There is a picture I got somewhere that shows what the most likely distortion of lumber from a log will do.
It has been used many times online, and hopefully is not copyright protected.
It shows what would/could happen if a piece lumber was cut out of a log at different location in that log.
And you can see by this that it may distort because of this.
What I have suggested, and done, and witnessed the result of is cutting pieces of lumber from logs in what I call the clock pattern.
That is one piece from the 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions in the log.
Here is a shot of three 6x6 timbers:
The one with my left glove on it was from the 9 o'clock position. The one with my right glove was from the 3 o'clock position. The one in the middle was boxed heart.
Here you can see what happened to some timbers after they had dried a bit:
Again these are
not the same three pieces viewing from the same end.
Note that the 9 o'clock timber bowed and the 3 o'clock timber didn't that much....
I'm not sure how west coast timber would dry, so I can't comment on that.
I can only comment on what I have seen here with my eastern white pine timbers.
Hope this helps you...
Jim Rogers
