Replies

1. 
   SteveSchoene | Dec 19, 2009 02:06pm | #1

   Sounds from your description that your lumber has "shake" or "ring shake", sometimes separations deriving from particular drying sequences, but often a mechanically derived defect stemming from how the tree was felled and stresses it underwent while growing.

   Garry Oak, or Oregon white oak isn't often grown for lumber, in particular because it is difficult to dry without warping. This could be related.

   I don't have good ideas on how to deal with this, except the drastic solution. Replace the affected boards. I hope others have better ideas.

1. 
   robin99 | Dec 20, 2009 06:26pm | #4

   thanks, I think you are right- we dried it in a homemade solar kiln ( none of the commercial guys would touch it) , and is near some rays- so probably a combination of the wood and the drying. I"ll try to get as much glue under as I can. If that doesn't work, I might have to cut that section out and "install" a new knot cut out of another board,

   thanks,

   Robin

2. 
   joinerswork | Dec 20, 2009 10:19am | #2

   robin,

   Like Steve says, it sounds like a shake. Some oak is prone to the ray flakes just being loosely stuck to the rest of the wood. About all you can do, short of discarding the piece, is to work as much glue as you can under the loose area, and clamp it down. Then carefully scrape all level.

   Ray

1. 
   BrentD | Dec 20, 2009 10:25am | #3

   for things like this, I use cyanocryolate in quantity. I don't know if it is the best thing to do, but it works for me.

   Brent

1. 
   robin99 | Dec 28, 2009 12:55am | #5

   so working the glue under the loose edges seems to have worked well, thanks.

   There is also an area of blue stain about 2 x 8 inches, presumably from fungus. I thought it would look OK, but now I put the first coat of varnish on it just looks like a dirty spot. Any ideas how to remove/bleach it out?

1. 
   joinerswork | Dec 30, 2009 11:39am | #6

   robin,

   Oy. Well, first thing, remove the coat of varnish. Then you can try bleaching the spot with clorox, peroxide, oxalic acid, or a commercial two-part wood bleach (probably your best bet. Likely, whatever you use, you will need to bleach the whole top, after spot treating the blue stain, as the bleached area won't match the untreated wood even after the blue is gone--the treated area will probably be lighter than the unbleached wood. So, then you might need to stain the top (after neutralising the bleach) to restore some color to it.

   Good luck,

   Ray

1. 
   robin99 | Jan 03, 2010 06:20pm | #7

   I routered another piece that had a blue stain as well to try another idea, and to my surprise , hit a nail ! so it looks like this is probably from an old iron nail - so that actually makes the solution easier- I found some oxalic acid, and that seems to be working well.

   thanks for all the advice,

   Robin