Question on Beech lumber

Budwiser uses it

Dustmaker Mike

in the vats while brewing their beer. I have used it once to make a console for a Van I had years ago. These where only short pieces 1 to two foot long and glued into 10 inch to 14 inch panels. They did great no warping or splitting. I seem to remember it being more of a softer wood and denting scratching pretty easy.

Re: Budwiser uses it

Larry

I used it to build kitchen cabinets over Five Years ago. No problems . Make sheer It's Dry!

Re: Question on Beech lumber

Dave Bair

I made three bookcases of american beech. Two warped badly. I ended up using wedged through-tenons on fixed shelves to get the sides to lay flat. It has not split over 5 years even though it is under a lot of stress.

Re: Question on Beech lumber

John in NM

I think that is why the Europeans steam theirs - it helps with the warping? Perhaps their species of beech doesn't warp so badly as ours and the steaming helps with the color - I've heard both of those around the web and don't know which is more accurate.

I've used quite a bit of European beech making grips. It is about like hard maple in movement due to cutting.

I doubt very much its worth the expense and effort to turn these logs into lumber, better off buying some Euro-beech (runs $5/ft locally).

Re: Question on Beech lumber

Don Stephan

It's seasonal movement is higher than average so if making frame and panel make a deeper groove and a longer male portion to fit in the groove.

Re: Question on Beech lumber

Frank House

Like John I am told various tales about why beech is or isn't steamed in Europe.

I can say that beech is widely used for some working parts in harpsichords which with good design can accommodate linear dimensional changes, but for which warping would be intolerable. Just needs careful choice of grain direction.

It is also regarded as resistant to splitting, which is relevant for some of these components.

Such components are available from several sources worldwide, sadly makers tend to just say "beech" or allow one to rely on appearance (as we know, it is very characteristic), there may be important differences between European and other sources.

According to Wikipedia - Europen beech is likely to be Fagus sylvatica, North American Fagus grandifolia. I have no idea what the difference in properties might be, and the situation re species seems more complicated than I have implied. We need an expert here. (Or (Retired scientist speaking) a well funded research project).

Beech is also widely used in medium-grade furniture in Europe, often with little attention paid in factory production to how the grain runs, and usually without dire consequences.

The key to whether the logs will be useful may be in their history and current condition. If they have been well looked after, they may be worth planking, followed by further seasoning, at which time it will be clearer whether they are fit for the intended purpose.

"Life's a Beech"

Mike Farinella

(Sorry)

"Then you dye"

Re: Question on Beech lumber

Don Orr

I've cut a lot of Beech for turning and found it difficult to dry without severe degradation no matter what I did. If I turn bowls to final thickness and let them dry, they will go wicked oval-think football shaped-but not split. Blanks that were waxed and stored just self-destructed. I've also cut billets for traditional plane bodies and have not had much success except for moulding plane size. It's really too bad as the wood works well and looks good to me. Great for kitchen utensils. If you can get it into a kiln with someone that actually knows what they're doing it might be worth the effort. Mostly I think it makes great firewood. They don't even make pallets from it anymore that I have seen.

Re: Question on Beech lumber

Barry Irby

The only commercial application (other than Budweiser) was for bentwood rockers.

Re: Question on Beech lumber

William Duffield

What about wooden bench planes and moulding planes? They were made by the millions.

Re: Oops! Wrong Forum   

Re: Question on Beech lumber

James Heaston

It's used often for stair balusters in paint grade.

Quartersawn it has some ray fleck similar to sycamore, but not as pronounced.

It should be stable if he gets it quartersawn.