Heart of the Wood
Specializing in reproductions of 17th century furniture and woodwork

Working-up stock from the log: the Riving Process

(concluded)

The roughed-out piece of stock is now  worked up on the bench with a series of hand-planes.  One side is first planed true, and then an arris, or right-angled face is planed to it.  From here, the finished dimensions can be struck off of these two finished faces with a marking gauge, to delineate the finished dimensions of the piece.  The last waste-wood is removed with the same sequence of hatchet and planes, producing a finished piece of regularly dimensioned stock.

This finished piece of red oak shows the characteristic grain pattern of riven stock.  It is similar to the grain of quarter-sawn stock, both of which are radially cut sections from the tree.  In this piece, being very wet and unseasoned,   the quartered figure appears dark; when dry, these patches are generally silvery.   In white oak, they are even more pronounced and showy.  This is the typical grain characteristic of all colonial American joined furniture, which can only be duplicated by using the riving process, and which is why reproductions made with commercially available timber do not truly resemble the originals.

This photo shows the back side of the piece pictured above.  Typical of colonial joined furniture, it shows the marks of the riving process: unplaned split surfaces and hatchet marks are clearly visible.  Inner surfaces, especially those not readily seen in the finished piece of furniture, typically received less attention than those faces which would show. Also, the riving process often produces stock that will not reduce on all faces to a set dimension.  This was of no concern to the joiner - as long as the important edges and faces were of a sufficient size to carry the necessary mortise and\or tenon, the actual 'full' dimensions were irrelevant.  It is these kinds of marks, left on the original pieces, that have instructed us in the working methods of our colonial predecessors. 

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