Knock On Wood - Part 2
Hey Cuties, thanks so much for tuning in to part two of our wood series. In part one, we went through the most common wood species, how they’re used, and why each one is special and unique in it’s own way, and if you haven’t listened to that episode I will link it in the show notes of this episode for you. But today, we are taking it to the next level in the world of wood. I am going to walk you through different techniques to make the wood in your home look exactly how you want it to look. There is so much more to wood than the species, although species is the foundation. By the time you’re done with the episode, you’re gonna want to build your own wood working shed, because we’re talking about some stuff that lets you really sit in the drivers seat when it comes to how the wood you use in your home looks and feels. Let’s get started.
When I was a baby designer, I thought that all you could really do to wood was stain it or paint it. I had no idea what the difference was between a two by four or a sheet of plywood, and I almost didn’t care. It’s just wood, how deep can it be? It turns out, it’s about as deep an Olympic diving pool because the world of wood has so many ways to customize and craft furniture, floors, and paneling.
Do you ever wonder how the wood in your home got there? As in, it used to be a tree, someone cut it down, and now it’s a bookshelf. What happens in the middle? They don’t just load logs into the bookshelf mold and out they pop, right? No, they don’t! Once a tree is cut down, it’s taken to a mill, or sometimes a portable bandsaw is bought to the tree itself to mill it in-place. But the sawyer has to already know exactly how they will cut the log up.
There are four distinct geometric patterns that are used to mill a log into lumber. These are:
Live Sawn
Plain Sawn
Quarter Sawn
Rift Cut
Which cut you use makes a huge difference in how the finished product looks, whether the grain looks wild and natural or straight and controlled. If you think about having a stack of pancakes, you may chose all kinds of difference ways to cut them up so you can eat them, and it’s a similar visual to how a log can be cut. Starting with the most basic and straight forward, you have Live Sawn. Keeping with our pancake analogy, you would just be cutting long parallel strips, all going in the same direction, and frankly this would be a little hard to eat because the full width of the pancake is being maintained. This method wastes very little of the log and yields boards that are as wide as they possibly can be. So if you’re looking for super wide floor planks, Live Sawn may be your friend. This is also the fastest way to mill wood, and so it provides the most affordable cut of wood.
I have to take us on a detour here, because it’s important to understand the different types of growth within a single tree. If you look at the side of log, the same way you would to count its rings to determine its age, you will see two different colors of wood inside. The innermost ring of wood is typically slightly darker, and comprises the majority of the tree. This is called Heartwood. It’s technically not the living part of the tree, but this wood has reach its full potential in terms of becoming lumber, it’s aged like a fine balsamic vinegar. This is where most of our favorite species have developed their well-known colors, and because the wood is not part of the tree’s active sap production, it’s already somewhat dry and will be most resistant to pests and warping. It is highly prized by wood workers.
The outer ring of a log is typically lighter in color and is just the newest growth of the tree. This is referred to as Sapwood. It is very much alive and a critical part of the tree’s living systems - transporting water from the roots to the branches, creating sap, seed production, the whole lifecycle. Sapwood is not quite what we think of in terms of the color of any species of wood, if you have a dark piece of walnut and there are some lighter streaks in it, that’s the Sapwood. Its role in the trees circulatory system means that the wood has a much higher moisture content than Heartwood, and therefore it’s more susceptible to shrinking and warping.
Back to your types of cuts. With Live Sawn wood, you are getting both the Heartwood and the Sapwood, just as they are in the tree. You’re also getting maximum visibility of the natural grain, which is how we refer to the direction and pattern of the fiber in the tree. A tree’s grain runs vertically up and down the length of its trunk. When the tree is cut straight across, as is the case of Live Sawn lumber, it exposures all the variations, figuring, and cathedrals in the grain. As I mentioned in part 1 of this series, cathedrals are the wavy arches that show up in the wood’s grain.
The next way to cut a log is using the Plain Sawn or Flat Sawn method. This is the most common way that logs are milled, and is similar to the Live Sawn method, except after each cut, the log is rotated 90 degrees. It’s a little bit less like cutting pancakes and more like eating corn on the cob. This is still very efficient and creates minimal waste, but unlike Live Sawn, it separates the Sapwood from the Heartwood because the blade starts on the outside of the log and works inward. The cathedrals and variation in the grain are still very pronounced, and the look of the wood is active and wild.
Then, we get into the more elaborate methods of cutting a log, the first of which is Quarter Sawn. This method gets its name from the beginning of the process, cutting the log into halves lengthwise, and then cutting those halves in half again to create quarters. Each quarter is then cut into boards, either one of two ways. The first more traditional method is cutting the quarter wedge consistently over and over again at a 45 degree angle. The second more modern approach is cutting the quarter wedge at a 90 degree angle and flipping the wedge back and forth with each cut, slicing alternating faces of the log to maintain even graining. Both methods create boards of wood that are quite straight in grain. The cathedrals of Plain and Live Sawing have vanished, and the only variation you will see is from any medullary rays, which are a secondary grain that form a sunburst pattern in the log, where normal graining is the concentric ring pattern we normally think of in trees. These two patterns exist together in all trees, but medullary rays are most visible in oak (especially when it is quarter sawn!)
So, the grain becomes more linear when you chose Quarter Sawn. But if you are looking for the tightest, most linear, cathedral-free grain, you’ve got to go with a Rift Cut. The word “rift” comes from “rive” which refers to splitting a piece of wood along its radius. Meaning, Rift Cut wood is cutting off the log the way you would cut slices of cake - very skinny slices of cake, that are rectangular. Well maybe that’s not the best analogy, but you get the idea. Because these cuts of wood are rectangular and radial in nature, they create the most waste of any other sawing technique, and therefore this is the most expense cut of wood. But for those of us who abhor wood cathedrals, it’s well worth the money.
I was taught along time ago that Rift Cut was the only proper way to feature wood in a space. The gaudy cathedrals of Plain or Live Sawn were just so incredibly low-brow. We want straight lines, and no imperfections! These days, I find it really comes down mostly to personal taste, and honestly if cathedralling really bothers you that much, maybe you shouldn’t be using wood. Its an inherent quality of the material and many people consider it to be beautiful, I think it just adds a little bit of psychedelic, radial tie-dye effect to a space, and if that feels good to you, embrace it. One thing that is good to keep in mind functionally is that Rift and Quarter Sawn are the most dimensionally stable of all the cuts. So if you want to make sure the wood you’re using will have the absolute least amount of warping and shrinking, these cuts do aid in that cause.
Okay one last cut type to know about, and that’s the rotary cut. Imagine a piece of paper that’s been rolled into a tight cylinder, and then you unroll it. That’s the process of the Rotatry cut, a special blade is used to essential peel the wood off the log. I always think of that scene in Sleepless in Seattle where Meg Ryan peels an apple with a knife in one long curly strip. This type of milling is mostly used to create wood veneer, which is then adhered to a lower cost backing like MDF or chip board. And all of these methods can be used to create veneer if they are sliced thinly.
So what’s your favorite cut? And on top of that, if you listened to part one of this series, when you start mixing and matching species and grain cuts, the combinations of the look and feel of wood are really endless. Oh, but there’s another factor to consider. You’re not just going to leave your wood naked, right?
There are so many ways to finish your wood, and once you’ve spent so much time and care selecting the species and grain type, painting should hardly cross your mind. Painting wood tends to fill in the pores of the wood and hide the grain variation, so unless you’re working with a piece of wood that you really dislike, if you reusing old scrap wood or something, painting isn’t the best way to celebrate your wood. In fact, what’s very popular right now, for wood flooring and wood furniture is to finish the wood in a process (prior to staining or sealing), called wire brushing. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like, and the idea is to remove some of the softest grain on the face of the wood to help the natural, organic texture of the wood be visible. This also gives a slightly antique look to the wood.
If you are interested in adjusting the color of the wood you have, there are a few tried and true methods of doing so. You can choose to stain or dye your wood, in the event that you want it to match other items already in your home, or you just couldn’t get a hold of the color of wood you want - it happens! There are plenty of pigment based stains and dyes that come in all colors of the rainbow. Stains and dyes will soak into the wood and accentuate the graining and contrast. There are store bought dyes, and then there are the more old fashioned ways of staining.
Coffee has been used to give woods a rich brown finish for years. Mixing coffee grounds with vinegar produces a natural stain, but you will definitely want to put a clear coat of sealant on top to make sure it doesn’t wear off.
Another fun way of darkening your wood is to soak steel wool and nails in vinegar to create and super dark black stain. This process will vary wildly depending on the species of wood you are using, different species take stains differently. So, make sure to do a test area before you commit. This process of making wood look black is referred to as ebonizing, and while it technically encompasses many different black staining varieties, ebonizing wood is a great way to make a wood darker without hiding its grain and texture.
On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, there is the process of pickling. This is also known as liming and sometimes people will call it bleaching, although you can actually bleach wood which is a slightly more complicated process. The idea is to mix a small amount of white paint with water, brush it on the wood and then wipe it away, leaving a lighter color. Again, still lots of visibility of the grain, variation, the color, and texture.
Then of course, you have to seal and protect your wood. There are a variety of ways to finish your wood, and finishing wood is super important because it provides protection from environmental wear like sunlight and humidity. It also protects the wood from us pesky humans, our glasses of ice water coated in condensation, our clumsiness, our muddy shoes that we forget to clean up. There are actually a lot of ways to seal and protect your wood, they all have varying strengths for different purposes. There are two main types of finishes - oil and surface finishes.
If you choose to finish your wood with oil, you have a variety to chose from, linseed, cedar, tung oil, and even a processed product called Danish oil. These oils soak into the wood, rather than simply laying on the surface. Oil finishes are truly gorgeous, they interact with the wood in a way that brings out the natural colors, but they leave a matte and subtle looking finish, rather than some of the glossier finishes we’ll talk about in a minute. Oil is a very sustainable choice, free of chemical odors or VOC’s, and it’s easy to apply with cloth. However, oils don’t offer an incredible amount of protection for wood - if you know the wood you’re using won’t get too much wear and tear, oil is a wonderful option.
Surface finishes sit on top of the face of wood, and this categorizes the majority of wood finishes. Firstly, there’s wax. Wax is a little bit less of a finish and more of treatment, it will give wood protection from environmental factors, and it will look as though the wood is still completely unfinished. However wax does not offer protection from moisture, scratching, or general wear and tear. Plus it needs to be reapplied often. This can be a nice final top coat to an already sealed piece or it can be a great way to bring a vintage or antique piece back to life.
Then, we have varnish. Varnish dates all the way back to being used by ancient Egyptians and was originally formulated from the resin in tree sap, which is very resourceful to be sealing the wood of a tree with resin also from a tree. Today, varnish is a broad term that encompasses many different formulas, from oil-based, polyurethane, water-based acrylic, lacquer, shellac- all of these options are brushed on top of the wood to seal it and protect in from the world in general. The variations in each type will help you decide what is best for your project. Spar or marine varnish are best for anything that is outdoors. Polyurethanes are popular for flooring because of the extremely durable finish they provide, and this can be used over top of an oil finish to achieve a both durable and beautiful finish. Water based acrylic varnishes are great for indoor use as they are free of VOC’s and resist yellowing. Shellac was super popular years ago, it coats easily and enhances the look of wood, but it is very sensitive to heat and moisture, stains easily, and its made from insect secretions, which is kind of like a living nightmare.
I wanted to just touch on using wood in commercial or public spaces, just for fun. This is if you’re using wood in an office, restaurant, cafe, coworking space, anywhere people gather. Using wood as flooring in a commercial environment can be slightly tricky. The level of wear and tear in a commercial environment is exponentially higher than in a home, and wood can get pretty easily destroyed. One of the techniques that is used on wood furniture to strengthen it is using a UV light to cure both oil and water based sealants. It’s a lot like the process of getting a gel manicure, although the UV light comes from a machine that looks like a possessed vacuum, which is kind of fun actually. But this allows the sealant on the wood to cure much faster and be considerably more durable, which is what we like in commercial applications. There is also the process of infusing wood with acrylic, there’s a really fantastic company called Nydree Flooring that does this, and it allows the wood to be more water resistant and 300% more dent resistant than regular wood. These are processes that definitely cost more, but if you like the look of wood and you’re worried about its longevity, you have access to these options and there’s no reason you can’t use them for your home as well if you’ve got pets of just a very busy home life with tons of visitors.
And as we end our two part series on wood, let me leave you with this quote from our friend Frank Lloyd Wright. “Wood is universally beautiful to man. It is the most humanly intimate of all materials.” I’ll talk to you in the next episode.
