{"id":5959,"date":"2019-09-28T01:36:29","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T05:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=5959"},"modified":"2019-09-28T01:36:29","modified_gmt":"2019-09-28T05:36:29","slug":"compression-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/28\/compression-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Compression wood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"570\" height=\"479\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_5149_edited-2.jpg\" alt=\"compression wood\" class=\"wp-image-5946\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_5149_edited-2.jpg 570w, https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_5149_edited-2-150x126.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Being a woodworker, and thus appropriately obsessed with wood in all its variety, I could not resist grabbing a sample slice of a mildly leaning hemlock tree that was recently taken down on my property.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the left side of the slice, which was the underside of the leaning tree, note the darker, wider latewood in the enlarged growth rings. That is &#8220;<strong>reaction wood<\/strong>,&#8221; specifically called &#8220;<strong>compression wood<\/strong>&#8221; in softwood species.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"570\" height=\"282\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_5150_edited-2.jpg\" alt=\"compression wood\" class=\"wp-image-5947\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_5150_edited-2.jpg 570w, https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_5150_edited-2-150x74.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>How does this relate to shopping for wood? A board with end grain as outlined in the photo would show <strong>signs of trouble<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The deduced location of the pith is off-center even with an equal number of annual rings on each side of it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li><li>The width of the annual rings is asymmetric on opposite sides of the pith.<\/li><li>The wide annual rings contain that odd looking latewood. This will probably also be noticeable on the face of the board.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The compression wood is abnormally brittle and weak. It also shrinks a lot <em>along its length<\/em>, whereas normal wood has essentially no such shrinkage. This can result in splits, crooks, and finishing problems. This is a board that you <strong>do not want<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These boards are definitely out there lurking in stacks of softwood lumber (hardwoods have their version of reaction wood known as &#8220;tension wood&#8221;) and they&#8217;re just waiting to give you trouble. Leave them behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being a woodworker, and thus appropriately obsessed with wood in all its variety, I could not resist grabbing a sample slice of a mildly leaning hemlock tree that was recently taken down on my property.&nbsp; On the left side of the slice, which was the underside of the leaning tree, note the darker, wider latewood [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5959"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5974,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5959\/revisions\/5974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}