We recently had a deck built from cambara. The deck boards are flat sawn and
so they are nice and smooth. Some of the boards on the top of the railings
seem to be quarter sawn and I am seeing "flake" - i.e., the grain rings are
raising up making a rough surface if you rub your hand the wrong way (into
the grain). Can I sand those down? Will the grain just raise again if I do
so? Maybe I should use a scraper after sanding to really flatten the grain
though maybe with it being outside in water, it will just pop up again. Any
advice from this group will be appreciated as usual.

TIA.

Dick Snyder

"Dick Snyder" wrote in message
...
We recently had a deck built from cambara. The deck boards are flat sawn
and so they are nice and smooth. Some of the boards on the top of the
railings seem to be quarter sawn and I am seeing "flake" - i.e., the grain
rings are raising up making a rough surface if you rub your hand the wrong
way (into the grain). Can I sand those down? Will the grain just raise
again if I do so? Maybe I should use a scraper after sanding to really
flatten the grain though maybe with it being outside in water, it will
just pop up again. Any advice from this group will be appreciated as
usual.

TIA.

Dick Snyder


Well hind sight is always 20/20. How recently? Is it still under any kind
of warranty?

If it is raising up now, it always will.

Alternatively you can replace those particular boards with Ipe. Ipe is a
very popular decking material that does not splinter once smoothed and has
about a 50 year life expectancy w/o protection.

I had considered Ipe when first doing the deck but the cost was VERY high. I
don't think I want to mix Ipe and cambara. Perhaps I should replace the
sections where the grain is raising with new cambara where the wiid was flat
sawn. Need to do some more research on this vis a vis warranty.

"Leon" wrote in message
...

"Dick Snyder" wrote in message
...
We recently had a deck built from cambara. The deck boards are flat sawn
and so they are nice and smooth. Some of the boards on the top of the
railings seem to be quarter sawn and I am seeing "flake" - i.e., the
grain rings are raising up making a rough surface if you rub your hand
the wrong way (into the grain). Can I sand those down? Will the grain
just raise again if I do so? Maybe I should use a scraper after sanding
to really flatten the grain though maybe with it being outside in water,
it will just pop up again. Any advice from this group will be appreciated
as usual.

TIA.

Dick Snyder


Well hind sight is always 20/20. How recently? Is it still under any
kind of warranty?

If it is raising up now, it always will.

Alternatively you can replace those particular boards with Ipe. Ipe is a
very popular decking material that does not splinter once smoothed and has
about a 50 year life expectancy w/o protection.