Do you prefer 4/4 or 5/4 wood?

[Scott T Smith]

Glenn, there are several factors that are at play here. The bottom line is that if the lumber is both flat and high grade (FAS), you can get by with a thinner board and have it clean up at 3/4".

Factors that affect how flat a dry board is include:

Stickering. Need consistent stickers, lined directly above one another, and spaced relatively close together (AKA Danny Hamsley's post).

Raw Lumber: Needs to be high quality w/o grain changes due to knots, etc. Boards will typically warp in areas near where a limb's pith entered the main trunk, and this creates depressions as well as high spots in the boards - preventing them from clearing up with only 1/8" removal from each side.

Next up is board width. The wider the board, the less likely it is to totally clear up from side to side and end to end. 6" wide boards milled green at 1-1/16" will usually clear up on both sides at 3/4". 16" wide boards will not.

If you have lumber milled, keep in mind that board shrinkage may be proportional to the orientation of the wood cells within the board. I work with a lot of oak, and flat sawn oak will shrink approximately 6% from green to dry, whereas quartersawn oak will shrink around 12%. If you buy a relatively narrow boule of oak lumber (12" wide or less) and it is all milled green at 1-1/16" thick, the flat sawn boards near the outer edges of the boule will dry down to 1", but the quartersawn boards in the center will dry to 15/16". This same boule, if FAS quality boards and stickered on 12" centers may still clean up at 3/4". However, if stickered on 24" spacing most likely it will not.

I think that you are wise to have your local mill shoot for 1-1/4" green; however the log quality and how it is stickered will have a substantial impact on the board quality.

[Clay Fails]

I too have had issues getting 4/4 to final thickness, so for the slight increase in cost i now purchase mostly 5/4. My time in the shop is too valuable to be worrying about stock thickness.

[Glenn Samuels]

Great information Scott. Thanks

Glenn, there are several factors that are at play here. The bottom line is that if the lumber is both flat and high grade (FAS), you can get by with a thinner board and have it clean up at 3/4".

Factors that affect how flat a dry board is include:

Stickering. Need consistent stickers, lined directly above one another, and spaced relatively close together (AKA Danny Hamsley's post).

Raw Lumber: Needs to be high quality w/o grain changes due to knots, etc. Boards will typically warp in areas near where a limb's pith entered the main trunk, and this creates depressions as well as high spots in the boards - preventing them from clearing up with only 1/8" removal from each side.

Next up is board width. The wider the board, the less likely it is to totally clear up from side to side and end to end. 6" wide boards milled green at 1-1/16" will usually clear up on both sides at 3/4". 16" wide boards will not.

If you have lumber milled, keep in mind that board shrinkage may be proportional to the orientation of the wood cells within the board. I work with a lot of oak, and flat sawn oak will shrink approximately 6% from green to dry, whereas quartersawn oak will shrink around 12%. If you buy a relatively narrow boule of oak lumber (12" wide or less) and it is all milled green at 1-1/16" thick, the flat sawn boards near the outer edges of the boule will dry down to 1", but the quartersawn boards in the center will dry to 15/16". This same boule, if FAS quality boards and stickered on 12" centers may still clean up at 3/4". However, if stickered on 24" spacing most likely it will not.

I think that you are wise to have your local mill shoot for 1-1/4" green; however the log quality and how it is stickered will have a substantial impact on the board quality.