Even though the wood I acquired was air-dried, it still needs acclimating to it’s new home. I brought it into the shop at the end of June to let the moisture equalize for a week before working on it.
After the wood has adjusted to it’s new home, I start by inspecting each of the slabs for defects but also I look for appropriate patterns for the tops and the sides of the piece as well as the door faces and drawers. I posted earlier about CR’s approach to selecting lumber and from these lessons I tried to pick my grain appropriately.
For this project, I chose to make continuity of the case grain, the most important thing in selection. The resulting wood pattern runs up the side of the piece and then over the top and the other side mirrors the other. In the post immediately following you’ll see the resaw pics.
Some things I let go of, like runout at the edges and strict parallel grain. I bought a little extra wood just in case but the end dimensions are big (for my comfort level anyway). To fully straightening the grain everywhere seemed too wasteful so I picked as best as I could and left the goal of no runout to another future project.
Another limitation was our 10” jointer. This meant ripping and rejoining or convincing people to have furniture no deeper than 10 inches. (a consideration for the next commission). I chose rip and rejoin. More effort but also opens things up for bigger projects.
The resawing was great fun and it also gave me an excuse to retune the bandsaw. Having worked on two awesome bandsaws this summer, I was determined to get ours up to snuff. A new blade and an adjusted fence later, things were smooth sailing.
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ofwoodsandplanesandsharpening posted this
