I paid a visit to Yandles wood yard today and spotted a slab of burr brown oak. After trimming up it measured 26" x 15" x 6" thick which made it manageable, although it has not been seasoned so was a dead weight and very reasonably priced at just over £100.
It was pretty much solid burr and will make wonderful panels or box lids after it's dried.
If I were to leave the slab in one piece it would take years to season and would develop plenty of large cracks. I've found the best thing to do is resaw it on the band saw to a thickness of 1 1/4" and here are the resulting boards. Before the final cut the blade started vibrating quite badly which was worrying, especially with the problems I've had with my Startrite band saw (see my posts on Startrite). As it turned out it was just the wet sawdust clogging up the tyres and teeth on the blade, I had to clean them up twice before I was done which was a pain.
The grain is wonderful and reminds me of one of the cabinets on James Krenovs website. I need to put this away in a dark corner and have another look in a year or two!
Have you treated the ends of the board and stacked them on sticks to dry out?
ReplyDeleteHi David, As the boards are only just over 2 feet long there's no need to treat the ends. I've tried stacking and sticking the boards with a heavy weight on top but burrs seem to so their own thing whatever you do! The two outer boards which will be drier on one side always cup more, I've tried wetting them to achieve an even moisture distribution but this doesn't seem to work. So these boards are stacked on end with good air circulation and I'll let them do their thing! All the best, David.
ReplyDelete