From the workshop
When an oak panel cracks in January or a tread cups in its first summer, the cause is almost never the wood species, the glue or the finish. It is moisture content — decided long before the panel reached you.
Wood is hygroscopic: it continuously exchanges moisture with the air around it and swells or shrinks as it does. Indoors, with heating in winter, European interiors settle at an equilibrium of roughly 7–9 % wood moisture. Wood delivered at that level barely moves after installation. Wood delivered wetter must shrink to get there — and shrinkage across the grain is powerful enough to crack panels, open joints and cup treads.
Much of the trade dries to 10–14 % because it is cheaper and faster — kiln time is money, and the difference is invisible at delivery. The problem surfaces one heating season later, in your customer's home, with your name on the invoice. Oak shrinks roughly 0.2–0.3 % across the grain for every 1 % of moisture it loses: a 600 mm wide panel arriving at 12 % and settling to 8 % gives up around 6–7 mm of width. No glue line or finish holds against that quietly.
A pin or capacitive moisture meter costs less than one failed worktop. Measure a fresh delivery in three places per panel, log it, and compare against what was promised in writing. If your current source doesn't state a moisture specification in their quotes, that silence is information too. Ours is in every quote we send.
Straight answers
Moisture, grades and tolerances stated in writing, in every quote. Send an enquiry and see for yourself.