Pervert. You'll be offering me sweets next!

The correct name for wibbly wobbly timber is 'propeller'.  That's what we get delivered when our account is overdue.  

As I was rained off today I decided to do some preparatory work done on a job I'm starting next week and so had some time to spare. I decided to do a little ad hoc survey.

I decided on (ex) 8" x 1" board as the one probably most affected by distortion. I decided to check ten boards, the first I came to in each rack. I went to Travis Perkins, Tippers and B&Q.

Ratio was of bad to good...

TP  5:10

Tippers  6:10

B&Q  3:10

I'll stick with B&Q. You guys go where you like.

Yeah, the whole issue is one that's bound to pull up differences of opinion, depending on each individual's experience.

Idigbo is another contentious area. My experience of the stuff has been horrendous. Last year I walked away from a £16K barn conversion job (all the doors, windows and staircases) because they insisted on idigbo. It is bloody awful stuff. Talk about bananas!

My son asked me to make a large door for a property he was working on. The estate manager had been told about idigbo and insisted that's what it should be made of, rather than oak. Having usually worked with just British hardwoods, I thought 'Well, why not try a tropical?' Seemed fine enough. I cut it all down to rough section size, planed it all-round to finish size and left the sections for machining the following day, all laid out on the bench. I couldn't believe what I came back to the next morning. It was twisted BOTH ways. I had £88-worth of firewood. That's the only good thing going for idigbo - it's cheap.

I was subsequently asked to do one of those large glazed areas on a barn conversion and the customer wanted idigbo. After that last experience I insisted they supply the timber. I gave them two 3.5 metre lengths of 100 x 50 to replace, again, bent BOTH ways. That stuff hadn't been machined and so the timber merchant had it back, after an argument. It had been laid on sticks in my wood loft for just a week.

Mention idigbo to me now and you won't see me for sawdust!

Yet there are guys out there who swear by the stuff.

There's a postscript to that door story. Having told my son to tell that estate manager where to put idigbo the job was given to a local joiner (incidentally, I'm in Shropshire, the door was going to an estate in Devon) who apparently called me a prat for refusing to do it in idigbo. Guess what happened?

Keep it like that Zam, it's not worth the doubtful savings.

Nah, it's what Jake's middle leg was made of though!