Thread: How Many Cubic Meters From a 2.7 x 1.4 meter Oak Log

One of the hardest timbers to dry. How about a few photos so we know what went wrong?

Man, that's heartbreaking. All that effort.

Have you got a wood fire though?

Sorry for not getting back but I was running an experiment.

A month ago I cut up the Oak cutting free any parts that were not riddles with checks.

I then resealed the ends of this cut pieces and left them to dry in the workshop with very cool steady temps.

I however took one piece machined it into a two thinner pieces 30mm thick x 80mm wide x 400mm long and machined six square.

This piece has shown zero degradation no cheeks or faults.

Every other piece has shown significant NEW checking and the thicker the pieces the worse the checking.

I believe I have extreme case hardening. I hope that if I use a power planer to remove the skin of all the faces of what I have I should remediate this problem and be able to reclaim a small fraction.

I think the fatal mistake was to cut into such thick boards (60mm - 90mm), the outside dried so fast that the inside remained wet. I have cut open thick boards and they are as wet as they were the day they were milled two years ago. Generally the boards cut under 60mm have not suffered checking as badly as the thicker boards and feel much drier.

Here is a photo of a piece that was cut out a month ago and you can see how it has checked. These checks are more than 30mm deep in only one months. and only show on the fresh cut faces not the case hardheaded faces.

IMG_1467.jpgIMG_1468.jpg IMG_1469.jpg IMG_1470.jpg IMG_1471.jpg

This English Oak is lovely stuff much nicer than American Oak, I truly love it and would love to save as much as possible.

QUESTION: Would removing 3mm on each face be enough to remove the case hardening?
QUESTION: In future how can I prevent case hardening?

ADDENDUM: Observed that the checks only happen in some boards - several boards seemed to show no obvious degradation. Secondly the checks always occur exactly midway between the two case hardened faces. As if the tension of these faces is ripping the board down the middle.

Well that's a good log ruined. Your drying rate is way to high if case hardening has occured. When drying oak, you can forget about the inch per year drying time. It will take much longer as it must start out super slow. When I cut oak, I sticker it out and lock it up in the dark and cool with a little air movement for six months before making any attempt to lower the moisture content.