Need advice on plane

[Brian Holcombe]

This is why successful re-sawing usually involves ripping first.

Seems I remember a film about George Nakashima, after all this is what the task at hand is revolving around, and it went into the elaborate and extensive care taken to season his woods. Even so, I have to wonder how the people with some of his pieces have experienced their lives together.

While I agree, If you rip it down it’s no longer a slab.

I can’t speak for Nakashima, but I’ve never seen anything thicker than 8/4 for table tops from
them. The exception being his peace altars which are probably 12/4.

There isn’t a structural reason to use material 5” thick and in most cases it’s hugely negative to the long term survival of the work.

Wide slabs need battening and battening is useless against really heavy slabs.

[lowell holmes]

I have taken boards to cabinet shops that had the equipment and paid them to flatten lumber for me.
Look around and see if there is one near you.

[James Pallas]

I'm a big believer in build what you want to build. If you want a 5" slab top do it. You should be prepared for what may happen in the future. Even with the best care panels may crack and those beautiful QS oak legs can and will split. I may just make the legs 3" longer so I can cut them off to level up at a later date or have an idea of how to handle crack down the road. If we followed all of the rules there would never be a Maloof rocker or many other great things. I want to see a 5" thick coffee table. I just don't know if I would like to deal with that lion in the house as I said previously.
Jim

[Mike Holbrook]

Bill, apparently we are the same age. I was also a software/data communications guy years ago. I think that many people over estimate the difficulty of working with larger pieces of wood. Schwarz and Myers just made a video. They make a roubo bench using 5” thick green lumber. They claim that it is not that hard to do. The point of the Mr. Chickadee videos to me is he frames buildings using green, large timbers. Apparently the joinery holds. Part of the “trick” may be using wooden pegs and joinery that allows the wood to move. Wedges, for instance can be driven in further or backed off as wood moves.....

It seems to me that a couple hundred years ago there was no kiln dried lumber but things still got built from wood. I think the techniques used to build things in that day and time have just been largely forgotten and or replaced by “modern” manufacturing techniques. My current interest in woodworking involves figuring out how to build with greener/wetter wood, so I may be a little weird. People who do this kind of work learn how to slow or speed up the way wood dries. I use a good deal of WATCO finish. Many people complain that WATCO does not prevent moisture loss, just slowing it down, which is why I like it. Most chair builders have a kiln for drying green wood. Wood items packed with damp wood chips in a plastic bag can be manipulated to control moisture content. Larger wood can be wrapped, painted, finished, stacked.....

[Patrick Chase]

Here's the Schwarz/Myers bench FWIW: https://blog.lostartpress.com/2017/0...by-hand-power/