TS bind

[Chuck Hoffman]

I think a learned something today:

Tried to rip a piece of green pine that was cut from near the center of the trunk...part sap wood, part heart wood. About 1/5 of the way thru the piece, the kerf closed up so tightly it bound on the splitter and I couldn't move the board either fore or aft. I finally drove a narrow wedge into the kerf to free it up.

Perhaps foolishly, I decided to try to rip it all the way thru. About 80 percent of the way, the forces on the sap wood caused it to split from the remainder of the board with a loud crack. When I picked up the sap wood, there was a bow in it that deviated about 1-1/2 inches from straight. BTW, the heart wood stayed relatively straight.

Lesson duly noted...I shoulda scrapped the piece and not tried to finish the cut. I'm sure glad that sucker didn't kick back on me.

[Swingman]

Do a google on "reaction wood" to learn more.

[Andy Dingley]

In pine though ? Unless you're pulling stock out of the firewood pile, most pines ought to be pretty straight. My money would still be on some moisture issue,

I'm also puzzled by this heartwood/sapwood split - IMHE, pines don't have a strong distinction here and they don't go around splitting down it. This might be a diameter thing related to the drying. What species was it ?

[Swingman]

Absolutely ... compression wood is a type of reaction wood that is quite common in pine. The symptoms of sawing or resawing compression wood are identical to the experience the OP reported.

Which may well be involved. Compression wood has a different specific gravity and has a tendency to shrink more along lenght..

[George]

It is extremely common for pine to have reaction wood near the pith. If you own Hoadley, believe he refers to this as "Juvenile" wood. This may be what he's referring to.

If plantati>