Stacking/Storing Wood from WoodCentral

Stand up the wood or lay it down? That is the question for this woodworker, who is trying to decide whether to rearrange his wood storage. - Editor

"I have my little (basement) shop gutted to paint the floor. I have always stored my wood lying flat on leveled cinder blocks off the ground. I sticker it, too. I don't know why, but I do. I could gain some much needed floor space if I stored the wood vertical up against the wall(s). I know this is debated from time to time, but does it really matter? Does it matter if it's vertical or horizontal? If it matters, most of my wood is 4/4 KD rough. Have there ever been any tests to see if one way or the other makes a difference?" - Joe

While not citing the tests the original poster asked about, woodworkers had their own reasons for their preferences. - Editor

"Have not seen any test, but probably depends on how vertical you store the stock. Most of my wood is laid flat over my bench room in my shop. When I pull some lumber down, it's usually too much trouble or I don't have the help to put the lumber back up in the loft if I don't need it. Will lean the wood against the wall, have not notice any major problems. Might want to build a vertical lumber rack, should make leafing through boards easier." - Dale

"I have not read about any tests of one way or another. If the wood is dry ,then you should be able to store vertical or horizontal. I would still keep off the floor to avoid moisture being pulled from the floor. I would also try to keep truly vertical to avoid sagging over time. I would mount eyes in the wall to allow using some type of cord/tie to prevent the board falling forward.

"My 'shop' is the garage. I have height constraints, so cannot store all the boards vertically. I could not even store 8 ft vertically, and some of my boards are 9 - 10 ft. I have dedicated one wall for lumber storage. I made my own three-level rack with 2x4 construction plus floor. I have three sections to the rack, each two studs apart, so nominal 32 inch spacing. Middle level is covered in plywood so it makes the overall rack very sturdy and can store the shorter pieces. I then store the long boards either flat or on edge, depending on board dimensions and overall stacking efficiency." - Dave

And they had a couple of other bits of advice. - Editor

"The only thing I'd be worried about when storing the wood vertically is making sure that it was supported properly. Unless you're really careful, the wood will be leaning up against the wall at a slight angle. I'd think that the boards could bow over time unless you have some supports along the middle of the boards." - David

"Horizontal surfaces accumulate junk. Vertical surfaces don't." - J.L.

What is Flitch? From WoodCentral

The same woodworker with the stacking wood dilemma had another good question this past week. - Editor

"I think I kinda know, and probably should know, but what is Flitch when talking about wood and/or logs. And what is a 'flitch line'?" - Joe

The question yielded this answer:

"A flitch can be: 1. A salted and cured side of bacon. 2. A longitudinal cut from the trunk of a tree. 3. One of several planks secured together to form a single beam." - Lee

A couple of answerers described it as a method of cutting logs. - Editor

"In flitch cut boards, the wood is plainsawn, with each cut made one after the other, like slicing a loaf of bread the long way. This method has the least amount of waste, but the quality of the wood will be inconsistent, and most boards will contain both heartwood and sapwood. A stack of boards cut in this manner, from the same log, is called a flitch. A flitch has the advantage of having matching grain throughout." - Del

"[Flitch lumber] is where the log is kept in a single orientation and then sawn leaving the natural edges on. You can then put the log back together (having lost only the saw kerfs). Flitch sawn lumber is, depending on the width, often sold in sets of 4 or more boards in sequence from the same side of the log. What this does is produce book-matched boards that can be used for table tops, doors, etc. I have several walnut flitches, with crotches intact, in the stock I just moved into the shop from outside drying." - Mark

Other woodworkers, however, claim that the term generally refers to veneer, rather than lumber. - Editor

"Whenever I run across the term, it is referring to sequentially cut and stacked and sold that way as veneer, the idea being to have a veneered panel or tabletop look as uniform as possible. - Fred

"'Flitch line'? Never heard of the term. Flitch is a common term for veneer. A flitch of veneer is a stack of veneer pieces consecutively sliced from a piece of a log (cant).

"I have never seen a log flitch cut, mainly because it yields a 'flitch' of mostly lower grade boards that are difficult to deal with. I suspect flitch cutting a log has become popular as a result of the proliferation of portable band mills operated by novices, sawing for novices. This means of converting a log into boards is the easiest way on a portable band mill and very difficult/risky/impossible on a circular sawmill. Whilst one might imagine book matching lumber sawed this way, as a practical matter, it typically won't work out, unless one is striving for a rustic look incorporating knots and splits. It does make sense to flitch cut a crotch; in fact this is the only way to cut a crotch." - Bill T

In the discussion, Bill then provided further explanation. - Editor

"Book-matching would involve gluing adjacently sawed boards, ideally of similar width. Such boards will come from the center slices of a 'flitch' cut log. Unless one is dealing with an exceptional log, as one nears the center knots will be encountered. Even the exceptional log is going to have juvenile wood at its center which invariably cracks upon drying, especially in the case of cherry. Hence, the wide lumber from the center cuts, that by size would be ideal for book matching, will in fact typically have defects in their centers, yielding the 'rustic' look I described. The only reliable way to get true book-match is to use veneer from a flitch of veneer.

"The fastest way to cut a log on a portable band mill is to "flitch" cut it. If you have a log to be cut, don't confuse fastest with best." - Bill T