Quarter sawn oak wood movement

[Brian Runau]

I have worked with quarter sawn oak a lot during my woodworking time. Just a hobbyist, but I recently brought home a bunch and I seem to be getting a lot of movement out of it that I haven't seen before. I jointed a face and side of a 4-1/2" wide board and cut it in half. Final width is to be 1-1/2 x 3/4" thick. Took a number of passes on the jointer to get it flat across the face, but I had extra for the planer. After cutting it in half I jointed a side to make sure it was flat and even ran it through a light pass on the face. Trying to get four pieces for stretchers for a dresser, two out of each width. Three of the four cupped length wise so bad I could not use them.

Could be I am really bad at this, but haven't had this kind of problem with quarter sawn oak before. Didn't feel like I was forcing the wood down on the passes on the jointer. I try to use a light touch and pull the wood through once I have enough on the out feed table.

Can quarter sawn move that much based on how it is initially milled?

Thanks.

Brian

[John TenEyck]

Sounds like a moisture related issue. What was the MC of the wood vs. the EMC of your shop?

John

[Andrew Seemann]

The inside of the wood could have a different moisture content that the outside, so when you mill it, it changes shape as the new face equalizes with the ambient humidity. That is why you try to mill equally from both sides of the board. You might need to let it sit in the shop longer. The problem though is that this time of year in most shops in the Midwest, the relative humidity is dropping because of outside temps are going down while you are heating the inside, and often the wood lags behind in catching up. Thicker wood has more problems than thinner in this regards.

It could also have some internal tension that is being released as the wood is milled.

Plus every once in a while you get a board that is just cantankerous and refuses to hold shape until you eventually give up and use it as firewood.

[Brian Runau]

My shop is in my basement with a humidifier and the wood has been there for a month or so. I did make the mistake of planning from one side, so maybe that is my issue. Thanks Brian

[Richard Coers]

Kiln drying quarter sawn wood is difficult, white oak is extremely difficult. You need to have a talk with your supplier. The core of your stock appears to be wet.

[Scott T Smith]

Brian, as others have indicated this sounds like either incomplete or improper drying. Only removing material from one face of the board can also lead to this.

The other potential culprit would be stresses in the log, such as from a leaning tree. However the symptoms that you list are more commonly associated with deltas in MC% between the original outer surface and the newly exposed surface.

Does the board feel heavy compared with what you're used to? QSWO should weigh around 3.6 lbs per board foot when properly dried. Green it's over 6 lbs per bd ft.