Why we plane these massive slabs

Written By Robin Wade

Lately, I've been getting a few questions about some of the "why's" of my process.  Why do we plane the slabs after they've been kiln dried.  When we are flitch cutting the lumber, why do we cut them so thick.  Above is a pic of a 16' long slab we are in the process of planing today.  With the Lucas sawmill, we cut it into this piece of organic edge lumber several years ago.  During the drying process, the oak slab went through a tremendous amount of stresses, as the moisture was removed, and the slab moved and shrank.  Each slab, tree, species reacts differently.  This pic shows a 1 inch buckle down the middle of the three inch thick slab.  We will plane it down flat, on both sides today and probably end up with somewhere between a 1.25" and 2" thick.  

Robin Wade
Robin Wade Furniture is a celebration of nature—a melding of a forward thinking commitment to the environment and a quiet, harmonious design aesthetic. From his "slow studio" in North Alabama, award-winning wood artist Robin Wade designs and crafts one-of-a-kind handmade furniture. Years before a piece is ready to enter a client's home or a gallery, the process begins—naturally—with the tree. Sustainably harvested, each specimen of hardwood is flitch sawn into natural-edge wood slabs, debarked by hand with a draw knife, and stacked to dry, usually for years, before the final cure in the kiln. From here, Wade and his team use both hand and power tools to bring Wade's vision to life, and then finish each piece with a hand-rubbed oil blend. Each organic furniture creation by Robin Wade Furniture balances the raw, natural beauty of environmentally, locally sourced hardwoods with minimally invasive, clean lines—a juxtaposition Wade calls both rustic and modern. “I haven’t yet found a better artist than nature,” he says.
robinwadefurniture.com
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