The cabinet I recently described called for a fair amount of straight-grained ash. I took this opportunity to sift through the stack of ash I have and make use of several methods to get the desired grain pattern. I'm describing each here in hopes others find these useful (if not outright obvious). Hopefully, it will also prompt ways others use to get the most out of the lumber you have.
Making the most of a bad board
We all have to do this. Trees are round. Lumber is rectangular. The milling process exposes all sorts of issues, including warpage, undesirable grain patterns, splits, etc. Unless you are hand-picking the lumber you will have to work around these defects. The ash I have was some my father had milled. There are some very nice boards and some not-so-nice.
One such board is straight-grained, but on a slant. There was a time when I would have ripped this board along the edge I was given. I'm more selective now and start by making a new edge -- one that runs with the grain. This is how the original board looked. It was obviously cut from a tree that had bent as it grew. Ash splits easy and this board had some really bad cracks as well.
I begin with a framing square and a measurement of what the rough size it I will need. You can visualize the board by adjusting the square to find the best grain pattern. I mark it in pencil before cutting.
The end result is two, even-grained panels for my cabinet. You also end up with narrower pieces that can be used for stiles and rails.
Straightening bent grain
As I mentioned this tree grew with a bow. This resulted in boards like the one shown, below. In this case I'm going to locate the point where the bend is greatest and cut it in two at right angles to the corresponding grain. In this way I was able to get fairly straight grain from the same board running across the top two drawer panels as shown.
Rearranging the grain
I used this technique to get straight grain for the two deep drawer fronts on the cabinet. I had a wide board, but as is typical the center had cathedral grain and only the edges had straight grain. I needed the edges, but not the middle. The solution is to split the board and rearrange the grain.
The original board is shown on the left. It has lovely grain, but not the effect I wanted, so split through the middle of the cathedral pattern. Then, flip one board and glue them back together. You may need to play around a bit to get the best match, but in the end you can have the board you want.
In my case the original board was about 11" wide. I only needed 9-1/2". I was able to remove most of the figured part and put the focus on the straight grain. The effect is shown in the two bottom drawer fronts. The straight grain, and the fact you are rejoining two pieces from the same board, makes it easy to hide the glue joint.
I know most of this is me stating the obvious. Still, I hope folks will find it useful. Taking time to choose the right grain can make all the difference.
Making the most of a bad board
We all have to do this. Trees are round. Lumber is rectangular. The milling process exposes all sorts of issues, including warpage, undesirable grain patterns, splits, etc. Unless you are hand-picking the lumber you will have to work around these defects. The ash I have was some my father had milled. There are some very nice boards and some not-so-nice.
One such board is straight-grained, but on a slant. There was a time when I would have ripped this board along the edge I was given. I'm more selective now and start by making a new edge -- one that runs with the grain. This is how the original board looked. It was obviously cut from a tree that had bent as it grew. Ash splits easy and this board had some really bad cracks as well.
I begin with a framing square and a measurement of what the rough size it I will need. You can visualize the board by adjusting the square to find the best grain pattern. I mark it in pencil before cutting.
The end result is two, even-grained panels for my cabinet. You also end up with narrower pieces that can be used for stiles and rails.
Straightening bent grain
As I mentioned this tree grew with a bow. This resulted in boards like the one shown, below. In this case I'm going to locate the point where the bend is greatest and cut it in two at right angles to the corresponding grain. In this way I was able to get fairly straight grain from the same board running across the top two drawer panels as shown.
Rearranging the grain
I used this technique to get straight grain for the two deep drawer fronts on the cabinet. I had a wide board, but as is typical the center had cathedral grain and only the edges had straight grain. I needed the edges, but not the middle. The solution is to split the board and rearrange the grain.
The original board is shown on the left. It has lovely grain, but not the effect I wanted, so split through the middle of the cathedral pattern. Then, flip one board and glue them back together. You may need to play around a bit to get the best match, but in the end you can have the board you want.
In my case the original board was about 11" wide. I only needed 9-1/2". I was able to remove most of the figured part and put the focus on the straight grain. The effect is shown in the two bottom drawer fronts. The straight grain, and the fact you are rejoining two pieces from the same board, makes it easy to hide the glue joint.
I know most of this is me stating the obvious. Still, I hope folks will find it useful. Taking time to choose the right grain can make all the difference.
