Chalk vs walnut board

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

And the chalk wins. There is an 8 ft long, 11 inch wide, 6/4 walnut board that I wrestle with almost every day in my shop. I love walnut. I love wide and thick walnut. But I hate this board. It thinks it is master of the shop. Well tonight the master met his match and the chalk won. I needed a suitable piece of wood for a current project and I stumbled over this board while looking. OK, wise guy, are you at least 11 inches wide--yep. Then you just won. As you know, rough cut walnut laughs at pencils and scribe marks. Knowing this, I immediately reached for the chalk and the square. Zip, zip and two pieces hit the floor. WTF? The split went that far?!? Well, let's have another go. Get the chalk. Zip, zip and two boards hit the floor again. ?!?!?! That was a two foot split. This 8 foot board is giving it up a foot at a time. So zip, zip three was the charm. Now I have a usable board and a very tame 5 ft piece of primo walnut.

It split because it was one side of the tree heart. Of course, it cupped a bit. That's where the scrub plane comes in.




Lucky for me. The defect is only about 1/2 inch into the surface of this piece. I think we have found the bottom. A little scrub work reveals some really nice wood.






So the lesson tonight is: Chalk is handy in your woodshop. And, when a board gets in your way, tame it and put it to work. Master your shop.

[packerguy®]

I used chalk on walnut and exotics for years till I found these....

http://www.menards.com/main/tools-hardwa...2236435459

Kids got the chalk. 

[MichaelMouse]

Tailor chalk makes a finer line.

[AHill]

Tailor chalk makes a finer line.

I use an artist's white drawing pencil.

[TomFromStLouis]

I chuckled to myself thinking you were silly enough to have a board that keeps getting in the way in your shop. Doesn't he know that everything should have a place and go to it around the third time you trip over it?

The chuckle ended abruptly when I remembered that elm slab that has taken over my shop. It thinks it is master of the shop....

[Bibliophile 13]

I've had walnut do that to me before. What looks like a 2" end-check ends up running a foot or more, and a board literally falls into two pieces in your hands. I love working walnut, but I hate those little surprises.