Butterflies

[Art Diebel]

How thick do you make your butterflies, when you are trying to stabilize a large/long crack. Do you ever use anything over a 1/2"? The crotch Im using is 6/4 and I plan to fill the crack with epoxy also. Im a very long lurker, thanks everyone. Art

[Paul Girouard]

I make mine out of 3/4” stock and let them in 5/8” + .

Some times on thick stock I let in a straight spline that’s glued on on the bottom side.

[Jim Becker]

There can be a lot of variability toward what works best for a given situation. For your 6/4 stock, I'd probably do .375 to .675 thickness after cleaning up on the visible side and like Paul, do some additional reinforcement in the same area on the underside, albeit in a simpler manner. For a serious crack in a thick piece of natural edge stock, I might even use inlet steel on the bottom to help keep things flat, obviously planning for wood movement in how it's fastened to the workpiece. The actual size of the butterfly inlay also needs to be scaled to be aesthetically pleasing...but you knew that already.

[Ole Anderson]

Art, I haven't done any butterflies, but welcome to the Creek!!!

[Doug Hepler]

Art,

I think 1/2" would be plenty but you might want to put a deadman on both sides, depending on the crack.

Doug

[Doug Garson]

Art,

I think 1/2" would be plenty but you might want to put a deadman on both sides, depending on the crack.

Doug

Familiar with butterflys to stabilize cracks but what is a deadman?

[Doug Hepler]

Doug

I'm sorry. It's another name for a butterfly. I should have used the OP's word.

Doug

[Art Diebel]

Thanks for the replies. I’m going to make them thicker. First time using a slab, most all my stuff has been square. Art

[Brian Holcombe]

It's important to use rift/vertical grain stock, I would rive them if they're for a critical point.

I've seen a serious crack simply tear them in half if they're too thin in the center, so while thinner is usually more appealing looking don't go too thin.

Rift/VG, riven from straight stock will go a long way to helping them from tearing apart under strain, any bit of runout will be a point of weakness.

[Julie Moriarty]

I just finished my first two. The first one was 3/4" because that's what I had. The second I resawed down to 1/2" to avoid some rot in the slab.

[Warren Lake]

no interest in them or that type of stuff. Have seen 17 monarchs this year which likely means they are coming back over previous years.

[Bill McNiel]

My rough rule of thumb is 75% of the wood thickness, after all I'm trying to restrict wood from doing what it wants to.

[Tom Bain]

I used some very large and thick butterflies in this piece but I knew the top was/is trying to tear itself apart. Can’t remember the exact thickness but probably 1” or greater.
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