Quartersawn Beech?
- Thread starter steve355
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Presumably you dont need a lot, so maybe contact a hardwood supplier and ask for a piece at your given size, but state that you want quatersawn / straight end grain... you'll have to pay more but most would probably go look for you
what kind of planes - moulding planes or bench planes? There's only one specialty sawmill in the US cutting 16/4 blanks pin straight. From time to time, someone will show up on ebay with 3 1/2 inch square beech billets here, but they are just cutting lumber whereas the stuff used in planes was not just sawn straight, but the good stuff in the tree (not just culled firewood equivalent).
For moulding planes, you can make most with 8/4 quartersawn beech. If it's being cut on a rotary mill, it's possible that some mills won't quartersaw anything.
For moulding planes, you can make most with 8/4 quartersawn beech. If it's being cut on a rotary mill, it's possible that some mills won't quartersaw anything.
Adam W.
A Major Clanger
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Well, I spotted a spindle blank supplier on eBay whose description said they can provide bespoke sizes to order, sent them a quick email and yes they can do 4x3x11 with the grain in the right direction for £10.50 inc postage! Result. After all the searching. Moulding planes here we come.
Lets see what turns up - thanks for the responses.
Lets see what turns up - thanks for the responses.
That's a good result. To find wood like this (which is just slightly longer than what you're getting) costs me about $15 a board foot here with shipping.
Beech itself in regular flatsawn lumber is fairly cheap, but not as widespread here due to the low cost of soft maple, oak and cherry.
Beech itself in regular flatsawn lumber is fairly cheap, but not as widespread here due to the low cost of soft maple, oak and cherry.
My suggestion is to order a fraction of what you need in the first order in case you find they give you decent wood, but it's not sawn pith straight on center (that will bias a plane to move in not so great ways seasonally). If you get stuff that's straight on the first order, then order the rest of what you'd need maybe plus a little.
The fact that they make spindle blanks suggests they should have straighter wood than just trying to find 16/4 lumber and resaw it out (beech is slow to dry in thicknesses over 8/4 and can end up with a lot of faults, so the whole idea of 16/4 lumber probably isn't practical). QS maple isn't that easy to find here in good quality, but 16/4 hard maple is generally available, thus that thought (16/4 flatsawn makes good rift or quartered, but maple isn't as good for planes as beech).
The fact that they make spindle blanks suggests they should have straighter wood than just trying to find 16/4 lumber and resaw it out (beech is slow to dry in thicknesses over 8/4 and can end up with a lot of faults, so the whole idea of 16/4 lumber probably isn't practical). QS maple isn't that easy to find here in good quality, but 16/4 hard maple is generally available, thus that thought (16/4 flatsawn makes good rift or quartered, but maple isn't as good for planes as beech).
the great waldo
Established Member
Do you really want to use beech ? it does react quite a bit to humidity changes.
Cheers
Andrew
This is the reason for being particular about sawing. There are a couple of properties about beech that make it excellent for planemaking:
1) it has decent density and very good wear resistance for its density
2) no pores, and a really nice working property under saw and chisel (something like london plane tree or hard maple are in the same hardness range, but lacking in workability)
3) it doesn't transmit vibrations (I saw my first guitar last year with a beech neck - interesting choice given one of the reasons it's nice for planes is because it's a "dead" wood)
All of the fruit woods for planes are pretty bad in terms of dimensional stability. Indian rosewood is nice, but it doesn't wear as well as its hardness would suggest it should, and then all of the very stable woods don't wear well or dent easily.
If beech is quartersawn or rift from good straight wood with pith on center when sawn (i.e., straight in every direction that you can follow down any part of the blank) it'll just shrink and expand, and not much of either after the first two years. Lateral movement of the wood can be managed pretty easily.
Adam W.
A Major Clanger
However, back to the OP's needs. Three sources that I've used. First is Whitmores up near Leicester. You decide what you want and book an hour slot. Then an dedicated guy will unstack and restack timber to find the planks you want. Hardwood Timber Suppliers | UK & Online | Whitmore's Timber . I bought quarter sawn beech from them when I built my Klausz workbench. And sapele for the underframe.
The other that I've used more recently for London Plane is The Craftmans Shop near Oundle (near Peterborough). I ended up with that wood because he didn't have any beech in the thickness I wanted (10cm), but for plane making you might be lucky.
And local to me, Deep in Wood Oxfordshire bespoke furniture Oxfordshire handmade furniture . But he specializes in oak (and in fact supplies Whitmores with their oak), although he does get other species from time to time.
All are a decent drive from where you might be in Herts. But worth the trip - if you are into woods Mactimbers is an amazing place. Glorious figured planks, spalted planks. More elm and walnut that you could use in a lifetime. And just a husband and wife team.
The other that I've used more recently for London Plane is The Craftmans Shop near Oundle (near Peterborough). I ended up with that wood because he didn't have any beech in the thickness I wanted (10cm), but for plane making you might be lucky.
And local to me, Deep in Wood Oxfordshire bespoke furniture Oxfordshire handmade furniture . But he specializes in oak (and in fact supplies Whitmores with their oak), although he does get other species from time to time.
All are a decent drive from where you might be in Herts. But worth the trip - if you are into woods Mactimbers is an amazing place. Glorious figured planks, spalted planks. More elm and walnut that you could use in a lifetime. And just a husband and wife team.
Adam W.
A Major Clanger
My bold.
It's not out of context. It shows that beech timber has pores, which is good enough. It wasn't a discussion of the porosity of beech compared to other timbers.
Although, I probably should have labelled it as an enlarged cross section of a sample of Fagus sylvatica and stated the source for completeness.
