how to prevent end split

[John Almberg]

I have a piece of Philippine Mahogany that has a 3-4" split on one end. The board is long enough so that I can cut about 6" off, and still have a big enough board for what I need (transom of a small boat).

I originally thought, hey, the ends of boards split, but I can cut that part off. But now I'm wondering if there may be a weakness in the board that extends into the part of the board I'm going to use, even if the split is not evident at this point. I'm worried that a split will appear in this spot at some point in the future.

Am I worrying about nothing, or is the threat real? If real, are there any proactive measures I can take to prevent this from happening?

Any thoughts/ideas much appreciated.

-- John

[Frank Drew]

John,

Cut the split end off and hope for the best; wood can be unpredictable but from my experience I'd say that 99% of the time you'd have no further problems.

The other 1%: I once crosscut a Mahogany board to go into a tabletop; the offcut, to the left of the blade, immediately developed a several inch long split right around the middle of its width starting at the sawcut, but the piece I wanted didn't show any problem at all (and I looked really, really carefully); once all the rest of the material was ready, that board was glued up with the others into the tabletop, cut into a D-end, got an ebony string inlay, and was then finished.

One morning I came out to the shop -- this was weeks after initially processing the material -- and found that a 2" or so long, very thin crack had opened up in the edge of the top of the now-almost-ready-to-be-delivered table :eek:; it was that original board and the flaw/crack had been in there all that time, waiting to open up.

[For a minute or two I seriously considered killing myself. Only half kidding.]

[Darrin Davis]

Rip it right on the split line (if the grain is straight and the split is straight) taking away as much of the split as possible. Glue it back together and hope for the best. More times than not a split is a weakness in the wood that is still there even if you can't see it.

[John Almberg]

John,

Cut the split end off and hope for the best; wood can be unpredictable but from my experience I'd say that 99% of the time you'd have no further problems.

The other 1%: I once crosscut a Mahogany board to go into a tabletop; the offcut, to the left of the blade, immediately developed a several inch long split right around the middle of its width starting at the sawcut, but the piece I wanted didn't show any problem at all (and I looked really, really carefully); once all the rest of the material was ready, that board was glued up with the others into the tabletop, cut into a D-end, got an ebony string inlay, and was then finished.

One morning I came out to the shop (this was weeks later) and found that a 2" or so long, very thin crack had opened up in the edge of the top of the now-almost-ready-to-be-delivered table; it was that original board and the crack had been in there all that time, waiting to open up :eek:.

[For a minute or two I seriously considered killing myself. Only half kidding.]

Well, this crack wasn't there yesterday, either. It just suddenly appeared. It's very thin, but definitely there.

This is a new bit of wood, from a reputable dealer here in NY. I suspect the crack was caused by the wood moving from unheated storage at the lumber yard, to my warm, dry basement.

I'm a woodworking newbie... is it wise to slowly transition wood from one environment to another? If I had to do it over again, that's what I'd probably do.

Well, live and learn!

[John Almberg]

Rip it right on the split line (if the grain is straight and the split is straight) taking away as much of the split as possible. Glue it back together and hope for the best. More times than not a split is a weakness in the wood that is still there even if you can't see it.

Yup... this is what I was thinking it might need.

[Matthew Hills]

Kelly Mehler's video on building a shaker table shows him dealing with a split at the end of a board. He cuts the end with the split off, and then cuts off another thumb-width section and whacks it on a bench to see if it breaks apart (if the board already is already week, this will reveal it, in which case he would cut a bit more off)

Not sure on what would cause a new split once the wood has dried and acclimated.

Matt

[John Almberg]

Kelly Mehler's video on building a shaker table shows him dealing with a split at the end of a board. He cuts the end with the split off, and then cuts off another thumb-width section and whacks it on a bench to see if it breaks apart (if the board already is already week, this will reveal it, in which case he would cut a bit more off)

Not sure on what would cause a new split once the wood has dried and acclimated.

Matt

That's an interesting trick. I'll try it.

The edge will actually be reinforced by the side planks, once they are on. Hopefully that will also keep it from splitting. Just have to see, I guess.

[mark kosse]

I pick up a lot of air dried wood. A lot of it cracks and I still manage to turn it into some very nice looking pieces. I usually hit cracks with supleglue and that stops them cold. In your case I would suggest a waterproof epoxy. Use a thin, slow drying type so it will seep into the crack. West System does that but it used to only be sold in large quantities. I get some from grizzly that also does that in a smaller size.

[Scott T Smith]

Well, this crack wasn't there yesterday, either. It just suddenly appeared. It's very thin, but definitely there.




Almost always, defects in boards occur when the wood is drying from green down to 35% MC. However, oftentimes the defects do not show up until later.

I'm sure that there are exceptions, but this is the rule.