Question & Answer

Original Question: “How do you keep wood from cracking when spreading?”

This is caused by improper drying of the Green, that is High Moisture Content, lumber. Several things happened here that resulted in the end of the board splitting as it dried.

• When the board was cut out of the log stresses, that had been balanced when the board was part of the log, arose. Think of sawing the log as having taken off most of the pressure that formerly restrained a tightly wound spring.
• Lumber shrinks as it loses moisture content during the drying process.
• When lumber is dried it lo