moggymatt wrote:Wood shake is when the early wood and late wood want to separate. They used to say it was from excessive wind stress on trees but last I read they now think it's from a bacterial infection or something like that. The bacteria causes the growth rings to seperate.
Ah, so! I well recall my Dad once telling me that the oak trees in the part of Tennessee where I grew up had little commercial value, because they tended to be "wind-whipped", with internal cracks. Sounds like a slightly different name for the same thing.
I'm now almost certain that my Sycamore lumber had the splits before I bought it. In addition to the sawmill throwing the extra board-footage in for free, I've measured the board widths with dial calipers, and the width of the split boards is consistent to a few thou along their entire length. The splits are significantly wider, so that tells me that the splits were there before the mill straight-line edged them.
But I think Ed's butterfly-inlay suggestion will both solve the problem and add aesthetic interest. Plus, I learned a new skill, designed and built an OPR guide jig, reinvented router-inlay joinery, bought a plane-iron sharpening jig, at long last have a nicely-tuned block plane, and got almost two months older!
