As you state, Brad, checking is a natural occurrence. Your statement on working green wood may be a personal approach, one does not have to always seal the end grain. I see end grain sealing as an adoption taken by modern joinery to try to solve the naturally occurring checks. If you have a timber which is going to check so badly it will become a problem, I am sure a little anchor seal wouldn't help.

Tim

I agree with Tim to some degree here, however it is not unheard of for some old buildings to have had their joints sealed with tar, or to have had the insides of the joints painted. In some areas the entire timbers might be coated with tar to seal them off and to protect them

I am in the habit of mopping the ends of timbers and inside mortises with raw linseed oil. Always done it. Just seems to me that wood will lose moisture excessively from any end grain. Raw linseed oil won't completely seal but will slow it down some.

sada

Im almost sheepish to mention this, but Eric Sloane mentions some interesting historical methods for eliminating or mitigating checking. Off the top of my head, a few worth noting included submerging in a cold, fast moving stream for months; burying in sawdust, painting the ends with pitch....

With white oak at least and some cedar, I have had similar success slapping on any type of tar, pitch, latex paint on the ends of the wood and this has had a tremendous benefit of slowing up checking to near non existent levels.

I would heartily agree that the "linseed slathering" is historically accurate for green furniture where cracking or checking is far more serious aesthetically and structurally and it is my understanding that the darkened timbers we often see are partly a result of years of annual oil slathering.

Another point worth mentioning is that split logs, and particularly hand hewn logs do seem to split/check far less than cut logs. Ive witnessed this first hand with my lumber. Those logs I have split lengthwise and/or hand hewn show far less tendency to split, particularly after a paint, tar, pitch, or linseed slathering.

Ive used roofing tar and basement sealant tar on the ends of my logs. A little bit goes a long way, and seals tighter than a steel drum. No issue with molding/mildew etc.

cheers
Drew

Mo,
Thanks for the concise reponse to careyfox. I didn't open their link. I'm suspicious and cautious of one-time posters who don't enter into the discussion with information or Qs. Anyone who drops in a link as their sole contribution is suspect - reason to avoid. They gave no info in their profile either. hope you didn't get bad cookies or a virus.
Jim, you got their number too. where's the beef?
Back to the legitimate Q and A.
Cyber death to spammers and pfishers!

Steve

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Hello,
My understanding is that checks, and cracks or splits are not the same.
checks
A crack or split
a split developed from a check.

That checks should be prevented as much as possible is an issue relating to joinery and not aesthetics because they occur at the end grain and are not usually substantially in sight. Splits or cracks, which occur at the surface are more than anything something aesthetic and only rarely concern the structural integrity of a timber.

Don Wagstaff

Seasoning checks ARE a grading criteria in some species in higher grades and are limited to 1/4 to 1/2 thickness. Since boxed heart timbers will usually only check to the heart, the check will not go all the way through the timber (then it would be a "split" in grading terms). It's possible that a check could be a split (which also have specified limits) in reclaimed resawn timber, free of heart, I suppose. If that check happened to be right where there was a reduction on the end of a joist, it could be a problem.