Oak desk

This is a desk I made for my daughter. I had the legs turned by an Amish man in Northern Indiana. I had an issue with the top that I never did figure out for sure. If you look close, you will see that I attached a border around the top. This was to cover up a mistake I made when I cut the top to the dimensions I wanted. I found out that I was showing one of the biscuits. Thus, I made a trim piece to cover the mistake. It was all solid wood (oak), and it wasn’t 4 months and the top was splitting. I had purchased the wood from a different source than usual, so I suppose it might not have been as dry as the source claimed it was. The other option was that I thought maybe the trim piece wasn’t allowing for movement. I also used a little different method to attach the top to the frame than I have used in the past. Maybe this attachment wasn’t allowing for wood movement. I have since made a new top without the trim, attached my usual way, and the wood was purchased from my usual source (Amish shop in Northern In.). I have had no issues with the fixed version and it has been used now for about 2 years. Any suggestions that might explain my problem would be appreciated. The design came from a picture in a magazine my daughter found of a desk similar to this. She asked me if I could make one like it. After all the issues, it turned out quite nice.

-- Tom, Michigan ~ Working with a renewable resource called wood