased with the outcome so far. It's not quite finished but wanted some advice please before I go further.

Brief history, we had an oak felled in our garden in summer 2020, then milled to 2 inch planks with a chainsaw. It was covered outside unitl I had space in the garage. April 2022 it went into the garage. I wish I'd known at the time about treating the ends to help drying.

Anyway, I've bought and restored some old planes and made a little table top. It's sat on the table it will replace.

I've brought the top into the living room to acclimatise and now a few splits are starting to develop.

I'm wondering what to do next. I need to do a little more work on the edge to get the curve sweet and a touch of sanding. Do I fill the cracks now or wait a while and then fill?

What would you do?

 

[TheUnicorn]

I've not a lot experience working with fairly new cut oak, my instinct was to say it was a bit too green to work with, however according to this site, at 2 inches thick it needed 3 years to dry, so you should be alright

https://www.gazeburvill.com/blog/th...k tends to be air,(free) water has evaporated.

That said, I had a passing conversation with an ex boat builder who said that oak has considerable movement even as well seasoned wood. Because of that I think if you fill any splits they are likely to open again relatively quickly, and anyway filler would likely spoil the look of the piece.

Have you thought about bow ties? you either like the look of these or you don't but they should stop any splits progressing too far

 

[recipio]

A nice first project - well done. I suspect the oak was still a little ' wet' when you worked it and is now responding to the dry air in the house. For future projects a moisture meter is invaluable. Wood should be brought indoors and not used until the moisture content hits 10% or lower.
Major cracks can be glued up but minor cracks are best filled with a black lacquer stick. It's virtually impossible to eliminate minor cracks once they have started so you could just chalk this one up to experience !

 

[mimbo81]

I've seen some people use black epoxy with oak and I quite like it. The tables will have steel legs I plan on welding.
This really is a practice item before I make a table for the kitchen. That'll be about 1 metre diameter.
I live in a 400 year old cottage so twisted, split wood is very inkeeping. I just don't want to be snagging clothes and suchlike.

 

[Eshmiel]

I've seen some people use black epoxy with oak and I quite like it. The tables will have steel legs I plan on welding.
This really is a practice item before I make a table for the kitchen. That'll be about 1 metre diameter.
I live in a 400 year old cottage so twisted, split wood is very inkeeping. I just don't want to be snagging clothes and suchlike.

As intimated already, it would be worth your while to look at how green wood dries out to a moisture content suitable for working it into indoor furniture. For modern houses this is 10 - 11% moisture content but for older houses it can be a bit higher, as older houses tend to be damper for all the usual reasons. Drying green timber is not a process that can be easily quickened, although al lot of modern timber is kiln-dried in an attempt to do so. Case hardening (dry outside but still too moist inside) often results and can cause internal stresses and cracks, especially in timbers like oak.

It's usual to air dry outside, covered on top, with plank ends painted (to stop faster moisture loss from the end grain) and the planks stickered (separated by small batons to allow air flow) until the planks reach around 15 % moisture content. It needs a good moisture meter to read this, really. Or a good guess. The normal outside drying rate is one year per inch of thickness but it varies with local conditions.

Once the planks are 15% or a bit less, bring them into a slightly drier atmosphere to dry out more. Some modern house atmospheres are too dry but your older cottage may be just right. Too a dry an atmosphere on 15% moisture content planks can warp, cup, wind or even crack them if the planks start drying too fast - as you've discovered. A one metre diameter 2 inch thick tabletop is going to be vulnerable to various drying-out distortions.

Such a tranche of timber, from your own old oak, is worth a lot besides the cash value. It's worth treating it right to get the most out of it when drying it out, as you intimate. Patience becomes an even bigger virtue, along with the eventual greater pleasure of delayed gratification. Myself, I've kept supposedly dry, but probably not, thick oak planks (2" & 3") under the bed for up to five years to make sure they're truly stabilised. No cracks yet in the furniture, after 10 years now.

 

[mimbo81]

As intimated already, it would be worth your while to look at how green wood dries out to a moisture content suitable for working it into indoor furniture. For modern houses this is 10 - 11% moisture content but for older houses it can be a bit higher, as older houses tend to be damper for all the usual reasons. Drying green timber is not a process that can be easily quickened, although al lot of modern timber is kiln-dried in an attempt to do so. Case hardening (dry outside but still too moist inside) often results and can cause internal stresses and cracks, especially in timbers like oak.

It's usual to air dry outside, covered on top, with plank ends painted (to stop faster moisture loss from the end grain) and the planks stickered (separated by small batons to allow air flow) until the planks reach around 15 % moisture content. It needs a good moisture meter to read this, really. Or a good guess. The normal outside drying rate is one year per inch of thickness but it varies with local conditions.

Once the planks are 15% or a bit less, bring them into a slightly drier atmosphere to dry out more. Some modern house atmospheres are too dry but your older cottage may be just right. Too a dry an atmosphere on 15% moisture content planks can warp, cup, wind or even crack them if the planks start drying too fast - as you've discovered. A one metre diameter 2 inch thick tabletop is going to be vulnerable to various drying-out distortions.

Such a tranche of timber, from your own old oak, is worth a lot besides the cash value. It's worth treating it right to get the most out of it when drying it out, as you intimate. Patience becomes an even bigger virtue, along with the eventual greater pleasure of delayed gratification. Myself, I've kept supposedly dry, but probably not, thick oak planks (2" & 3") under the bed for up to five years to make sure they're truly stabilised. No cracks yet in the furniture, after 10 years now.

Looks like I need to invest in a moisture meter.
There's something special about having a table made from the garden. I would have preferred to keep the tree but it was growing out of a wall and close to the house.

The planks have already twisted and split some but there's lots of good wood and should be able to get at least 40mm finished thickness.

I'm now thinking of rough sizing for what I need to make. A quick plane to see the grain properly and make sure I'm happy with it. Convince my good lady I need to store it inside and wait.....hopefully not too long.

 

[Tris]

Garden or field trees are usually prone to more movement than plantation grown even when carefully dried. It's a result of external factors, such a prevailing wind or shading from a building, that result in more reaction wood. If you can allow for this in your design so much the better

Lovely looking bit of timber

 

[Eshmiel]

Garden or field trees are usually prone to more movement than plantation grown even when carefully dried. It's a result of external factors, such a prevailing wind or shading from a building, that result in more reaction wood. If you can allow for this in your design so much the better

Lovely looking bit of timber

Yes indeed - some trees laugh in the face of them tree fellers, as they show us their winds and dangles.

This one is on the edge of a spruce & fir plantation, where its spent many decades winding to keep sunbathing, dropping boughs and not dropping others but dangling them for yards and yards (its an imperial tree). What could one make out of any part of this? Possibly an abstract sculpture that writhes and cavorts all by itself, with the weather, once finished. Arbortechs at the ready!

On the other hand, would you risk attempting to fell it? I wouldnae - it looks like it could easily do the tree version of a raptor on us, with a crack & a squish.

 

[Tris]

That's a tree that looks like it has many tales to tell