Thread: Dry wood, how to keep it from cracking?

Well the title says it all, any good tips?
Soak it in oil, water?
Even with very sharp chisels it want to spit up...
It's some old teak from a shipwreck, gets beautiful once sanded and oiled with chinese tung oil but hard to work it.

Teak,unless totally dried out should not crack as it has a very High oil content so no help from me,sorry.
Teak is also very hard on tools such as saws and router bits etc because it has a very High silica content,good luck,canyou post some pics?

Yeah, but this one seams to have dried out totally from being submerged for some 100 years or so.
I'm making a wood stand for a Hideriyama jnat.
Will try to take some pics, I'm really lousy with a camera...

Pic... the stand for the Nakayama Aisa on the picture is from the same piece of wood only with tung oil on it, and some dirt!

http://i.imgur.com/tiMmFnO.jpg

Would just heavily oil it,would use mineral oil (AKA food grade butcher block oil)

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Would just heavily oil it,would use mineral oil (AKA food grade butcher block oil)

To late to make any noise now anyway, I'll try that and leave it over night in paraffin oil.

Originally Posted by Lemur

To late to make any noise now anyway, I'll try that and leave it over night in paraffin oil.

Any natural oil will work,I have built alot of things out of teak,back when it was affordable.

Originally Posted by Lemur

Well the title says it all, any good tips?
Soak it in oil, water?
Even with very sharp chisels it want to spit up...
It's some old teak from a shipwreck, gets beautiful once sanded and oiled with chinese tung oil but hard to work it.

I bought a shaving brush with a wooden handle from someone who covered it in super glue. It had a smooth finish and I was told to make sure it was wiped dry after use to keep the shine on it.

Originally Posted by CaliforniaCajun

I bought a shaving brush with a wooden handle from someone who covered it in super glue. It had a smooth finish and I was told to make sure it was wiped dry after use to keep the shine on it.

Ok, but my problem is to work the wood, it very easily breaks up in splinters...
I'll see tomorrow is the oil made it more forgiving.

I have worked a lot of teak and mahogany over the years - capping and rubbing strips, decking and planking, interior fitting, etc on boats and in building houses when staircases have had to be fitted. It does have some inherent problems, like localised tear out and change of grain direction that make planing some strips a nightmare. These are mostly due to defects in the wood - not a lot you can do about that.

And yes, it does dry out. I suppose the oil content does not change significantly, but the moisture content does - old grey weathered teak splits and cracks and skews. Throwing sea water over the deck swells it up again and stops the leaks.

If your problem is that of splits, cracks and fissures that have happened in the timber, then I fail to see what you can do about it - oil won't 'stick' it all together. Maybe some sort of stabilising fluid or resin that hardens at the same time might help - but I don't know if they are successful with hardwoods like teak.

Good luck with the oil treatment, though. If it does nothing else, it will get rid of a few sheets of clogged-up sandpaper for you!

Regards,
Neil

Well, taking out of its oily bath now, hopefully it is fresh like a lady who just stepped out of her bath and won't give me any trouble.
The grain direction is all over the place, feels like herding cats!

cowboys herding cats - YouTube