best use for wood with lots of checks?

[Mishkin Derakhshan]

I've inherited a 18"x 18", 7/4 board. No info about origin or when it was cut or species or anything. I live in Hawaii so I'm assuming it is something local. Looks mahagony-esque.

The wood seems to have a lot of checks in it.
Any advice on how to best make use of the wood? A solid cutting board? Mill it up into small pieces and then glue them back together? Epoxy the whole thing to stabilize? Mill and resaw into thinner stock so I can make a box?
Are any of these ill-advised given the checks?

thanks

p.s. I don't have a moisture reader

Photo Feb 23, 4 54 42 PM.jpgPhoto Feb 23, 4 54 54 PM.jpgPhoto Feb 23, 4 55 14 PM.jpg

[Mark Gibney]

I'd be inclined to keep it whole. Squeeze ca glue in to the checks, it'll take maybe a few occasions of doing that.
Then to fill the checks to the surface I used to use slow set epoxy, but that can be another long process. So I find Abatron or even JB Weld wood color epoxy more to my liking now.

Once that's all done you can surface the piece, turn some legs and rungs and make a stool / small table.

Looking forward to what different approaches other Creekers will advise.

edit: use your card scraper to get to some fresh wood so you can see if it's attractive enough to you to do anything with. Wet the scraped surface with a little alcohol to see the color it will be if it had finish on it.

[Derek Cohen]

Any advice on how to best make use of the wood

Excellent kindling for a barbie.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[John C Cox]

Generally the ends have the worst checking. Also - running it through a planer will probably clean up a lot of it...

But... Let me put a bug in your ear a bit....

A beautiful brown wood
Milled in Hawaii
Looks and works kinda like Mahogany...

Hawaiian Koa is the first thing that comes to mind...

I would not chop it up for kindling if it's Koa....

[Derek Cohen]

Koa also came to mind. Its cousin, Tasmanian Blackwood, is one of my favourites - stunning chatoyance is possible.

I doubt, however, that this piece will approach anything useable. If you saw across the grain, the board will break into chunks. If you resaw it, how much integrity will remain?

The wood does not look like it has been living outdoors - it would be grey in colour. So, if recently sawn, it is checking and unstable. I would not trust this to a piece of furniture, rustic or otherwise. Sorry - find better wood.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jeff Heath]

Sadly for the wood, I agree with Derek. That's a hunk of firewood, with checks appearing to be every 1/2" or so, and seemingly full length. Money isn't arms and legs......you can make more and buy a decent piece of timber.

[James Waldron]

It would be technically challenging for most woodworkers, but it is possible to vacuum infuse the piece with epoxy resin to bond and stabilize the checks. By technically challenging, I mean it would be something that would require both capital investment and research time if starting from scrap. If you know a skate board builder nearby, they use vacuum infusion all the time. Some surfboard builders do as well.

In much of the world, a big chunk of Koa like that is hard to come by and might be worth the trouble of finding the right guy.

[Prashun Patel]

I think a serving board is about the best I would do with this. I would rip the board into strips, turn them quarter, and Re glue them. This will at least result in a nice pattern. It will be stable enough to serve cheese and crackers on.

You may be able to salvage a strip to serve as the handle for an accompanying knife.

A nice gift or conversation piece.

[Brian Hale]

I believe the first step is to plane the surface and see what the grain looks like before deciding to use it for kindling.

Brian

[Pat Barry]

I would not rip it but look for a way to use it as is. Maybe a plaque or a carving. I think you should find a way to incorporate the checking.

[Patrick Chase]

The wood does not look like it has been living outdoors - it would be grey in colour. So, if recently sawn, it is checking and unstable. I would not trust this to a piece of furniture, rustic or otherwise. Sorry - find better wood.

Have a look at the near end in photo 1. It's pretty grey. It looks like the wood was stored in a tightly packed pile (no stickers) with just that end exposed, which could partially explain the... um... "non-optimal" outcome.

[john zulu]

Straight cut. I won't use it for anything important. Not stable.

[Mishkin Derakhshan]

update: it's not koa

face grain looks like sapele, but end grain doesn't quite match. maybe santos mahagony? not sure.

One side is looking better than I thought though. Maybe I will be able to get some boards out of this for a small box or something after all.

Photo Feb 26, 11 04 17 PM.jpgPhoto Feb 26, 11 04 33 PM.jpgPhoto Feb 26, 11 05 24 PM.jpg

p.s. is there a wood identification forum?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Boy, that sure does look like Cumuru. If you try to plane it and the shavings come out stringy, and if it's harder than kryptonite, it's probably Cumuru. It's used in decking and flooring. Maybe someone had an old deck that they removed and this is a leftover from it. It would explain the condition.