Thread: European beech aka Banana wood

Commisserations Bem, that really is a beech .
That sort of thing is not confined to beech though. I've had a similar thing with sassy recently and vaguely related experience with blackwood.
And then there are the boxes with NG walnut lids that fit nicely in the afternoon but not in the early morning coolness .

I seem to recall that it's a good idea to cut to just oversize and then leave for a while to acclimatise before final dimensioning.

European Beech grows fast in a very moist environment. kiln dried, each log is multisawed at once getting a quarter sawn piece is very rare.

if you resaw it oversaw by 1/4" & stack it on its side. Depending on the humidity where you reside you may have to leave it for 12 months to stabilize.

Camphor laurel & rift sawn Silky Oak have the same characteristics when not fully dried.

I purchased a cutting board from Ikea to cut up & make a small box, the wood shrank & distorted as soon as I started to work it. In my opinion a waste of time.


Cheers.

Thanks for the advice RGP. I still have about 60% of the board left so I'll leave it to dry out for a year or two. Or three.

Lyndon