Thread: And I thought I knew about redgum.

Originally Posted by Steve Fryar

A while back I posted a dilemma I had with redgum slabs splitting and thanks for the advice I received.Well I got to check out the offending articles yesterday and they are not only splitting but warping too.But the only slabs that are doing it are the ones without the outside natural covering of the tree,ie the bit that has been exposed to the elements.The natural edged slabs are perfectly straight and show no signs of cracking.They were all stored in the same place.Any ideas?The tree I slabbed had been dead for years.The only reason some slabs didn't have the natural covering was bar length.I had to turn the log.
Cheers,Steve.

Firstly splitting and warping and bending is pretty common with redgum.
The natural edge of a log has a much greater natural resistance to water loss than the raw wood inside the tree which partially explains what you are seeing. This is one reason, if you have the time and space, for leaving the timber in the form of slabs with two natural edges to dry out as much as possible before resawing. You said the slabs you removed the natural edge from were because of bar length so I guess they were more towards the middle of the log? Slabs with any heartwood are also likely to warp since heartwood dries very differently to regular wood. This is why logs are quartered to take the heart wood out. I've seen slabs milled from the very middle of a tree (ie with heartwood) turn into boats or corkscrews because of the heartwood issue. Sometimes it's better to remove the heartwood altogether.

Originally Posted by BobL

Firstly splitting and warping and bending is pretty common with redgum.

Esp. with River Redgum.

Sometimes it's better to remove the heartwood altogether.

Sometimes? With a slab it's always a good idea!

Thanks for the tips guys.I didn't think I did too much wrong looking at the good slabs.

Steve, heartwood issues are probably why for structural grading you are not allowed to use heart with growth rings of less than 50mm diameter