Wood movement and knowing when you're ready to work with it
Hey all, long time since I posted. I had a bit of an annoying issue over the xmas break. I bought some recycled Tallow Wood to use for cutting boards that I gave to family as gifts. Given it was fairly old and very solid stock, I mistakenly thought a single pass to plane and flatten the ever so slight warp would be enough. So I planed both sides (using a router and rails, I don't have a thicknesser), then oiled them up and handed them out. A week later I was at my sister's house and horrified to see that the board had generated an extremely large cup across the short axis (I basically chopped single boards to length and then edge glued to produce wider boards). The wood must have been sitting at the timber yard for months on end, and when I took it home it was fine. Then a week after glueing and planing it warped in a big way (Worth mentioning that I made the boards in Melbourne and brought on a plane with me to Adelaide to give to family - not sure if the change of location could be accountable for it?)
How do you know when you've milled a piece enough that you can feel confident it won't re-warp or twist or bow after it leaves your shop? Different home, different states have different conditions, so it's impossible to guess. I rushed these a bit, so I was thinking from now on I should mill, glue, then leave them for a week or so to check if they maintain integrity? But not sure that's a viable plan for longer term wood movement?
I hope this makes sense...wood movement is really driving me nuts at the moment. I usually stick to ply to remove the issue, but I really want to get into using hardwoods, the finishes are absolutely gorgeous.
