Stringing Question

[Kent A Bathurst]

Imagine a flat table top. Nothing fancy. Coffee-table size, maybe 30" x 60". Flat-sawn curly soft maple.

If I put stringing around the perimeter - maybe inset 1" from the edge, all 4 sides............

What happens with the cross-grain stringing when the top expands + contracts?[/QUOTE]

[Bill Orbine]

They can break (stretched) or pop out (shrunk). Your table could expand or contract 1/4". Sometimes more. Sometimes less. Depending on the environment. Can you do the string crossgrain to crossgrain?

[Kent A Bathurst]

I am very familiar with design for cross-grain wood movement - but I aam wondering if the narrow, thin slices of stringing really "care" about that.

I don't know how you would get cross-grain stringing - unless it is a bunch of 6" - 10" pieces sliced off the end of a board and butted together in the slot on the table. Seems like that would look a bit funky.

Looking at photos of high-end antiques, it sure looks to me like they ran stringing wherever teh heck they wanted to???????????????

[Mike Henderson]

I never heard of a problem with stringing. The stringing is so small - and it's glued along its length - that I think it just expands and contracts with the substrate.

I agree - our ancestors just ran stringing wherever, and never had a problem.

Mike

[Nelson Howe]

Michael Fortune limits his cross grain straining to 5 inch pieces due to wood movement.

Nelson

[Frank Drew]

I used stringing on occasion and cross grain wood movement just hasn't caused problems; some of that might be due to the wood not going through wild swings in indoor environmental humidity, though.