promhandicam":1xfoszur said:
... the sawmill / timber merchant that I normally use told me that they didn't really recommend AWO for furniture use. I also know that I am not alone in having experienced quality problems with AWO purchased here in the UK.
I think that's an extremely interesting thing for a timber merchant to say particularly as I assume they are not selling it for use in external joinery or for framing material for houses and the like. The fact is that almost every stick of American white oak sold in this country derived from American kilns will have been dried to 7%± MC, which is the US standard for furniture grade wood aimed for by the kiln operators to sell to their primary buyers, ie, traditionally the large furniture manufacturers in the USA and Canada. I think your timber merchant is flannelling, because if the wood was not considered suitable for furniture almost no-one in North America would use it for that purpose, nor go to the expense of kilning it to 7% MC.
I don't deny that there can be problems with kiln dried oak, but as I said earlier, pretty much all the oaks are difficult to dry, and that includes European and American oaks. It's also true that the lower target MCs used in North America mean it's more challenging to go through the drying process than if you are aiming for the higher target used in the UK of about 11%± MC.
I've certainly come across the faults you mention of surface checking and end splitting, as well as case hardening, core collapse and honeycombing in kiln dried American white oak, but then I've come across exactly the same faults in kilned European oaks, so all I'm saying is that my experience is that I haven't found much to choose between the two in terms of kiln drying faults.
And Rob makes an interesting point about air dried wood. In general I agree that I've found less drying faults in air dried oak, although I have come across drying faults caused by too slow drying, eg, mould and sticker stain (which is not mould although many people erroneously think it is). On the other hand air drying oak here in the UK will only bring it down to about 20- 22% MC at best, which is only barely dry-rot safe, and is at least 10% too wet for furniture making if the end destination is indoors somewhere. Following air drying the wood needs to be brought into some sort of covered shed with a low enough RH and some airflow to get it down to perhaps 14 or 15% MC before it can be used for internal furniture making. And even then, once the wood has been brought inside and is being converted into smaller parts it needs time to acclimatise to workshop conditions. There is nothing unusual in any of these practices, and in fact they are absolutely normal, and it's pretty much what the Barnsley workshop do as far as I know, and what we used to do with our air-dried stock back when this was a norm in the workshops I worked in. I agree with Rob that working air dried oak, or any hardwood really, is easier than kiln dried stuff because the drier the wood gets the stiffer and harder become the fibres, which is harder work for all the cutting tools. Slainte.
If not it's a day wasted...
