Grump number three. I suppose this comes under the category of OSF, "Own Silly Fault", and it concerns a problem that I am sure most of us have had with the moisture content of the timber that we use. During the summer of last year I received a commission for a circular dining table with a large pedestal base. This was to be in English Walnut and I placed an order for three inch Walnut through the timber supplier who I have come to know and trust. Now I should point out that timber suppliers are at the best of times rather like used car salesmen. They are selling a material which is inconsistent, variable and sometimes down right awkward. So the advice I give to people who are going out to buy hardwood of furniture quality is to either trust nobody and look at every stick of wood before you buy it or, over time, build up a relationship with one or two suppliers so that they understand your requirements and standards and you understand some of their problems. I have been dealing with this particular timber merchant for nearly ten years and in that time he has not let me down so I was very confident that when he phoned me and said he had got exactly the stuff I required, large three inch clear boards, kiln dried, it would be exactly that. Now, I am aware that kiln drying three inch timber is not a popular pastime amongst timber

merchants so I was glad to have found good Walnut of this thickness, kiln dry. I did expect a moisture gradient across the thickness but my plan was to get the timber into the workshop, have it roughed out over—size and placed in stick in the warmth of the bench room during July and August. This was a belt and braces approach to the problem of using thick sections of solid wood and I thought that I was being pretty careful in the circumstances.

Where my mistake lies is in not listening to the craftsman who milled up this pile of Walnut. Graeme, at the best of times, is a bit of an old fusspot. He is a very cautious and careful craftsman whose caution can be mistaken for faffing about. I should have listened to him when he said "David, this wood is wet". "Oh no it isn't" said I, "it's because its three inch stuff, stick it out in the workshop and it will be alright by the time you come to work it after the summer break". At the end of the summer break he came to me again and said, "David, this wood is wet". "Oh no it isn't" said I, "it was sold to us as kiln dry. This guy's not let us down before, it can't be wet, just get on with it". This comment proved to be my downfall for that is exactly what he did.

The pedestal of the table was made very beautifully, finished and delivered to my client. There it completed its natural drying process, shrank and cracked. Fortunately, my client was very good natured about it all and was quite happy to live with a cracked pedestal whilst we made another one. My timber merchant was less happy to hear about the problem. He was, however, very sporting about it. He couldn't understand why the wood had been delivered to us in that condition for according to his records it had been kiln dried, not once but twice. He did however, agree that the problem was his fault and he

delivered a second consignment of Walnut, free of charge, this time very carefully checked for moisture content. By this time I had got a very bad case of the cabinetmakers twitch and sent it off to be run through a local vacuum kiln to take it down to 9%. The cost of this and the cost of remaking the pedestal was of course down to me, hence the thunderous countenance. I suppose I shouldn't grumble, I should have bought one of those small hand held moisture metres and made it a policy that every piece of wood that passes through my workshop is double checked for moisture. However, until now I have resisted the temptation to buy one. I feel it is the timber merchants job to supply me with material to the specification that I require and, as I don't hold great stocks of timber and I don't buy logs and air dry them, I reason that one of these moisture metres is not an essential piece of workshop equipment. Though this tale of woe might change my mind.

Next month I have a happier tale. Recently, Tom Cornish has completed a marquetry cabinet to house a hi—fi system. This got us into playing around with cross grained mouldings and setting up a marquetry donkey for sawn marquetry decoration. Lots of fun was had by all concerned.

Craft of cabinet making 10  by David Savage

first published in "The Woodworker"

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