Slab or quarter

[Nameloc]

Hi
I have a large block of wood about 6ft long . I intend to cut up and glue to make a table top.
I don’t know whether or not to cut it into 2 bookmatched pairs (horizontal looking at the photo) or 3 bookmatched pairs (verticality to the photo)
I wasn’t sure whether cutting so that the grain is more quarter sawn would be better or maybe the more slab sawn would give a nicer figuring ????
Any advice?
Cheers
Al

 

[Yojevol]

Difficult to say from the figuring point of view. What species is it? Have you tried cleaning up the existing faces to get an idea of what may be going on inside?
Cutting it into 2 slabs may give you stability problems. Cutting it into 6 would be better. How dry is it? From the cracking it looks as though it has been hanging around for some time.
Brian

 

[MARK.B.]

knowing the species will help others to give you a more informed opinion.

 

[Nameloc]

It’s really old , at least 1960 / 70
Not sure what it is exactly , something tropical maybe teak

 

[Ttrees]

I think quartered looks better a lot of the time, if for nothing else like stability, then for consistency.
I still agree with cleaning up a face and edge to have a better idea.
I don't think you'd get much of a match between the boards cutting flatsawn.
It may also be a case of ascetics in the size of the piece regarding joint lines, and whichever grain is most parallel will hide the lines better.

 

[Nameloc]

Yes , good shout,
I’ll clean it up tomorrow.
I suppose figured grain is all well and good, but not if it’s at the edge and shows the Join line . (Although I suppose the bookmatched joins will always look ok.
Thanks guys

 

[Ttrees]

In most cases a bookmatch would imply that both faces would hopefully or somewhat mirror each other,
Often seen in quartersawn stock, but for maple flatsawn can be preferred if looking for quilted, but quatersawn for flame figure.
Not that I have any maple, just giving an example.
I think I might have this the other way round

None the less Its probably one of the best demonstrations of how much of a difference in figure one can procure.

If its "teak" which could turn out to be something else like iroko, then you don't know how much runout is there, which is very common on stuff I have,
runout will stand out the most.
Tom