The Approach of Autumn
Saturday 28th October 2023
Autumn is by far my favourite season.
Many of the days are still bright.
The skies remain clear and the sun still shines. But the air has a sharpness to it. A certain bite that just catches the back of the neck. Perfect weather for walking.
I think back to my time in Devon.
Dartmoor is a landscape that seemed to be made for Autumn. I have lasting memories of a forest path, walked in the company of the river Taw, amongst some lovely old English hardwoods. Oak and Sycamore and Copper Beech. I had caught it at just the right time, the sunlight highlighting turning leaves, golds, maroons and burnt umber, as it shone through the canopy.
We are now well into October, and the autumn weather brings a special concern to woodworkers.
Although cut from the tree and dried for a long time, wood still retains the characteristics of life.
Not long after I had started my training, Daren (the head cabinetmaker) came into our bench room and gave us some thin sticks of MDF. He explained to us that wood is constantly taking in and releasing moisture. We should 'stick' our wood (stack it up on sticks) so that each side can evenly take up and release moisture in the air. If we don't do this then the wood can warp, sometimes in a matter of minutes. We also needed to remember, he said, to close the windows if it started to rain - to do the best we can to control the humidity in the air.
Back to Oxfordshire. It has been raining a fair bit here recently.
Needing to take account of moisture in the air is one of those annoying things about wood that confuses so many people when they try and work with wood. It just won’t respond to you in a direct or altogether predictable way.
It will move with the moisture.
Wild grain and figuring will tear out when you’re working them.
You’ll uncover knots and the beginning of rot and irritating little wells of sap, deep inside a board.
It is infuriating.
It
just
isn’t
plastic
But this is the basic premise of working with wood. You have to work with it, instead of trying to impose your will upon it. This is a way of working that you either understand immediately, or never at all. But for those of us who ‘get it’, these considerations actually draw us towards working with wood.
The material still contains a deep connection to nature, a connection we can frame, highlight and celebrate in our own pieces. A connection that can act as a bridge back to the natural world, if we allow it to.
Of course on a day like today, we cannot keep moisture out of the air, but neither should we try to. We should learn ways to work with it, like sticking our wood, and closing all the windows.
~sh