Today I would like to answer one of the questions from people from my school. The question today I would like to answer about a common problem in woodworking. And if you're doing woodworking, you know, everybody has a challenge with that. And I'm talking about the movement of the wood. The problem is like that, okay? When you just buy wood from a number yard, obviously nowadays you can't buy air-dried wood. Most likely it's going to be kiln-dried. And the problem with that, it's a really quick process. It is dry, but it's pretty fresh yet. And the wood itself tends to adapt to the environment.
Let's say you bring your piece of wood from a lumberyard to your shop. If you have moisture in your shop, the wood is going to absorb that moisture and it's going to swell. And if you bring that piece of lumber, piece of wood inside of the house, and let's say you have a dehumidifier inside and humidity in your strop is much less than outside. Let's say in my shop, I'm keeping my humidity low. I have a dehumidifier and I keep that approximate to 35% even if I live in Florida, still 35%, that's common humidity for my environment. Well, I'm not talking about the full shop because this is just my studio where I just do all of my carving and that does not really shop. I do have another place for the machines and so on, but right now it's my shop.
So here I do have approximately, I would say about 35% of humidity and I do wood carving every day and I have to deal with that problem. Also, one of question a student of my school, wrote me an email and it's a common question. I have to answer that question multiple times when I'm doing in-person classes. And the question is when you buffing a piece of wood, everybody knows if you're a woodworker, you know it's going to move, it's going to move, it's going to shrink, it's honing to swallow, it's going to cup, it's going to warp, it's going to all kind of crazy movements. Okay, how do you attack that piece of wood when you're just doing a wood carving, let's say the line? In this case, we're talking about, I don't know, maybe about three inches thick overall. So it's about three inches thick from the upper point to the bottom. And obviously, I dig not glue pieces together. So at least in this part, the upper part is solid wood. And we did, by the way, that project in Mark Adams school class I was teaching this year, and one of the classes, I believe was fundamentals.
Well, it's not I shouldn't say it's fundamentals, but yes, some people never cart in that class. And we worked on that type of project, which is an Oak with a couple of acorns. It's a somewhat complicated project, but it's nice. Okay, so let's say when you just get the piece of wood and logically, let me just draw it to you onlay what happens, what happens with that, let me double check if I'm connected there. Yes, I am. What happens with that onlay? So let's say you've got a board, that is your board. And as you know, when you buy a piece of wood, I'm looking at that board just from the site. I'm not going to explain to you different types of cuts, like water zone, rift cut, or just plain zone. Let's say you just get the plain zone, the normal board, whatever they saw. And when you look at it, those rings, well, that is the board actually wire. You just wouldn't be confused. And when you're looking at that board, it's going to have some rings. And closer to that, as you get those rings, going to be something like that.
Please understand wood is a piece of wood. I like to say that it's like a bunch of drinking straws compacted together and that is exactly what it is. And those straws placed right there inside of those micro-movements and they're not consistent.
So you have to understand those straws. That's where is the juice going, all right? Closer to the edge you get, you've got the different movement of those straws.
Please, again, try to understand. Let's say you bring that piece inside of the shop and the air is dry, and you don't have moisture, what happens? Those straws are compacting; they get close to the center in this case, and this case is going to be closer to that center. So they kind of shrink together. And it not only affects how the board is going to move if it's going to go, you know, wider or narrow, it's also going to cut and warp and twist and do all kind of crazy movements. Because even if you look at the grain of the wood, let's say you got a straw, but that straw does not go all the way straight. It has all kinds of movement right on the surface also. And those are the grain you can see, which is what we like actually, the movements of the grain. And just because there's not enough air, let's say not enough water in the ear, it starts shrinking and it's causing that movement. And, if you live in a moist environment, if there's a lot of humidity in the air, it's going to puff, it's going to swallow, and that's still going to move.
And that is the problem. And the question is, what side? When you look at a piece of wood, if you look at that piece of wood, is that better? Just place your carving on the top and leave the bottom as a background, or you should just flip it upside down like that, and then it's going to be the surface you're going to work on.
So that is the big question.
And it makes sense to ask that type of question, but the answer would be really simple. The answer would be really simple. If you are planning to do a low relief carving, which you're just taking slightly, like, for example, that panel wire working for a long time because I was too busy. But that panel is low-relief carving. It's only about one-sixteenth of an inch. Some parts like maybe 3, and some parts maybe would be about 5 mm deep. It's going to move. Okay, it's going to move. But if you're working on a carving like that, like a lot of airborne stuff, what happens when you excavate, when you excavate those openings, and when you just undercut that's a paper thin. You can see it's just wiggling. It's paper thin. You moving out those fibers. You don't have a continuous pipe going through. There are no more straws. Yeah, a short part of those straws is still there. But you, just because you're carving out, you're relieving that stress. The answer is if you're working on a, you know, high relief, especially a lot of stuff, it's going to be like airborne, like a piece.
Like right there. There's a lot of excavation going on. I don't have any cracks, I don't have any expansions, and I don't have pretty much any movement. Maybe there is a micro-movement, but it's not going to move like one-eighth of an inch, inch 3 mm line on a solid board. Because those fibers, work together on a solid board. But if you have a lot of movement and you already cut away a lot of material, there's no tension left. Okay. So the movement is going to be minimum. So you don't really have to worry to answer what side you have to carve. I mean, in my opinion, I could be wrong. In my opinion, it doesn't really matter because there's not going to be much movement.
So there's not much tension left. That's only my opinion. And I think I know what I'm talking about because I've done carving for a long time. And that piece is proof. It's about ten years old. It's still right there. I have zero cracks on that piece. Not only that, I mean that piece the same way. I mean absolutely zero. And that one is one older piece. And I have some pieces like 20 years old, and 25 years old, and they still don't have any movement. I hope it answers your question. So thank you very much, wonderful people. That's enough for today. I hope to connect a little more often right now because I shipped my project and I'm taking a little break from the live projects and I'm concentrating right now in school. But anyway, let me show that one more time. That is what we worked at the class in person I was teaching this summer. Well, that was springtime, at Mark Adams School. And that's what we worked on. Okay. Now, we did another class in the State of Maine at William Brown's School. So it's not done yet. I'm still going to do a little more work.
But that was a Grinling Gibbons-style carving. And another one that's already gone. I had another class, Grinling Gibbons style at Mark Adams School, and somebody wanted to buy it, and they bought that piece for me. Okay, ask me questions, and comment.