Wood age?

[Kim Bye]

Whatever way the wood is dried, having it in your shop long enough to be climatized to your shop and thus giving you the chance to monitor weight and moisture content over time is always worth the effort. Some woods dries faster than others and some woods are more prone to splitting/cracking, so knowing how the wood has been stored and it's moisture content is key to consistency.

 

[Thunder Thighs]

Well you must think Titlistsvare new wood.

Too bad Tate is not here to educate you.

Dementia is a terrible disease. Hope you get the treatment you need. Seriously.

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

Dementia is a terrible disease. Hope you get the treatment you need. Seriously.

Dementia I think is your problem, hope they find a cure for your dementia, and stupidity.

 

[Jack Madden]

Years ago I was given some old maple steps that were used at a church in the Midwest. Well seasoned and dry. Made a couple plain cues. A guy wanted a cue for his wife, didn’t want to spend much. He brought her by, she picked out one of the cues. Got to talking to them (I like to tell them about the wood etc). Will always remember the conversation. She grew up in the Midwest. As a child she walked up those steps of that church with her parents. We all had goose bumps. Who would have thought that wood ended up in Arizona, she moved to Arizona, and bought a cue made of those steps.

 

[cueman]

Years ago I was given some old maple steps that were used at a church in the Midwest. Well seasoned and dry. Made a couple plain cues. A guy wanted a cue for his wife, didn’t want to spend much. He brought her by, she picked out one of the cues. Got to talking to them (I like to tell them about the wood etc). Will always remember the conversation. She grew up in the Midwest. As a child she walked up those steps of that church with her parents. We all had goose bumps. Who would have thought that wood ended up in Arizona, she moved to Arizona, and bought a cue made of those steps.

Another strange incident happened to us recently. We were out at a covered bridge in the middle of the country near where I live in Georgia showing it to my wife's sister and brother in law from Kansas City, MO. He had a Chiefs shirt on and someone else visiting the bridge told him they liked his shirt. Turned out they were visiting from Kansas City also and figured out they went to the same church, but just go to different time services.

 

[whammo57]

I don't care about the age of wood........... I usually buy kiln dried and let it rest in my shop for a month or 2...... then put it in a cue........... never had a problem

Kim

 

[3kushn]

Yes, it is .
When you kiln dry woods then plane them after then cut them to squares, you get much more stable wood than air dried woods that you have no clue how it's going to react when turned .

Joey, I'm not an expert on this. Just interested in the topic.

My late friend Dennis Dieckman would talk to me for hours about wood. That doesn't mean much, other than I listened and was interested in what he had to say. I don't know, but maybe he invented the phrase "River of Wood". At any rate, you and others know what that means. Simply Long Term Planning. It also means, he was of the school of Air Drying wood. For a Really Long Time!

I own 3 Dieckman cues that I play with, a couple others that I don't but have for other reasons. Call it sentimental. Call it a minor investment. Whatever. One Off's.

Point is, his wood was Air Dried.

His Shafts don't move. I see movement in the butts. That doesn't bother me in the least, but why. Different woods competing???

 

[Michael Webb]

Years ago I was given some old maple steps that were used at a church in the Midwest. Well seasoned and dry. Made a couple plain cues. A guy wanted a cue for his wife, didn’t want to spend much. He brought her by, she picked out one of the cues. Got to talking to them (I like to tell them about the wood etc). Will always remember the conversation. She grew up in the Midwest. As a child she walked up those steps of that church with her parents. We all had goose bumps. Who would have thought that wood ended up in Arizona, she moved to Arizona, and bought a cue made of those steps.

Hi Jack
That, is a great story. Memories like that, last a lifetime.
Thank you for sharing.

 

[JoeyInCali]

Joey, I'm not an expert on this. Just interested in the topic.

My late friend Dennis Dieckman would talk to me for hours about wood. That doesn't mean much, other than I listened and was interested in what he had to say. I don't know, but maybe he invented the phrase "River of Wood". At any rate, you and others know what that means. Simply Long Term Planning. It also means, he was of the school of Air Drying wood. For a Really Long Time!

I own 3 Dieckman cues that I play with, a couple others that I don't but have for other reasons. Call it sentimental. Call it a minor investment. Whatever. One Off's.

Point is, his wood was Air Dried.

His Shafts don't move. I see movement in the butts. That doesn't bother me in the least, but why. Different woods competing???

I have from a reliable source DD picked his own kiln dried boards for shafts.

 

[MVPCues]

I have from a reliable source DD picked his own kiln dried boards for shafts.

I bet your reliable source is the fat cat.

 

[HQueen]

Now ive heard over years that quarter sawn wood is more stable is this true to cue builders as well?

Quartersawn wood is more stable when building furniture. When you turn something round it eliminates the quartersawn aspect.

 

[cueman]

Quartersawn wood is more stable when building furniture. When you turn something round it eliminates the quartersawn aspect.

I have been told quarter sawing helps keep the boards running with the grain. So you are more likely to have shaft squares with the grain going fairly straight.

 

[HQueen]

I have been told quarter sawing helps keep the boards running with the grain. So you are more likely to have shaft squares with the grain going fairly straight.

Not my experience. if that works for you then great.

 

[cueman]

I have no experience in turning logs into boards like you do. But my thought is that once quarter sawn you get a look at the grain from two angles and can adjust the angle before making boards and again before making squares.. Where as you can only adjust once when cutting boards into squares with regular method. Like I said I am only going off what I have been told, but I have bought thousands of shaft dowels from the best people in the business through the tears and have had some conversations about how things are done. What am I missing?

 

[3kushn]

I have from a reliable source DD picked his own kiln dried boards for shafts.

Don't know how his shaft wood was dried but he went out every year and hand picked nearly all his wood.

 

[Ssonerai]

I resaw a lot of boards for various purposes - veneer, laminated bent work, book matched parts, etc.
The most stable boards i ever saw tend to be air dried for a "long time".
Fresh kiln dried is about the worst. Too much stress in it, even if the people running the kilns know, care, and run stress relief cycle.
After KD wood sets in the loft of my humidity controlled shop for (it seems to me) about 7 years, it evens out to be about as stable as air dried.

Kiln drying can partially set the sugars, depending on temp, but regular KD is not equal to torrifying.
Another very good thing with KD and especially maple, is it kills the worms. It is devastatingly easy for hard maple, and holly, to go all wormy if you let your shop humidity get up too much, and if the wood was not KD. Storing wood like that in a regular barn for long is an invitation for worms. Unless it is way up high in the loft and never gets damp air for extended periods.

Cuemakers & perhaps all us woodworkers have a lot of superstitions that work, but not always for the reasons we think they do.
smt