Riven

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

The meaning of Riven, when speaking of Wood Working, is to Split with the grain.

When One is "Splitting" Firewood, One can be said to be "Riving" it as well.

Common uses for Riven stock are; * Chair Parts * Clapboards * Shingles * Peg Stock * Handle Stock

Pretty much anything where the retention of flexibility is greatly desired. Where Ripping a Board by means of a Saw, may -- and is -- likely to cause the Grain to "Run Out", Riving Won't.

An example of this is to take a broomstick and strike it, using a Decent, but not overly vigorous, amount of force against an imovable object.

• Watch for Flying Pieces of Wood!

Then Rive a similar size stick from a similar type of wood(Often Birch or Beech).

Green wood is more naturaly Resilient than Dried, so, Bear this mind if you perform this experiment, and almost All commercial Broomsticks are Kiln Dried, which makes them even More Brittle than Air Dried Lumber.

However, The purpose of this is to show one of the great differences between methods of Conversion. While Each species has the same Absolute values, shear parrallel, perpendicular, etc., Regardless of how it is converted from Log to Lumber, the relative strengths from One Specific piece to another are as affected by Conversion as they are by Checking, Drying, Knots, Inclusions, etc.

While a Riven peg Will Split as it is being Driven, this generally Only occurs when it meets Significant resistance, And, the split (Parrallel to the Grain) will be very Obviously down it's Long Axis. Riven pegs Rarely, very, very rarely, suffer shear Perpendicular to the Grain, unless someone strikes them a Very Oblique, powerful, Blow -- Often Done by a Novice using a Sledge Hammer, or 20# Commander, swinging with a great deal of effort.

A Turned Sawn Peg will, by Contrast Seem To have a Very High rate of failure along it's Perpendicular Axis. i.e; It will look like it has broken in half, well, in Two very Sharp, pointed, halves. In fact it is failing along it's Long Axis, it's just that for a Sawn peg, it's long axis is not all that long. The Grain "Runs Out", that is, the grain on a sawn peg does not run from the top to the bottom, as it does in a Riven peg, it may be as short as the Width of the peg, depending on how severly squirely the grain is.

While a Riven peg can be very squirrely, those "Blanks" are less likely to be shaped into finished Stock, due to the amount of effort needed to form them. Straight, "Clean" blanks allow for the Fastest, Easiest Carving, and this is the drawback of the saw when looking to retain Strength and Flexibility, for to the saw and the Lathe, Difficult, knotty, and short Grained wood is virtually all the same.