Olive Ash

[Forest2Furniture]

I've milled many trees over the last 20yrs but this recent Ash has to be the most stunning to date.

Average (single) board size 3" x 28" x 10'

[Mr. Ed]

Wow. Are you thinking table? How will that sort of board with lots of pith dry?  y 

[Forest2Furniture]

Unfortunately they're not mine but I believe the customer is thinking table's.

They'll dry fine, once dray, machined, sanded and polished the colour and figuring will bounce back

[Mr. Ed]

I was thinking more about staying flat than the colour really. I’ve had problems with the slices that go through the pith of the tree - they sort of buckle? 

[skc101fc]

3 hours ago, Mr. Ed said:

I was thinking more about staying flat than the colour really. I’ve had problems with the slices that go through the pith of the tree - they sort of buckle? 

Shouldn't split the pith ever in a board.  Workout your cuts to keep it in the centre of a board's depth to balance tensions as it dries

[ucoulddoit]

8 hours ago, skc101fc said:

Shouldn't split the pith ever in a board.  Workout your cuts to keep it in the centre of a board's depth to balance tensions as it dries

Another approach, which I often use for hardwoods for furniture making, is to have a 3 or 4 inch board with the pith in the centre of the depth. Then split this board lengthwise along the pith. Or sometimes cut out a 2 or 3 inch strip along the pith to remove all the juvenile wood most likely to be defective or from which splits can extend further into the planks when drying. The two halves will be quarter sawn, and for furniture making, I find it’s useful to have some thicker stuff.

 

Andrew

[ucoulddoit]

1 hour ago, ucoulddoit said:

Another approach, which I often use for hardwoods for furniture making, is to have a 3 or 4 inch board with the pith in the centre of the depth. Then split this board lengthwise along the pith. Or sometimes cut out a 2 or 3 inch strip along the pith to remove all the juvenile wood most likely to be defective or from which splits can extend further into the planks when drying. The two halves will be quarter sawn, and for furniture making, I find it’s useful to have some thicker stuff.

 

Andrew

 

Just to add to my earlier post, a couple of photos taken in the woodstore this morning.

 

First one is a smallish 'boatskin' larch, chainsaw milled in the wood behind our house a few years ago for furniture making. The 4 inch plank through the centre is split into two along the pith.

 

 

Second picture is a slab of burr oak, showing the splits and defects around the pith and juvenile wood that was largely removed, to minimise the risk of these extending into the slab during drying which would spoil an otherwise superb lump of wood.

 

 

Andrew

[Forest2Furniture]

On 12/04/2023 at 20:23, Mr. Ed said:

I was thinking more about staying flat than the colour really. I’ve had problems with the slices that go through the pith of the tree - they sort of buckle? 

These are 3" planks, I'd be surprised if the buckle

[MattyF]

Ash is pretty good at buckling ! 
just dug out these ash boards ,they have been under a bit of tin for 5 years in the top yard , tree was dead on the stump.

a couple have cupped but rest look good , should be ready to be of use for some one  the photo doesn’t do them justice as the rippling and colour was unreal when milled, I’d not seen ash like it.  

[Scuttlefish]

I technique I sometimes use to try to reduce cupping is to mill a series of grooves along the length of the board a couple of inches apart, on the underside , stopping short of the ends, about half the depth of the plank.It takes some of the inherent tension out of the board as it drys.  It works well for work tops but it might be considered sacrilege on a really good board used for a table, especially it you have a change of heart and want to reuse the boards for another project - if the your requirements change at a later date.