Camphor slab splitting - recommendations?

**surfdabbler** · 12th September 2012, 01:06 PM

I bought a camphor slab from the wood show and I've finished it into a desktop. There was one end crack about 5mm wide that I put a bowtie into, and a few smaller 1mm cracks that I filled). It's now a month or two later, and the cracks are getting larger. Some of the ones I filled have opened further, up to 1mm. The bowtied crack has also opened up a little further, mostly on the outside of the bowtie. There is also a new crack at the other end of the board, which will probably also need a bowtie.

I'm guessing the board may not have been fully dried, so it's doing that now. So what should I do about it?

It's finished with Danish Oil on top, but unfinished underneath. Should I finish the underneath as well, to stop the wood from drying as much? Will this actually help in the long term, or will this just slow down the inevitable? Should I just leave it all as is and ignore it for the next year, and then make another project of restoring the desktop? I guess I'm wondering what should I really do now to prevent further problems, and what would be a waste of time to do now because it will just require fixing again in a few more months.

(The slab is about 45mm thick, 800 deep and 2.4m long)

**Toymaker Len** · 12th September 2012, 02:41 PM

Yes, seal the underside and the ends. Then put some kind of clamp across the ends like threaded rod that can be periodically tightened. Keep plenty of pressure across the grain. Then leave it for a year or so. Sounds like the slab isn't dry. If you don't have access to a moisture meter simply weigh the whole piece and write the weight and date on the underside with black felt-tip pen then re-weigh in a few months. I think you will find that it is losing weight. When the weight loss stops in a year or two then the slab will be stable and you can take off the clamps, fix the splits and do a final assemble and finish.

**surfdabbler** · 14th September 2012, 06:26 PM

OK, thanks for the advice. I guess I fell into a newbie trap - buying half-dried wood and just not realising that it should sit for a while. Oh well. Anyway, it's already built into a desk that I will be using every day (already gave my old desk away). I'll be here to keep a good eye on it.

I'll try to find a good way to 'clamp' the ends without destroying the look and function of the desk - maybe screw some metal plates under the ends where it is splitting or something like that.

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