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Wood Warp Question

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Wood Warp Question

#1

Wood Warp Question

David MIller from Iowa

>About 25 years ago, I made a shaving horse out of wet red oak. Wet as in there was running water when I bored the holes for the legs with my brace (the legs were dry oak and the combination worked great). It turned out pretty good, except the horse developed a noticeable sag in the middle as it dried. Didn�t affect the functionality, just the form. Plus, I left it out in the weather periodically as I moved from place to place and that seemed to exacerbate the sag.

I have now retired it to the dry attic, but my question is � If I build a storage support at the low point in the sag, will seasoned, dry wood succumb to gravity, even over decades? Should I go to the effort or just let my kids haul a sagging shaving horse out of the attic in 2030?

David

Re: Wood Warp Question

#2

Just tell everyone...

Stephen Shepherd in the State of Deseret

>That you made it to look like your old sway back horse. If it still works then don't worry about its form, its function is more important. Or you could put that old sway back out to pasture.

Stephen

Re: Wood Warp Question

#3

Design feature

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Who was it who said something to the effect that design features start out as mistakes? Sounds like you should exaggerate the effect rather than trying to fix it and possibly distort something to the point that the horse is less usable. Put a saddle on it at that point.

Re: Wood Warp Question

#4

It is stable now

Bill Tindal, E.TN

>Once dry it is very difficult to get wood to assume a different configuration. Hence, the horse is now stable.

Re: Wood Warp Question

#5

Re: Wood Warp Question

ThomD

>Most likely the wood is slightly understructured, either absolutely or relative to the grain orientation. It shouldn't hog out more when it gets wet unless it is reducing the board stiffness as it would. I wasn't sure whether your alteration is to brace it up. or to add some weight to it for tool storage. The latter shouldn't do much harm. The former probably isn't worth it unless you fear it will break . Even in that case I would probably add a piece to the underside as a truss.

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