Thread: Drying wood - what went wrong?

I have some timber that did the same. Essentially the cells collapsed and caused the voids. Some timbers are prone to this.

Of note is that closely stickered, very slow drying timber in my shed does not exhibit this. But drying outside, in the shade/rain and I have the same as your experience.

Post this in the "Timber" forum as the timber millers will have more experience with drying.

Originally Posted by bruceward51

Last year we had a tree removed from our back yard. I am pretty certain that it was a Blue Mountains Ash, E. obliqua. It was a multi-stemmed tree, having regrown from an earlier stump.

There's a potential source of your problem. Timber from these types of growth is often under different internal stresses and when cut down the stresses generate cracks. Its the same reason that branches often split more than trunks.

Wouldn't be surprised if this piece was in fact a boxed heart
That would also explain the heavy amount of degrade and distortion...MM

I had to look up “Boxed heart” but I can now rule that out as a cause. I you look closely at the first pic, the is actually a piece of included bark on one edge - added to the fact that I was very careful to mill out the heart in each piece.

I will try a post in the miller’s forum as suggested, but I suspect that Bob is close to the mark and it is unusually reactive Wood due to the stresses in the multi-stemmed tree. I had some impressive movement in bowls turned green in the same timber.

I have also noticed a lot of small cracks formed within 2-3 growth rings and have seen the same thing in recycled mountain ash in a timber yard.

Bruce


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The distortion in the first picture is classic collapse. Same can be said for the internal splitting. Multi trunked gums are never good sawing. Put with this the fact we have had some extremely windy weather over the winter and you have excellent conditions for significant downgrade. Obliqua is notorious for collapse and even under ideal conditions, usually requires reconditioning (steaming).

Thanks Rusty - good to have some local knowledge. Pity it is so prone to problems, because it is a very pretty timber. Having said that, I will avoid it in future - not that I have any more to cut down. At least it burns well in the fire!

Bruce