Drying jacaranda . mould problems ?

[JDarvall]

Thanks Ian,

you seem to have an endless supply of information on tap. Appreciate the effort you put in typing it all in.

ummm.....

I'll only use it dry. To be quite honest, I think green joinery is not necessary. If anything its painful because it can be so inconsistant. Prefer steam bending dry wood, because drying times are reduced and timber is more predictable.

So, to determine if its still green I'll just sniff it. Look at it. weigh it in my hand. Then cut a bit through and sniff it again...look at it again to see if its wet. See if the barks falling off.......stick my cheap moisture meter right into the middle of the cut where I'd expect most of the moisture to be. If thats says its ok. Then joint off a fair bit to make a straight edge.. stick it near the sun for a couple of days then check to see how out of straight it is. Then sniff it. look at it . weigh it. put my ear to it and listen for small sounds

I've noticed from my experiments you can beef up dimentions a bit if the profiles swing a lot. ie. its not just a cyclinder, and if the timber tone it light coloured. Thats just based on my personal ideas on what looks right.

I agree the american seats look far better, and structurally makes more sense. Though I don't like the whole nationality thing one bit. Craftsman shouldn't give a #### what country its from. We all work in a similar way to solve problems. prefer to use a 60mm seat. Even though there's more waste it allows you to raise the pommel.

I'm leaning towards the whole chair being made out of the same timber lately. As much as I don't think it really matters sometimes, people seem to prefer it....so ?. All jacaranda...assuming its going to happen. It may not be affordable.

As for damage. I don't know. Steaming for me doesn't always work entirely. The damage doesn't always completely dissappear. I'd much prefer not to have any bruising at all to begin with. All the harder timber chairs I've made and used don't really ding at all. Its the finish that damages only. And if its shellac thats easy to repair. I think the main reason softer timbers are being used in furniture, apart from obviously many of them are pretty, is......there easy to work. Hands don't hurt as much using them.....machines don't struggle as much....blades don't blunten as fast... etc

[IanW]

Thanks Ian,

you seem to have an endless supply of information on tap.

Not endless, Jake, and not always reliable! But I did spend nearly 14 years amongst the 'enemy' over there, and took a big interst in their woods & furniture styles.

I didn't realise you were thinking of making the whole chair or stool from Jacaaranda, I thought you were talking about seats only. Making the whole chair from the same wood makes sense when the wood is going to be a feature, of course. If you use different woods, the contrast can be interesting or annoying, depending on point of view, & some folk certainly don't like it.


The chairs of old that we all admire were invariably painted, so it didn't matter that several different woods were used, each was chosen because it was best for that part - you can find Ash & Hickory & Oak & Pine in the same chair, sometimes.

I've not yet tried to use Jacaranda for legs & stretchers or back spindles, but it could work. It's actually quite a tough wood for its density, tougher than Southern Silky Oak, for e.g., and I've made quite a few chairs from that, which seem to have stood up ok. I did beef up the sections of the legs a little in those cases. As you say, they are not straight cylinders, so you can add a bit to the curves here & there, without making them look too dumpy. Also, the chairs I'm referring to were for kids, and the legs were 600-625mm as opposed to something more like 450mm for a standard chair, so they could carry a bit of extra weight without showing it too much.
This one has a Jacaranda seat, but the rest is SO:

SO & Jacaranda.jpg

This one is mostly NG Rosewood, but I used Jacaranda for the back because it's nice to carve, I stained it to blend it in a bit, which was semi-successful (I'm hopeles with stains!). The NG R-wood is tough enough to fine down the parts a bit.

NG R_W & Jacarandaa.jpg

I was looking for one with real contrast, but the best I can do is this unfinished black Wattle & Jacaraanda (seat + back) example. It might seem a bit kitsch, but it actually looks quite smart after a while - the Jacaranda goes ivory & the Wattle nearly black - looks like a chair in a Tuxedo..

Wattle & Jacaranda.jpg

I like your moisture-measuring equipment - I use much the same gear, but skip the cheap meter step... Actually, what I used to do when I had access to highly accurate scales & a good drying oven at work was to totally dry a couple of chunks from inside the board. That's the truly accurate way of assessing MC when it really matters!

Cheers,

[rustynail]

Steaming is an art. When shown the correct way to do it and provided the cells are not fractured, it works extra well.

[JDarvall]

I've not yet tried to use Jacaranda for legs & stretchers or back spindles, but it could work. It's actually quite a tough wood for its density, tougher than Southern Silky Oak, for e.g., and I've made quite a few chairs from that, which seem to have stood up ok. I did beef up the sections of the legs a little in those cases. As you say, they are not straight cylinders, so you can add a bit to the curves here & there, without making them look too dumpy. Also, the chairs I'm referring to were for kids, and the legs were 600-625mm as opposed to something more like 450mm for a standard chair, so they could carry a bit of extra weight without showing it too much.

yep. gotcha.... thanks. Your thoughts on jacaranda being stronger than silky helps, cause I've used silky for legs too. Can get my head around that now.

And thanks for showing your chairs. Helps. always interesting seeing different ideas. And can relate to riveroak as I'm using that a lot at the moment.

I like your moisture-measuring equipment - I use much the same gear, but skip the cheap meter step... Actually, what I used to do when I had access to highly accurate scales & a good drying oven at work was to totally dry a couple of chunks from inside the board. That's the truly accurate way of assessing MC when it really matters!

Cheers,

Sounds like a better way for shore. I don't oven dry my seat blanks....big ones avoiding seat glueup splits at the end grain....as long as I can be sure all movement is finished before I glueup I'm happy. (Usually satified after a few days of small passes on the jointer and near the sun, until the dry fit stays gapless at the ends of the board) . But I do definetly insist on drying tenon ends before final dimensioning with a little light bulb kiln.

kindly
Jake

[JDarvall]

Steaming is an art. When shown the correct way to do it and provided the cells are not fractured, it works extra well.

I agree. Just wish soft timbers cells didn't fracture from damage so much.