The Sensuous Gadgeteer
(Page 5 of 11)
September/October 1973
By the Mother Earth News editors
People have found ways to work with wood in spite of its tendency to warp and crack. The first method is to age the wood, let it crack and warp, and then use the places that are not cracked and warped. For example the wood in some musical instruments is pear wood or ebony that had been aged twenty-five years or more. The instrument manufacturer builds his instrument between the cracks. Of course by cutting the wood he further disturbs the balance in the grain, and a new clarinet may crack during the first six months of use. If it survives the first six months it will be good for years. The best way to prevent cracking in very hard wood such as teak and ebony is to replace in them the oils that begin to be lost when the tree is cut.
RELATED CONTENT
Another method used to prevent warping in boards such as guitar necks is to balance the warping forces in one piece of wood against the warping forces in another. This is done by cutting the board lengthwise parallel to the grain, and folding down the two cut pieces so that the nearly identical grains on the two sides of the saw cut are showing back-to-back on top. The two pieces are then glued together.
A further extension of this method, and one of the great inventions of all time, is plywood. Plywood is made from wood sheets (plies) glued together. To make plywood the manufacturer places the axis of a straight pine tree on the spindles of a huge lathe, and holds a long knife against the turning tree. The knife peels the tree into a continuous sheet of parallel fibers. The sheets are then glued together with the fibers traveling in different directions. The resulting board won't warp or bend. Plywood is commercially available in 4 x 8 foot sheets in 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and 1 " thicknesses, in marine grade, outdoor grade, indoor grade and utility grade. Utility grade plywood has knotholes on the outside. It is not pretty and is sometimes called unfinished.
When selecting a piece of wood for carving, select one that you either want to carve or to own. Different trees produce different woods as solutions to the problems of survival in different climates and habitats. In some places competition for light is important. In some places defense against insects is important. Here is a very short list of woods, enough to get you started, with some information about each. NOTE: softwoods and hardwoods come from evergreen and deciduous trees respectively. The words soft and hard have nothing to do with the softness or hardness of the woods.
NORTH AMERICAN WOODS
PINE—The wood of the construction industry. Plywood is made from pine. House timbers (the famous 2"x4" and 4"x8", which are cut in fourteen-foot lengths) are pine. If you go to a lumberyard and insist on getting ordinary wood you will get pine. Pine, a softwood, is good for structural building such as houses and bookcases, but is too soft for the best carving. When the knife pushes against pine the fibers are too soft to stand up, and they mash together into a mat that is as difficult to cut as a telephone book. The masts of sailing ships were pine trees, and some old trees in New England, marked for mast poles in preRevolutionary times, still show the King's mark on their trunks.
CEDAR—A softwood, cedar is so hard that it can be polished like a gem and worn in a ring. Cedarwood is stuffed with aromatic oils, apparently as a defense against insects, and it is these oils which protect clothes from moths in cedar chests and closets. Cedarwood is red and yellow.
OAK—Oak is a hard, open-grained hardwood. Its hardness apparently gives it strength against the wind, but its open grain makes it too rough for small carvings. It is excellent for large carvings and furniture. Oak is white. A freshly-cut oak tree smells like green Spanish olives in brine.
MAPLE—A hard, clear-grained hardwood. Maple is good for furniture but the wood is so clear that it gives uninteresting carvings.
WALNUT—A hardwood. Walnut can be purple or brown, hard or soft, fine-grained or coarse-grained. It is good for furniture, and a hard, close-grained piece would make a fine carving.
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