Riving dry, rough dimensioned lumber

[Prashun Patel]

There is a lot of good info on riving green wood into lumber. I have been doing a good bit of it recently, but it's difficult work. Finding good logs and then manipulating them can be difficult and dangerous. And then you have to deal with drying and shrinking.

I am sure I'm the last to the party on this, but I have recently found it worthwhile and fun to rive dimensional lumber that's already been milled into rough boards.

On this desk project for my son, I am starting with reasonably straight-grained stock. On 8/4 or 4/4 boards, you don't need a giant maul or sledge hammer like Curtis Buchanan wields so deftly. A simple hatchet and deadblow hammer gets the split started easily. On stock like this red oak that splits easily, you don't even need a froe. Once the hatchet gets below the surface it's actually more controlled to lift the piece off the ground and let it drop, holding on to the handle of the hatchet. You can get a very controlled split this way.

Ordinarily I might be tempted to get 4 legs out of this piece, but the hatchet doesn't lie. When riving I usually end up with less yield, but the resulting pieces are fairly strong, and the natural sweeps offer (to me) some great design opportunities.

These pieces are ready to joint or turn and have as little run out as you can hope for.

Those who have worked with riven stock can attest that that it planes nicely by virtue of minimizing the grain run out. This is especially nice on curves and steam-bent pieces, where the plane or spokeshave can approach from either direction with little tear-out.

[Bill Houghton]

Thanks, Prashun.

Wood is wood, although it's probably easier to rive greenish wood - but a lot of the wood that shows up at the lumberyard these days is pretty green.

[Bill McDermott]

A particular kiln dried S4S board from the hardwood dealer was just so stinking straight grained that I just had to split it into the longbow and arrows that I've been promising myself. Yes,, lot's of waste, but it was a cool thing to work with the grain.

[Brandon Speaks]

A particular kiln dried S4S board from the hardwood dealer was just so stinking straight grained that I just had to split it into the longbow and arrows that I've been promising myself. Yes,, lot's of waste, but it was a cool thing to work with the grain.

I have done this a few times with store bought hickory and red oak. I mostly use staves from logs now as I have a pretty good selection, but still have one shooter from a board laying around somewhere.

[Mike Holbrook]

I took a few chair classes and got interested in riving/splitting wood.

I found that the angle of the wedged object used to rive/split with may be significant. Smaller angles may work better for starting slpits. In Prashun’s example a hatchet, which often has less angle to the “wedge” is more like a froe, although the angle may be even less on the hatchet/axe. I now have a wide range of “wedges” with a varrying amount of angle. Many of the wedges I now use have handles, like a hatchet, axe or froe. The handle allows one to pry the split, helps remove the wedge from the work, keeps hands out of the split... The handle may also help to align the blade of the wedge with the grain.

I have re handled a wide variety of splitting axes, hatchets, axes, mauls and old railroad spike hammers/splitters. The heads for these tools can be picked up on auction sites or at flea markets cheap. I also have a set of Gransfors wedges. These wedges have a very gradual tapper that eventually twists the entire wedge body, which works very well in certain circumstances. I keep them very sharp. A good supply of gluts, preferably made from dogwood are handy once a split gets opened to keep it running.

I just spent a couple days removing an old railroad tie wall. Parts of the ties were almost “petrified”. There were long spikes with spiral sides used to hold the ties together. I did not want to leave the spikes in the ties as I was afraid the abundant deer, turkeys....in the area might get cut, skewered.... I found that splitting the spikes out of the wood was often easier than trying to pry the often rusted spikes out by the large spiked heads. Splitting also reduced the size of the pieces to something more manageable by a single person. The various sizes of handled wedges made the work go faster. In places that did not want to start splitting I just went to a narrower wedge to get the split started. My narrow hatchet/axe blade got lots of use.

[Prashun Patel]

I started from an article in FWW called "Making a Writing Desk".

I turned the legs, though, and added a lower stretcher.

Red oak doesn't have a lot of fans, but I'm growing to like it. QS or rift, I like the look.

I used to take so much time making my dovetails look more perfect than they were by sanding and filling in the gaps with sawdust and finish. Lately, I've been leaving the imperfections visible. I can spot the Botox in other peoples' work, so who am I fooling.

The 'inlay' is really a routed groove filled with dyed epoxy. Interesting to note how little dye penetrates into even open grained woods like red oak. I did not pre-seal around the line. I just dripped in the dyed epoxy and then planed the excess. Love it or leave it.

[Jim Koepke]

Wood is wood, although it's probably easier to rive greenish wood

When splitting fire wood, my experience has been of it being easier to split wood green than it is to split it when it is dry.

jtk

[Prashun Patel]

My experience has been that it’s easier to control a green split than dry, but it’s nonetheless possible to split dry wood just fine.

[Brian Holcombe]

Beautiful work! I’m certainly with you in
that I’ve grown to enjoy QS/rift red oak.

[Howard Pollack]

Bravo to you, Prashun, for your attitude about the dovetails! -Howard

[Phil Mueller]

Well done, Prashun, looks great...even the dovetails!

[Don Orr]

Love it or leave it.

I'll go with "Love it". Nicely done all around.

[bill howes]

A fine looking desk, Prashun
One observation on riving wood. As your pictures show, the split always runs out to the smaller portion. Sometimes thats unavoidable, but if you can work with dimensions that are amenable to halving , then quartering I find it leads to less waste.
As too green vs dry- I find dry is a bit more difficult, green is better and frozen green is best. Trouble is getting it all done before the wood thaws or dries out.

[James Pallas]

Beautiful work Prashun. I’ve done a lot of work in red and white oak. My wife loves it. I like the look of it no mater how it’s cut. I’m just tired of working with it. When you go from the oaks to cherry or walnut you feel like you went on a vacation. Everything is just a bit easier. Oak is good stuff and stands up to much abuse without much complaining.
Jim

[Tom Buskey]

I received 2 large red oak logs (8' each) last April. Diameter about 30". I used wedges and a small sledge hammer to rive most of one in May and through the summer. Some have dried in my basement with a humidifier and the rest in a solar kiln I built.

They're ready to use now. I still have one log and a bit of another. Last week, I tried riving again and it's more difficult. Instead of splitting the thickness straight across the width, it tends to split narrower. The split is not as smooth. The variation before was under 1/2". Now, it can be as much as an inch.

So I'm looking at a chainsaw mill to do the rest so I can have wider boards. If you want to rive, do it green!

[Frederick Skelly]

Could someone please teach me about why we rive wood like this? I know that it's done for certain furniture, but not why.
1. For example, what is the advantage in riving wood for the legs of a table or desk?
2. Likewise, if it's a really good thing to do, why don't more of us do it - maybe because it wastes more wood.

I'm just ignorant on riving and would like to learn a little without having to go read a green-wood woodworking book.

Thanks everyone!
Fred

[Brian Holcombe]

It's for strength, wood is strongest when the fibers are continuous. If you make a part where it needs to be steam bent, needs to flex in use, or needs to be thin it's important to have continuous fibers.

Breaks in wooden furniture parts are most often in areas of 'short grain' or areas where there is a runout in the short grain.

[Frederick Skelly]

It's for strength, wood is strongest when the fibers are continuous. If you make a part where it needs to be steam bent, needs to flex in use, or needs to be thin it's important to have continuous fibers.

Breaks in wooden furniture parts are most often in areas of 'short grain' or areas where there is a runout in the short grain.

Thank you Brian! Two more (admittedly) really dumb questions - what do you mean by the terms "short grain" and "runout"? Sorry if they are common terms. I'm trying to make sure I understand. (Edit: I think "short grain" means "end grain" but I dont know if that's correct.)

Thanks again.
Fred

[Prashun Patel]

Short grain or run out means when the grain of the wood starts at one end, but "runs out" the side before reaching the other end. That is a point of weakness. You've certainly realized this when you trim off the ends of a table and are amazed at how easily you can snap the cut along its length (which is all 'short grain').

In practical terms, it may not make a difference 90% of the time in the average home.

I do it more for a reason Brian did not mention: Riven pieces are often better looking and easier to work with than ones with run out/short grain. They plane and shape (in general) easier, and the continuity of the grain tends to make absorption of finish and light more even.

Of course green wood rives better than dry. The reason I started this thread is that there are distinct benefits to riving your dry, rough dimensioned wood sometimes vs just taking it to rough to the bandsaw or table saw. (I see the title of the thread was misleading. Changed).

[Warren Mickley]

I think it is more efficient for a hand tool worker to saw along the grain and then plane to a line. Riving like this takes slightly more materal because of the irregularities that arise from this method. These irregularities and extra material mean more time planing to achieve a given dimension. Of course there is some considerable skill involved in reading the grain well enough to lay out pieces which align with the grain.

When laying out tapered legs or the like, even more savings of labor can occur with judicious layout. Also the layout can improve the grain direction in the other direction(thickness of the board, by tapering the right direction.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thank you guys! I appreciate the lesson!
Fred

[Jerry Olexa]

Nice work on the desk, Prashun!!! Well done.