Matching timbers.

[Rich]

Early on in my engineering career I knew a welder who was top notch at his job, he new all the symbols and properties of the periodic table and told me that apart from the liquid metals, ie, mercury, he could join ANY 2 pieces of metal using another amicable metal agent and I had no cause to disbelieve him, my question is, are there any 2 timbers that dont like being mated, for instance, could one dovetail apple and lignum vitae together?

regards,
Rich.

 

[Pete W]

I don't think there are any impossible combinations. Only thing I can think of that might cause a problem is two species that move to a radically different degree as moisture content changes - quartersawn teak, say, (doesn't move much) with oak (relatively a lot of movement). That kind of situation could pull joinery apart.

There are those who like to combine strikingly different woods; personally, I think that's an offence against taste and judgment. But there's no law against it

 

[IanW]

I'm with Pete. I think it would be possible to join any two woods, though it may not be ADVISABLE. Can't think why you would want to tenon Balsa into Lignum, for e.g. :wink: , but I'm quite confident I could do it.

As for joing two metals, the bigger problem might be choosing the compatible joining substance - i.e you would want a glue which will tolerate plastic deformation if joing two woods with wildly different moisture movement properties, as Pete sez.

Cheers,