Growth ring separation ??

[bluegill68]

Fellas,

I did a cursory search but din't find what I was looking for. In your experiences what causes the growth rings to separate? Is it relative to the individual tree? Will all sister staves/billets exhibit the separations? Can it be caused from improper handling of logs/staves?

A friend of mine has had several staves show up recently that have this malady? Just got me to thinking.

Thanks Sean

[Pat B]

From my experience most delamination in trees and bow staves occurs from "wind shear" caused by the tree twisting in the wind as they grow. I have noticed that some of the locust around here has a fungi that degrades the early wood causing delamination between heartwood rings but only after stressing the wood while building a bow.

[osage outlaw]

I've seen it happen on staves while drying.  I cut a red osage tree a few years back and every stave developed side checks between the rings. 

[Dances with squirrels]

Drying stave-splits too quickly does it.

[bluegill68]

Thanks for the replies I'll pass the info on to my friend.