Cracks in wood question

[sgryd]

Hi.
I have a quite wide oak board (about 19" wide 1 1/2" thick). I cut the end of to get in to the "crack free" segment. The cut-off broke easily at the crack in the middle. I cut off another piece and that broke as easily.

The whole board has small cracks on the surface. Does this usually mean that  the whole board will be brittle in the middle? I got the board at a good price from my neighbor. It's not assigned for any project, but I would like to know how to handle it best.

My dilemma:
- Should I continue to cut off pieces and hope for the cracks to go away? If they don't go away I'm wasting wood.
- Or should I rip the board in two and remove a couple of inches from the middle?

[attachthumb=#]

[attachthumb=#]

Thanks.
//Michael

 

[mastercabman]

Well,.... it depends on what you are planning to do with it.
Maybe best to rip it where the crack is.

 

[mouppe]

I would rip it down the middle close to the crack. Eventually the crack will run out, and you can cross-cut at this point and join the two rips back together. It will look seamless.

You will also be able to make the most out of the cracked section of the wood left over.

 

[sgryd]

Thanks.
I'll rip it when I know what to do with it.
//Michael

 

[jtwood]

How about using it as it is, in a table top, for example, and if it cracks, use thick butterfly inlays to piece it back together.  It seems to be cracking fairly cleanly.  Given the thickness of the slab, you might have to insert butterflies in both top and bottom.  This way, you can keep the full width of the unique board.

Steve