Hi all,

I recently bought some rough sawn 8/4 beech.  It looked great in the lumberyard, but within a week of bringing it home it has checked dramatically, with cracks running up and down the board.  Some are 3ft long or more.  I have heard beech can be a troublesome wood, but this seems exceptional.  Is this what you’d expect from beech?  Or is this a problem related to the kiln drying at the mill?  Usually this place is pretty good, in my experience.

A bit more about the board.  It is 6” wide, and although it is from close to the center of the tree, it doesn’t have the pith in it.  Probably an few inches off center, based on the rings.  The board didn’t have any wild figure, just some minor cathedrals.  

I would expect the conditions at the mill and my shop are similar.  The mill/yard has the boards stacked in bins inside of a enclosed, but largely unheated portion of the warehouse.  My shop is is an unheated garage, but buffered a bit by the shared wall with the house.  It mostly tracks humidity with outside.  

I don’t own a moisture meter, so can’t check.  

So, did I just get a bad board?  Or is thick sawn beech to be avoided in the future?

Thanks for your input!