# Help-Red Heart Cracks



## Woz (Aug 26, 2012)

I recently built this cutting board with Goncalo Alves, ZebraWood & Red Heart (Chakte Kok). The RH came coated in wax-after removing I immediately began machining & then onto glue-up, I know I should have let it acclimate a bit more after removing the wax. The cracks began appearing the day after glue up and intensified during the Mineral Oil bath. I filled the cracks with Titebond III & it dried white??
I was thinking of dremeling the cracks with a cutting wheel & trying epoxy, the board has been finished with Mineral Oil & Paraffin Wax.
Any thoughts or advice are greatly appreciated!!


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## Woz (Aug 26, 2012)




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## NGK (Mar 2, 2013)

After applying the finish it's a gorgeously colored piece. Part of your problem was the moisture content WITHIN THE REDHEART. Yes, you should have given it a chance to acclimatize in the same room as your other two species. But even then you might still get some cracking. WITHIN the same species, if you glue a flat-sawn piece to a quarter-sawn piece you can have problems because the flat pieces expand and contract almost twice (1.8 times) as much as the quarter-sawn. OR the "rate of shrinking" during the drying process varies tremendously from species to species. Additionally, if you can get a good seal-coat on the finished project immediately this slows down the dimensional changes to a large degree.


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## woodbutcherbynight (Oct 21, 2011)

*+ 1 NGK* I knew shrinkage was different but had no idea how much different. Good info.

Woz we all have those projects that have issues, leave it and consider it a talking point one day. You have company and a fellow woodworker mentions cutting boards, a conversation begins you exchange ups and downs of the work and you can show and tell what you learned the hard way. The last guy that was perfect we nailed to a cross so me, I am not really looking to be the next guy up ya know? (laughing) It looks good, most would never endeavor to even try so they are merely critics. I often scolded the Indian guys working with me in Iraq for trying to make the Taj Mahal out of 2×4's with a million nail holes in them and waferboard.


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## Woz (Aug 26, 2012)

NGK & WoodButcher-Thanks for the compliments & info. This is one of those "I know better" moments. I have an expensive albeit good looking trivet for the island. It is a conversation starter for sure-everyone who sees it asks about it.


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