Stable wood recommendation

[Lawrence Duckworth]

I want to re-saw kiln dried 12”x12”x2” blanks down to 12-12-3/8” and am not sure what type of wood would be the most stable ((as in not warping). I will put a protective finish coat immediately after cutting these thin pieces.

Thanks👍

[Reed Gray]

How they dried makes as much difference as anything else. Mesquite is very stable. Walnut when dry is very stable. Some of the oaks also. The thing is though, all wood moves with seasonal and humidity changes. The best woods I have had for cutting with little spring, bow, twist, and cupping are air dried woods and vacuum kiln dried woods. Standard kiln dried woods are the worst. You can get wood 'stabilized' but that is very expensive. What are you going to do with it?

robo hippy

[John K Jordan]

How they dried makes as much difference as anything else. Mesquite is very stable. Walnut when dry is very stable. Some of the oaks also. The thing is though, all wood moves with seasonal and humidity changes. The best woods I have had for cutting with little spring, bow, twist, and cupping are air dried woods and vacuum kiln dried woods. Standard kiln dried woods are the worst. You can get wood 'stabilized' but that is very expensive. What are you going to do with it?
robo hippy

Also, the orientation of the rings in the board AND the orientation of the grain down the board can make a big difference due to the way the wood shrinks more in the transverse than radial direction. True quartersawn wood with straight grain can be quite stable. If the board is sawn with the grain at an angle to the long axis it can twist if unconstrained and contain stresses if constrained while drying.

The stability can also vary a lot by species.

Sometimes wood can build up a lot of internal stress even when either air dried or kiln dried since boards that would normally warp are typically forced flat by stickering and weight. Re-sawing a flat board with internal stresses can result in warped pieces.

JKJ

[Lawrence Duckworth]

Hmmm. I wouldn’t have figured walnut to be a good choice, glad I asked. I can get walnut from Suwannee Lumber though I’m not sure how their stuff is actually dried. The boards are usually 12’ long and a variety of widths. I was thinking the thin slices would do better if sanded and sealed right away, but I’m not opposed to stacking them under weights and pressure to air dry them for awhile. When finished there will be about 50 of these slices stacked with a quarter inch spacer between each slice.
👍

[tom lucas]

I would look to use only quarter-sawn. Plus it's so damn pretty.