wood that requires extra caution

[wardk]

The curved archway door jam you see in the picture on the rounded door was made from one solid block of fir, it was a race against time to get it stained after I cut it because it was so actively splitting and cracking once it was cut out of the block that I could hear and feel it cracking in my hands. Once I got a coat of stain on it it immediately settled down. What you can't see in the pictures are the big cracks that had already developed because I filled them with wood filler and re-stained it. The doors themselves keep shrinking in the summer and swelling in the winter, especially the bigger rounded door. Last summer I had to modify it because it shrunk so much and pulled away from the door catch it didn't catch properly and wouldn't stay closed. Currently the door is so swollen I can't even open it. LOL
The other door has split vertically in several spots, but again I just keep filling the cracks with wood filler and re-staining it, so you don't notice it very much. They may look nice, but they have been way more upkeep then I had ever expected.
Interestingly the wood furniture you see in the pictures is made from white cedar and has the exact same finish as the doors (Sikkens, Cetol 1,2,3), but they have had absolutely no checking or cracking.

Well I was out by the woodshed this morning and something caught my eye that I wouldn't normally had paid much attention to. I found a lonely left over Douglas fir split at the back of the stack, surrounded by some pine and walnut. And yes, it had some obvious checking.
It's the reddish colored split in the middle.

And in case you can't see the checking in above photo, here is a close up.

And a direct link to the picture. http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q678/Mucky_Waters/Douglas Fir checking_zpskd08z734.jpg

Glad we can finally put that matter to rest.

The curved archway door jam you see in the picture on the rounded door was made from one solid block of fir, it was a race against time to get it stained after I cut it because it was so actively splitting and cracking once it was cut out of the block that I could hear and feel it cracking in my hands. Once I got a coat of stain on it it immediately settled down. What you can't see in the pictures are the big cracks that had already developed because I filled them with wood filler and re-stained it. The doors themselves keep shrinking in the summer and swelling in the winter, especially the bigger rounded door. Last summer I had to modify it because it shrunk so much and pulled away from the door catch it didn't catch properly and wouldn't stay closed. Currently the door is so swollen I can't even open it. LOL
The other door has split vertically in several spots, but again I just keep filling the cracks with wood filler and re-staining it, so you don't notice it very much. They may look nice, but they have been way more upkeep then I had ever expected.
Interestingly the wood furniture you see in the pictures is made from white cedar and has the exact same finish as the doors (Sikkens, Cetol 1,2,3), but they have had absolutely no checking or cracking.

Well I was out by the woodshed this morning and something caught my eye that I wouldn't normally had paid much attention to. I found a lonely left over Douglas fir split at the back of the stack, surrounded by some pine and walnut. And yes, it had some obvious checking.
It's the reddish colored split in the middle.

And in case you can't see the checking in above photo, here is a close up.

And a direct link to the picture. http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q678/Mucky_Waters/Douglas Fir checking_zpskd08z734.jpg

Glad we can finally put that matter to rest.

The curved archway door jam you see in the picture on the rounded door was made from one solid block of fir, it was a race against time to get it stained after I cut it because it was so actively splitting and cracking once it was cut out of the block that I could hear and feel it cracking in my hands. Once I got a coat of stain on it it immediately settled down. What you can't see in the pictures are the big cracks that had already developed because I filled them with wood filler and re-stained it. The doors themselves keep shrinking in the summer and swelling in the winter, especially the bigger rounded door. Last summer I had to modify it because it shrunk so much and pulled away from the door catch it didn't catch properly and wouldn't stay closed. Currently the door is so swollen I can't even open it. LOL
The other door has split vertically in several spots, but again I just keep filling the cracks with wood filler and re-staining it, so you don't notice it very much. They may look nice, but they have been way more upkeep then I had ever expected.
Interestingly the wood furniture you see in the pictures is made from white cedar and has the exact same finish as the doors (Sikkens, Cetol 1,2,3), but they have had absolutely no checking or cracking.

Well I was out by the woodshed this morning and something caught my eye that I wouldn't normally had paid much attention to. I found a lonely left over Douglas fir split at the back of the stack, surrounded by some pine and walnut. And yes, it had some obvious checking.
It's the reddish colored split in the middle.

And in case you can't see the checking in above photo, here is a close up.

And a direct link to the picture. http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q678/Mucky_Waters/Douglas Fir checking_zpskd08z734.jpg

Glad we can finally put that matter to rest.

Cedar is the wood of choice for outdoor furniture but cost about the same as oak here. I still like the straight grain fir doors and the adobe patio .

 

[Seanm]

Anyway, perhaps there is so much resin in the OP fir that it is somehow inhibiting shrink checks from occurring,

Thats kind of what I was thinking. Here is one I found today. The only thing odd about this picture is the lack of three feet of snow that should be on the ground. No checking but the powerline crew just came through here a few days ago so I think its fresh. Its a shame its to big for me to pick up but I might grab the top half of it.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I stand corrected. However, compared to the wood stacked below it it is hardly checked at all. Under enough magnification even a billiard ball is checked

 

[Lumber-Jack]

One thing that determines just how severely a cut piece of wood will check is how dry the wood is before it gets cut. The wood that you refer to that has so much more checking than the fir is walnut that was cut green. The fir and the pine where standing dead when they were cut, so they had already dried somewhat before being cut and of course are not subjected to as much shrink checking as they would if they were cut green.

After that same walnut wood had dried for a few years I was able to take a small 3" diameter round branch piece and slice it into 1\4" cookie like pieces and make some beautiful little walnut coasters, and because the wood was so dry when they were cut they haven't checked or split at all. We actually use them quite regularly whenever company comes over for tea or coffee.

 

[D8Chumley]

I also cut a 3" ash limb into coasters, wife saw them somewhere for a lot of money and asked me to make some. I cut them about 1/2" thick with the chop saw in the garage, had 30 of 'em made in short order. I'm going to cut some more from different wood when I come across some, the paper birch ones I made at first aren't that attractive

 

[iluvjazznjava]

Where in BC do you live,and what type of pine are you burning? Was it cut green?
I generally cut beetle kill lodgepole pine that have been standing dead for a long time. There is no running sap in them because of the way they die from the blue bacteria the beetle introduces, it basically plugs the cells that carry the sap and strangles the life out of the tree and it desiccates in the sun and wind so badly that the trees develop long vertical splits that run the length of the trunk. Any sap that might be present seems to dry up and crystallize. On the other hand I've cut down 25 year old standing dead douglas fir trees and watched water gush out of the trunk as the fibers in the hinge twisted and compressed as it fell over. The trunks of douglas fir trees seem to hold a lot of water even when they've been dead for a long long time.

I'm in Cranbrook area - the Kootenays. I have heard that beetle kill pine does much better, but there isn't much of it close to where I live. The pine I burned this year I bought off a dealer and it was not seasoned well. The dealer said the load was all fir too, which is what annoyed me the most. I know pine when I see it, as I worked in a mill for a few years and used to handle fir and pine all the time. That dealer is now on my "do not buy" list.