Wood moves. As temperature and humidity levels change, wood’s cells will absorb and emit water to reach an equilibrium point. Sure, it can be slowed down by a wood finish, but it can’t be eliminated.

This is a universal truth that all woodworkers need to understand when they build a project.  All too often,  woodworkers need to learn this lesson at least once the hard way before it truly sinks in.

Sure, there are lots of tables and charts that will tell you exactly how much wood will move, but to get a real life idea, I’ve decided to set up a little experiment.  My shop is in the Tampa Bay area, and I’ve enlisted the help of two talented woodworkers who live in different areas of the country with wildly different weather conditions.

First is the Wood Whisperer himself, Marc Spagnuolo.  Marc lives in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area.  The other woodworker helping me out is Dave Campbell, deputy editor of Wood Magazine.  Dave calls the greater Des Moines, Iowa home.

While this is a wood-based article, it also gives me a chance to strut my weather geekiness in the name of woodworking. It’s obvious that changes in latitude will have a dramatic effect on the weather, but geography and location from the nearest large body of water will also play a part in the picture.

To help you understand the differences, I will reference the mean daily temperature and dew points for each city.  Why these two readings?  First, the mean temperature is an average temperature of the air as indicated by a properly exposed thermometer during a given time period, usually a day, month, or year. This way, we don’t have to wonder about abnormal cool snaps or heat waves – the data will be a little more smoothed out and better representative of a typical day.  In this case, we’ll look at the mean temperature of a given day – May 25 – for each of our cities.

The other reading is the dew point, which is the temperature at which the air becomes saturated and produces dew or – if it’s cold enough – frost.  Why not use relative humidity?  Well, relative humidity is – errr –  relative to the temperature, and will rise as the air cools off overnight and drop as the air warms.  The dew point produces a better apples-to-apples measurement for our purposes.

Here are some of the stats from the cities:

Tampa, Florida – May 25 mean temperature 79 degrees F, Dew Point 69 degrees.
Lying in the humid subtropical zone, Tampa’s prevailing winds pull hot, moist air off the Gulf of Mexico and the western Caribbean Sea and push it ashore.  This leads to exceptionally hot and humid conditions, with frequent thunderstorms throughout the late spring and summer.  Basically, you can take a shower and, unless you are in an air conditioned building, never truly dry off.

Des Moines, Iowa – May 25 mean temperature 65 degrees, Dew Point 55 degrees
While Des Moines is at a much higher latitude than Tampa, the prevailing summer winds will still push hot humid air from the Gulf of Mexico.  However, at this time of the year, both cooler and warmer air masses are still battling for possession of the region, which leads to variability in the conditions until the summer pattern truly sets in.

Phoenix, Arizona – May 25 mean temperature 84 degrees, Dew Point 30 degrees
Phoenix is in a very hot, arid climate,  It’s too far west to be affected by Gulf moisture, and the Rocky Mountain complex to the west cuts off Pacific moisture.  I’ve heard it described as standing in front of a giant hair dryer…  This is not to say that Phoenix doesn’t get rain.  In fact, by late July, a monsoonal flow will come off the Gulf of California, leading to a rise in humidity and thunderstorms.  So, we’re hitting Phoenix at an ideal time for this test.

The wood samples for this test have been cut from plain old boards that have been acclimating in my shop for – I dunno – as long as five years.  I chose a series of samples from frequently used cabinet woods to give a good representation of what most woodworkers will use.  They include; maple, poplar, cherry, ash, red oak and a surprise board.

Yes, it’s a surprise to me, because I picked up what I thought was ash from my hardwood supplier. Got it for a steal – rough – at $1 a board foot. However, once I started planing it for this experiment, well, it’s not ash.  I’m going to guess from the photo that it’s red elm, but I could be way off base. Maybe one of my esteemed panelists will be able to put a better ID on it.  Hey, at least it’s a different species!

I planed, ripped and crosscut the boards to exactly 5” wide and 8” long.  I will be shipping the boards by US Postal Service tomorrow  (today is Memorial Day, an official federal holiday) to Marc and Dave with a copy of the steel ruler I used to measure the boards.  I took the time to ensure the measurements on each rule lined up to give as accurate a reading as possible.

I have asked both Marc and Dave to let the boards sit in their shops for two weeks, then measure the board samples on June 8 to see what kind of changes have occurred.  How will the boards react to the changes in temperature and humidity?

Stay tuned…

If you can remember the big Tom Hanks’ 1994 hit movie Forrest Gump, no doubt you will recall one of the movie’s most repeated lines:

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are gonna get.

If you have ever received a box of chocolate candies as a gift and had to negotiate it without the help of a map on the lid (those are for cheaters!), the first bite into a piece pulled from the box is always a surprise. Will it be one of the tasty caramels, or will it be something you just don’t like?

In many ways, when a sawyer slices into a log of a maple, cherry, walnut, ash, elm or hundreds of other species, it is a very similar experience. More often than not, you get exactly what you were after – beautiful boards of exceptional character.

But, every so often, there’s a big surprise.

A very pleasant one at that.

Sometimes the boards will display a wavy pattern known as figure. This is not the same as the wood’s grain. According to Eric Poirier of Bell Forest Products, an online wood supplier that specializes in figured lumber, this distinction is very important. “Grain and figure are often confused with one another. The easiest way to differentiate between them is to understand that grain occurs in every board because it is how the tree actually grows. Figure occurs independent of the grain and is actually a defect, which happens to be very rare and sought after.”

Of course, there is an exception to every rule. A ray flake appearance in white or red oaks is actually part of the grain, but it is considered figure by the National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA). Go figure.

Figure can occur nearly anywhere in a tree. According to Eric, “It varies from tree to tree and is different with the different types of figure. In bird’s eye, the whole log might be full of bird’s eye or just part of one side of the log might have it. Sometimes the bird’s eye can even start and stop at different points in the life of the tree. There may be some sort of defect in the log that also causes the figure to start or stop at a certain point in the log.”

While figured lumber is beautiful, it is considerably more difficult to work with than non-figured lumber. Curly, tiger, fiddle back, pecky, burl or other beautifully figured woods tend to tear out more, and demand exceptionally sharp tools and care in their milling.

The number and variety of species exhibiting figure can be tremendous. Another great way to add these dramatic woods to a project is through veneering. Joe Goreleski, Jr. of VeneerSupplies.com, has seen a tremendous variety of figured veneers move through of his shop. “To the best of my knowledge, most domestic and exotic woods have the ability to display each type of figure. In my stock, I have some truly rare combinations of species and figure that some would think do not exist.” How rare? Think of such odd specimens as bird’s eye walnut and bubinga burl.

While working with figured hardwoods can be a challenge, Joe says going the figured veneer route takes some practice, but is not very different than working with regular unfigured veneers. According to Joe, “some burls may require grain filler, but the basic veneering skills should be able to get you through with no problems.”

Looking at an unfishished figured board or sheet of veneer may not be impressive. However, once a finish goes on the piece, you’ll immediately understand why woodworkers search out figured boards. These imperfections in the log translate into lustrous whorls, stripes and other features that appear nearly three-dimensional under an oil-based finish.

One issue many woodworkers have during finishing is that boards tending to be splotchy are even more difficult to get finished perfectly. A sanding sealer of a one pound cut of dewaxed shellac applied and sanded down with some 320 grit sandpaper helps to control the blotchiness. Again, these rare specimens require care in all stages of woodworking.

While both Eric and Joe get some incredible specimens through their shops, each has his own preference for his favorite.

Eric leans toward curly maples. “I love the way that the figure runs from the flat-sawn to the quarter-sawn grain. I use it whenever I can in different projects around the house. It is my favorite wood to use because I love seeing the ‘tiger’ stripes when the sunlight hits it just right!”

Joe is more of a tamo ash and walnut burl kinda guy. “But, I have not yet found a figured veneer that I didn’t like.”

Momma always said to keep your options open…

When I turned 14, my dad had a surprise for me.

He handed me a new razor, a can of shaving cream and showed me how to shave.  Even though I was using a safety razor, I still managed to cut myself.  Ahh, the joys of inexperience.

Since then, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the male rite of shaving my face.  Some days, I walk away from the sink in the morning with a perfect shave – feeling fresh and ‘kissably smooth’ according to my wife.  Other days, I swear I took my belt sander to my face – all red, irritated and scraped up.  Since I’m not sure which kind of shave I’ll get, I tend to avoid shaving if at all possible.  Sure, it’s tough to get moving on a Monday morning, but at least my face had a weekend’s rest from the blade.

Later on, when I became a hobby woodworker, I ran into another group of folks who liked to shave – a lot.  And, not just to keep up appearances.

Some of the woodworkers I spoke with had an extreme fascination with sharpening and honing their plane irons and chisels to razor-sharp perfection.  And, with a salesman’s zeal, these folks will call friends and neighbors over to demonstrate how well their blades can clear their arm or leg hairs.  It’s a stunning trick, and I have to hand it to them.  They do have persistence.

But, is sharpening to that keen of an edge really necessary for woodworking?

No one is going to argue with the fact that sharp tools are a pleasure to use.  They are safer, cut more cleanly and make your shop tasks a whole lot more pleasant.  Dull tools will ruin more boards – and hurt more woodworkers – than we can ever fully account for.

But, when should you say ‘when’ during the sharpening process?

Hey, I used to fall into the trap of  meticulously sharpening my chisels and plane irons.  There were times when I used to fuss for half an hour over each edge, honing until the back face of the bevel was reflective enough to signal rescue planes if I was marooned on a desert island.  Then I would flip the blade over and work on the bevel, building a lustrous shine before tipping the edge up enough to create the perfect one degree microbevel.

And, yes, I would then shave arm hairs to prove to myself that the chisels were ready for use.

While sweating over a sharpening job in my shop one hot Florida summer afternoon, the little voice of reason in my head started screaming at me.  “Can we get this over with?  It’s hot, and I want to go inside!  Besides, how much better can that edge really get?”

It was that afternoon when I changed my sharpening procedure and added an important step.  I went to the scrap bin and pulled out a piece of hardwood and  clamped it in my bench vise.  I took the chisel – still far from its mirror-like destiny – and started paring the edge.  The wood yielded.  Easily. In an end grain cut.  With little effort on my part.  Wow.

I was stunned to see how much earlier in the process I could stop with minimal – if any –  effect on the cutting ability.  Not only could I save myself quite a bit of time while sharpening, this result also convinced me that I could sharpen my tools more frequently, without having to take the tool through the onerous process of honing to that fine degree.

My mind then turned to previous episodes of the Woodwright’s Shop, hosted by Roy Underhill.  I have watched Roy for years, working with his planes and chisels in his throwback workshop.  Sure, his tools are plenty sharp, but not so reflective, if you catch my meaning.

While I was reading the Woodwright’s Companion, I noticed that Roy also touched on the fact that woodworkers relied on quarried stones to bring their edges into true.  No, these old masters didn’t get into a heated debate about the micron size of the abrasive they were using – they used the best stones possible to get their blades sharp and then returned to the bench.

And, when they shaved their faces, they didn’t use plane irons – they used straight razors made with much finer and more flexible blades.

When I buy an old plane or chisel, I will regrind the bevel on my Work Sharp 2000, and then either use the Scary Sharp method (sandpaper glued to a piece of float glass) or the DMT Diamond Stone my wife gave me a few birthdays ago.  I’ve gotten so I can regrind and hone an old chisel in about five minutes, and have it cutting easily through wood.  It takes even less time to hone blades that just need some touching up after a project.

I will also use a piece of MDF with some of the Lee Valley green honing compound to put an even finer edge on the edge, but that’s it.

Will woodworkers still hone their irons and chisels to a mirror finish? Of course they will.  There are also people who will shop for stereo systems that faithfully reproduce tones well outside of the normal range of human hearing.  Hey, to each his or her own, and if leaving bare patches of skin on their arms is an outward sign of their sharpening prowess, more power to them.

I already have a mirror in my bathroom so I can see what I’m doing when I pick up my razor to get ready for work in the morning.