Arthur2 wrote:
wrote in message
...
Is this fully seasoned, joinery-grade oak? (i.e. is more movement
expected, or are they fully stable).

If fully stable, I'd work with it as it is, and use stoppings (e.g.
Brummer) once the stair is complete.

If you think the crack is likely to propagate, you could glue in a
biscuit(s) into the hidden board edge to act as a "tie" (trim off
excess).

BTW - what width/depth are these stair treads? Is there an opportunity
to further stiffen them with a centre carriage and/or battens glued to
the underside?

Thanks. The biscuit idea sound very good.
The oak has been dried but I can't be sure to what extent so I'm taking a
chance with it.
It is 24mm thick at the moment but there are some patches that are rough
sawn so it
I may have to plane it down and then give it some heavy sanding to get a
good finish.
I suppose I should feed them all through a thicknesser and reduce them all
to 22mm or 21m
to end up with a really fine finish (to the treads anyway). But I don't
want to reduce the thickness
if its not totally necessary.

IME once oak has split, nothing short of a permanent iron band will
close up the gap permanently.

Either cut off split sections, or simply fill with plastic wood to match
the stain/varnish color you are applying. In practice, it looks far
better to match the darkest knot colour than the lightest wood, so I use
a fairly deep brown plastic wood.


Arthur