Another Wood Question

[bdsears]

First thanks for putting up with all of my newbe questions.

I cut an ornament tonight - 1/4" Red Oak. It was a Christmas Candle with holly. My question is does it matter which way I lay my pattern on the wood (grain up and down so that it is long with the pattern or grain sideways?)

The reason I asked.... I had this darned thing completely cut out, laid it on the counter, walked away and came back and it was split down the middle. This is my first mishap so far.

I don't know what happened and the only thing I can think of is I cut it the wrong way on the grain OR that there was a weak spot in the wood (a split) and it just fell apart. The worst part about it is that it took me hours to do this today.

[martzy]

I don't think it would have mattered how you put the pattern on the wood if the wood really was cracked, it would most likely have broken anyway. You're probably going to get a few different ideas here so I'll give you my take on it. If you have a meatier side of the pattern, try to put it against the grain to give you a little more wood as support. This is also a question on looks. If I have a long pattern, I will put it with the grain so the grain and the pattern don't fight each other.

You might want to try using a vaneer plywood. I buy 4 x 8 sheets of oak vaneer plywood from Home Depot for about $25. You can get a ton of ornaments out of one sheet. I used to be a little bit of a purist and didn't want to use any plywood. I wanted my stuff to be "real wood" all the way through. I've come to understand that plywood is very strong and ideal for thin projects. You can't really tell the difference between the hard wood oak and plywood oak ornaments.

Think about it this way too, you sell or give away that ornament and a year later it dries out and cracks, or it falls and cracks, or it warps a little and cracks, and the ornament is ruined. The chances are the plywood vaneer ornament won't do that.

[ASDLF22]

Yup - major drawback of using hardwoods rather than plywood. I try to make sure that the thinnest parts of the pattern are inline with the grain. I also use thicker woods when using hardwoods, 5/16 even gives you just a bit more more strength but I generally use at least 1/2 inch. If you are staying with 1/4 inch I look for patterns that leave a lot of wood around each cut. Another thing to try is stack cutting - that way, if 1 breaks you still have 3 or 4 that didn't. Its a lot easier to loose 1 piece out of 5 after an hours worth of cutting than to loose everything.

[stephenD]

DON'T THROW IT AWAY!!
A lot of us use super glue to put things back together. Try that.

[Forester21]

Without seeing the piece I can think of a couple of things.
First, it might have had a crack in the wood before you cut the ornament and it wasn't noticeable. I've had this happen especially on the end pieces of my boards. There's a crack in the end and I think I've moved in far enough but I haven't.
second- sometimes a board is under stress because of how the tree grew. The board looks flat or may be cupped or warped but you found a "flat" piece to cut from. When you cut the ornament you released the stresss of the wood and the piece cracked.
Whatever the cause, if it's in too many pieces you can glue it back together as was suggested. Sand it flat again acter the glue dries and you won't see the crack.
I cut a number of ornaments from 1/8 " oak and didn't have a problem with them cracking. I found the thinner woood has some flexibility so it bends rather than breaks.
T

[Bill Wilson]

Determining the proper alignment of pattern to grain is always a bit of a compromise. It seems that no matter which way you place the pattern, there are inherent weak spots. Wood will always break easier along the grain lines, so try and orient the pattern so that the thinnest, most delicate areas are not compromised.

I agree with others that it sounds like the wood may have had a split in it already and it wasn't noticeable until you cut the piece. Red oak can be somewhat more brittle along the grain lines, but even still, it won't often spontaneously crack on it's own. So if it didn't suffer any trauma during cutting, I suspect the crack was pre-existing.

[Plaquerd]

Brenda
I have a question for you. Was the Red Oak part of the warped shipment? If it was that could be part of the problem.

[bdsears]

Not part of the shipment I just got but it could have had warped.

My husband fished it out of the garbage and repaired it and surprised me.

I can't even tell it was broken. I probably would not have done that but he said too many hours involved to throw it away.

[Bill Wilson]

That's another little scroller's secret. Fix whatever you can, especially if you've already invested significant time in cutting a piece. Most minor breaks can be readily repaired, as long as you are able to salvage all the parts. Most times the repair will be nearly invisible. I'm loathe to throw away anything I've spent hours working on, so sometimes it pays to get a little creative, even to the point of modifying a pattern somewhat to hide damage.

[Toneman]

Don't feel bad Brenda! Like others have already said, glue it back together and nobody will ever know! I have had similar things happen, like dropping a project after hrs of cutting or sanding off fuzzies, etc. These things are going to happen, so, smile and continue scrolling. This is what makes "hand made wood art" special.

Tony,aka,Toneman