Sweet chestnut, will it split?

[Johnpl315]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone can help. I have milled out a section of large sweet chestnut last weekend. One of the slabs I have has a crack running down it about a centimetre wide and going a couple off feet in to the 9 foot length. The other two have hairline cracks which have not opened. The state is the slabs have not changed in the week, the split opened literally as soon as I cut it. I was hoping to either sell or use these boards Green. So my question is, are the splits likely to get worse?

Also, I have quite a bit more available I could mill out. When you look carefully you can see each section has one small crack near the centre. If I roll the log so the crack runs horizontally I will be cutting in the same direction as the split so only one board should be affected. Does this make sense?

I will try and attach a photo of the boards I have done. The grain really is quite beautiful so providing they don't split I will be a happy chappy!

Thanks

[se7enthdevil]

to the best of my knowledge sweet chestnut can suffer from heart shakes quite badly and being a straight grained wood it cleaves very easily. if the boards have a split going down the pith they are likely to bifurcate in due course as they season.

 

best bet in my opinion is the cut down the cracks and quartersaw what's left.

[Johnpl315]

I only have a basic alaska mill. Is there an easy way to quater saw it? I have seen it done with a mini mill but it must be fiddly otherwise?

Thanks

[se7enthdevil]

try doing it like this

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/alaskan-mill/71065-my-first-qs-oak.html

[wills-mill]

I've cut a lot of Sw Chestnut waney edged boards for one customer, he does a lot of rustic decks. We've found that if the stems have lots of tension the boards will 'self cleave' pretty much straight away. If the boards behave themselves to start with, they tend to behave long term.

Sometimes boards will bang open right up the middle while you're still sawing them. Worrying at first, then quite entertaining.

One of the things we found that's useful, is to deliberately handle the boards really roughly- slam them down onto bearers and stacks as they come off the mill. If the end splits are going to travel, they show up at that point, and they can be chased out with a chainsaw. You can then treat each half as a separate board.

 

Chestnut does sometimes spring loads and have lots of tension, but once that's been released it behaves itself and dries beautifully.

 

If the photo loads, it should show a bit of wang in structural chestnut:

[Johnpl315]

Thanks for that, really helpfull advice. I was doing some more milling yesterday, I halved the log then took slices off the half, so it's not quite quatersawn but it's not full width either. So far so good! The only think I have struggled with was getting started on the log and keeping it lever, I have a load of 8" by 2" that has a curve on both ends...

[Forest2Furniture]

If the boards are curved at the end it will probably be down to your milling technique, you need to keep the mill and saw level as you come out of the cut and at the beginning when you cut into the log, this will come with practice.

 

I milled 200 cubic foot of sweet chestnut into 1" thick boards for a guy last year, most turned out fine but just a few split, it goes with the territory and can depend on the time of year and how the tree lands when felled.