Waney edge for table top - which wood?

[Chris152]

I've decided to have a go at making a smallish table (about 1.2 m x 70 cm) with a waney edge slab and have a couple of questions.

First, which wood(s) might be most stable/ generally easiest to work with?
Second, can I expect a kiln-dried slab to be more stable than an air-dried one? Is one better than the other?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Chris

 

[kevinlightfoot]

Walnut is always a good choice,relatively easy to work and fairly stable.No matter what wood you choose allow it to stabilise in the room it's intended for,I would try and keep it in that room during spaces when you are not working on it in your shed or workshop which will undoubtably be a different humidity than your house.Yew also makes a very attractive table top,again fairly stable but more difficult to work and you may even need to get it sanded by someone with a thickness sander.It all really depends on how much you wish to spend as well.Cocobolo rosewood is really lovely but its price is not.Ask Custard for his advice he does work of this kind ,he may even have a slab he can sell you.This answer is only based on my experience,others may give you better advice.Good luck and Happy Christmas.

 

[Chris152]

Thanks Kevin, that's really helpful. I'm waiting for Interesting Timbers to get back to me with info on what they have in stock about those dimensions - clearly walnut's not cheap either, but hopefully on a small scale it wouldn't be too expensive if they have any. I'd not even heard of Cocobolo rosewood - pictures on the net look extraordinary, and I can imagine it's way out of my price range (I couldn't actually find any for sale).

If I can avoid spending loads at this stage, it'd be a good thing - especially since it could end up looking a mess with me at the hand plane. A more immediate option might be to get a couple of these:
http://www.diy.com/departments/oak-wane ... 741_BQ.prd
I handled some yesterday and it looks good quality to my eye (there's a stack to sift through in my local store) - I know each side would be different (not book matched) but I was thinking to insert a very different piece of wood along the centre, whatever I buy, so maybe that could a an easy answer for a first try?

edit - And a Happy Christmas to you too, Kevin!

 

[custard]

With waney edge boards you generally pay a premium for width, above about 400mm wide they become progressively rarer and more expensive. That's why there's plenty of waney edge consol tables and coffee tables, which you can get out of narrower boards, but relatively few full size waney edge dining tables which require a truly whopping slab. So design your piece as narrow as possible and you'll have a wider selection of boards to choose from. The 700mm you want is a pretty wide board, that's neither cheap nor common.

One way around the width problem is to book match two waney edged boards that are sequential from the same log. Personally I'm not overly sold on this idea but I have done it and it's a common solution to the width problem, here's an example,

http://shop.surreytimbers.co.uk/epages/ ... EWT%201%22

Always avoid a board that's taken from the very centre of the tree. That will contain the pith at the core of the tree. Never include the pith, I guarantee it'll end in tears. Here's what almost always happens to a board containing the pith,

Walnut is a lovely timber, but there are only two or three yards in the country that regularly stock Black Walnut as waney edged boards, so you're much more likely to find waney edged English Walnut. English Walnut is relatively expensive (well over £100 per cubic foot) and suffers from very wide sap bands and can also be prone to shakes and knots. I'd never buy English Walnut sight unseen. Oak or Sweet Chestnut are probably your best bet.

With any waney edged board inspect the sap carefully for worm holes, it's not that woodworm is a serious problem in a centrally heated home, it's more that worm holes always give people the heeby jeebies.

The Oak boards you show in the photo have had most of the sap knocked off, that's very common, but I wouldn't count them as true waney edged boards.

Kilned timber is generally more stable than air dried, but you can make perfectly serviceable timber from air dried. Just proceed more slowly, flatten the two faces and then leave for a few days, then check for any cupping and if there is movement let it dry a bit more.

Good luck!

 

[Chris152]

Thanks for the reply Custard. I really like the look of that book matched walnut you linked to, but not the price. Struth. One thing replies in this thread and a couple of pms kindly sent has shown me is that getting a good board isn't like finding regular boards of quality, which frankly I find hard enough as it is. So just heading out to get a waney edge board probably isn't on the cards (Interesting Timbers got back to me with some photos of slabs but they're all considerably bigger than I need, and I can only view by appointment which is tricky as it's far away/ other commitments; and Surrey Timbers and English Woodlands are both further away.)

Soooo, advice received in mind, I'm going to wait until I find the right piece of wood in my travels rather than chasing around the country looking for it, and take it from there. No doubt I'll be returning to this thread in due course...

Thanks again for all comments,

Chris

 

[Chris152]

Still mulling this one over, two years on. The biggest problem is finding a space in the house to let the board settle before final planing etc. without the risk of someone breaking their toe on it in the middle of the night.
I'm toying with the idea of placing one (air-dried) under a bed, sticks under, and weights on top.
Anyone tried any other ideas for doing this in a regular house (ie, not leaving it in the west wing which only gets used when the queen comes to visit)? And any ball-park thoughts on how long I'd need to leave a 2" slab of beech at 18% mc before it has settled in a centrally heated house (winter) in the UK?

 

[sneggysteve]

This doesn't answer your latest post but have you been to H J Pugh auctions in Ledbury - next one is 10th January.

Here are examples of walnut sold in March last year

Walnut 70x17 1/2x2" £35.00
Walnut 72x17x2" £30.00
Walnut 72x19x2" £45.00
Walnut 72x20x2 1/2" £45.00

Full sales details here - http://www.hjpugh.com/timbersales/230319results.pdf

Well worth a visit. Depending on what is available when catalogue published, I will be going. PM me if I can help with any more info

Steve

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I'm toying with the idea of placing one (air-dried) under a bed, sticks under, and weights on top.
Anyone tried any other ideas for doing this in a regular house (ie, not leaving it in the west wing which only gets used when the queen comes to visit)?
And any ball-park thoughts on how long I'd need to leave a 2" slab of beech at 18% mc before it has settled in a centrally heated house (winter) in the UK?

Stored as you describe, and assuming air can circulate adequately, probably somewhere in the region of four to six weeks will bring the wood down to about 8 -10% MC. And that's pretty much the ideal MC to work wood for furniture destined for residential properties in the UK, and elsewhere for that matter where habitable buildings have reasonable to good climate control systems. Slainte.

 

[AJB Temple]

My super tolerant wife allows the storage of boards in our hall 8)

 

[Chris152]

Steve - I'm no toolaholic, but if I do head to that auction I'll be needing blinkers and leading straight to the wood. Amazing variety of tools listed sold at the last auction, I think I'll have to go just to have a look, obviously not to buy anything other than wood...

AJB - sadly our hall is a tad small for slab storage, and even worse I just discovered that all the double beds have supports in the middle, so that's out too! I've got one space left that would work tho, so the plan's still on course.

Richard - perfect - I can wait a couple of months when I have something in.

Thanks all.

 

[Bm101]

If it makes you feel any better Chris I have a 3.3m oak handrail sticking out into the hallway from under the sofa in the front room. I have no rooms big enough to store it. When the rare guest comes round it's all 'mind the wood there. Sorry '
'Ah Yeh. Thanks wouldn't want to trip and hurt myself'
'Or dent my oak handrail and hurt yourself you mean. Feckin' eeedjit'
'Sorry?'
'What. Sorry. Did I say that out loud? What did you hear exactly? Did I say that?!?... ahhhh just mind your step now. Cup of tea is it?'
My Mrs rolling her eyes and kicking me on the sly.
'Shut it ya div. No wonder we get no coming round these days!'