Cherry Plank

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have a question on kiln dried wood. I bought two cherry planks off ebay that were 8/4 X 11 1/2" wide and 48" long. He said they were kiln dried to 8%. So I bought both to make some cherry plates out of them. Well went out this morning to cut them up and start turning plates and one of the boards was fine. The other had a split right down the middle from one end to the other. Didn't notice it till I picked it up and saw the pith was right in the middle of the board all the way thru. It is cracked pretty bad and almost all the way thru. I can flex the board on both end.

My question is can kiln dried wood still crack like that with the pith in it? Or was the wood not as dry as he said it was? Just curious because I had never run across this before.

[Raymond Overman]

With a massive change in temperature I would think it can and especially the pith section of a log. That's why every tutorial on cutting logs into turning blanks show taking a section out of the middle to avoid the pith.

Sorry for the loss.

[Barbara Gill]

Cherry is particularly bad for cracks in the area of the pith. To some extent the cracks occur naturally, at least in the logs I have sawn over the years. Was there any sign of the crack when you received the board? If the wood was sold by the sawyer or a dealer, they should have known about center cut cherry and cracking.

[Alan Turner]

Bernie,
To my knowledge, the pith of a tree is never used for woodworking. I don't recall ever seeing a pith plank that was not badly checked or cracked. Sorry about that.

[Keith Christopher]

Bernie,

Make some lemonade from it. Cut it down the middle removing the pith and then insert some contrasting wood and glue it back up !



Keith

[Keith Burns]

Bernie, sorry for the loss. Did you in fact receive something that was not as described and could you receive a replacement from the supplier? May be more trouble than it's worth though.

[Jim King]

I agree with the lemonade theory. There is a large factory here in town that makes finger jointed and glued up panels out of nothing but the pith boards of Virola. He ships them out by the container loads. All that pith defect makes beautiful fiured tables.

As for pith in bowls I personally like a nice sized pith hole and better with the star cracks on each side of a bowl. Sort of a contained natural edge look and always with nice color.

You had a bit of bad luck as the pith must have been perfectly centered in the board to crack. The guy should not have sold it that way without advising you.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Thanks for the info everyone. I kinda thought that should not be the case. I wrote him and will see if he answers me back. He has his own sawmill and I told him if he is going to sell wood that he needs to make sure the pith is not in there. I am going to try to cut the pith out of it (as Bill Grumbine says, "can I say that"). Then maybe glue some walnut down the middle of it and see what happens. I will let you know. Thanks again.