Replies

1. 
   LeeGrindinger | Dec 17, 2004 07:25am | #1

   The checks were already there. A 20% drop in relative humidity at room temperatures or lower will not cause that sort of checking. White oak is prone to surface checks during drying and the thicker the lumber the prone it is. Most white oak in outdoor uses develop these checks over time because of the effects of wind, sun and rain.

   If they are not too bothersome to you at this point I'd just ignore them. If they trouble you it may be worth a shot at going back to the seller, showing them the problem and hoping they will exchange your wood or refund your money. It helps to have your guns loaded with knowledge of drying defects and the causes, without it you're likely to have a tough go of it.

   Lee

2. 
   forestgirl | Dec 17, 2004 09:57am | #2

   Several time a winter, my shop humidity drops by 20% or more when I fire up the woodstove after a prolonged period of not heating.  I've never seen any untoward effects on the lumber that's stored.  I'm in the Pacific Northwest, and the shop ranges from 60-70% RH during the winter when it's not been heated for several days.  When I work in there several days in a row, it gets down as low as 40% and stays below 50%.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
   Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

1. 
   wilkesland | Dec 17, 2004 11:25pm | #3

   Thanks Lee and FG.  I can live with the checks. Not having ever worked with white oak before, I was looking for assurance that I hadn't messed up in yet another new way.

1. 
   AlbionWood | Dec 18, 2004 08:52pm | #4

   Those checks can be a real PITA when you have a quartersawn face, as on chair or table legs for example. They often show up hours after surfacing, sometimes longer. I will sometimes do the initial sufacing, then set the legs out in the sun or next to the stove, to get the flakes to pop so I can find them. Then I go at it with the CA glue, trying to stick all those flakes down and fill the checks, before doing the final surfacing."Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."  A. Einstein

   http://www.albionworks.net

3. 
   Peter36 | Dec 19, 2004 12:09am | #5

   If your pieces are still in rough length then you could apply a sealer to the ends to slow drying time. If they are already at length then I would still apply a sealer to slow the drying time and therefore, steady the wood and minimize checking.

1. 
   LeeGrindinger | Dec 19, 2004 04:57pm | #6

   Peter,Surface checking is caused by moisture leaving the surface too quickly. The surface dries and shrinks while the internal tissue remains wet and fat. The surface is stretched as it shrinks around the fat core and something's gotta give. The key to kiln drying any wood is to remove surface moisture at the same rate or slightly slower than moisture can migrate through the wood. Kiln operators push this limit, sometimes too far. White oak is particularly susceptible to this condition.Sealing the ends can be important because end grain picks up and loses moisture up to 15 times faster than long grain. End checking is the result of these forces. Lee

1. 
   Peter36 | Dec 19, 2004 05:03pm | #7

   Yes.

2. 
   AlbionWood | Dec 20, 2004 04:57am | #8

   Peter,
   That would be appropriate if he was drying green wood, but the checks in WO are usually created during kiln-drying. Sealing the cut ends won't do much good after the wood has been KD."Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."  A. Einstein

   http://www.albionworks.net