On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 17:07:46 -0700, "Eigenvector"
wrote:

One other thing popped into my head while browsing the selection of
hardwoods at the yard - some of the pieces were separating or fraying in
sections. I don't know the technical term for it, but I would imagine it is
caused by uneven drying and having two halves of the wood crook in different
directions. Basically the edges of the wood are fine, its the middle that
has split apart.

So let's say you have 1 foot of that on an 8 foot board - would you attempt
to talk them out of making you pay for that 1 foot of useless wood
Here's a pic of what I mean - http://images.lowes.com/general/s/split.jpg


That happens a lot on wide boards and if not split it will be cupped.
If you are going to be doing glue ups for panels, you will want to
limit the width of the pieces you use anyway. So on a board like with
that condition, that might be 7 or more inches wide, you will rip it
first, face joint it, plane it, and then glue it up for your panel
width, turning every other piece over to alternate the direction of
the grain (keeps post processing wide panel warp to a minimum).

Some suggest a 3" minimum width to glue up, I cheat to 4 o 5.

Wether split or cupped, trying to process a wide board without ripping
it first will often cause it to clean up thin. And you have to have a
fairly wide jointer to process it properly.

Of course, if the board is narrow and has a split, it may be of no
use.

Frank