Most books and magazines on furniture making advise the reader, wisely, to move the lumber into the workshop several weeks to adjust to the change in temperature and humidity.
However, often – when discussing joinery to compensate for wood movement – they go on to say how old furniture did not have to endure the extreme environmental changes found in a modern house because they lacked central heating.
I don’t know if any of you have lived in a house heated by a wood stove, but I have. The air gets so dry you get nose bleeds, and in the summer, having no A.C. or dehumidification, the drawers and doors etc. swell up so badly you can’t close them. The house I live in now has all the aforementioned amenities (thank God!) and its furniture enjoys a nearly constant 72 degrees with 50% humidity all year.
They’re right about building for movement, but the rest is a lot of bunk.
Jeff
Replies
So, I guess I don't understand your point. You live in a home with museum quality environmental conditions. I don't.
Howie,
My point is that modern homes are more environmentally stable than homes were years ago. I can't accept the claim that years ago furniture was under less stress because of lack of central heating.
By the way, this house is a museum of sorts. Built in 1887 with all the charming features of homes that have lived through modernization: cut-off joists which caused sagging floors and ceilings; stacked stone foundation pointed with a sand/lime mix from which all the lime has leached out; windows painted shut.... Boy, I'm having fun!!!
Jeff
I live in a house that was built about 40 years ago, and has central heat (oil furnace, natural gas is not available here on our island). It gets incredibly dry during the winter time inside the house, even though in the Great Northwest, the humidity outside is pretty much 90-100% from November through May.
I definitely see the stress in the older pieces of furniture that are in here. The small ash chest that holds the TV is cranky about it's drawers being open, the oak desk my computer sits on occasionally has the same problem, and the veneer on my 1930's chifferobe, upon close examination, looks like the veneer might be thinking about fracturing.
In the 13 years since I moved up here, I've had dozens of conversations with people who complain about the dryness in the wintertime, and some of these people live in brand new multi-million$$ homes, so while the temperature may be more stable, I'm not at all sure the humidity is.
Homes in the 1800's were, I assume, heated mostly by fireplaces and woodstoves, and the very warm areas would have been localized near those heat sources. The rest of the house, it seems to me, would have been cooler and more moist -- closer to the outside conditions.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Point noted. But, when I was a kid, in the wintertime we kept a pot of water on top of the coal stove. Was one of my chores to keep it full.
Now days, you get an instream humidifier for the ducts. My house here close to Houston stays around 75 degrees year round. Never have measured the humidity though. In the summer, my AC's (2) sucks out probably 20 gallon of water a day (also sucks a lot of money out of my pocketbook). The one in my shop sucks out close to 10 gallon per day. The house never get so dry in the winter that shuffling feet on the carpet will make static electricity.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy
PlaneWood
I am truly honored to have received the response of a master craftsman. If you members haven't visited Mike's sight and seen the magnificent restoration work he does, do so; it's incredible!
Jeff
Thanks Jeff!
pssst - where do I send the check?
PlaneWood by Mike_in_KatyPlaneWood
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