Quartersawing ?? Kyle, Jeff . . . . .

[Alan in Little Washington]

Kyle, Jeff, Woodbutcher,

What method(s) do you guys use for quartersawing White Oak? This link has nice summaries, with pics and graphics, of 3 methods. Any special procedure(s) or caution not mentioned at the link that we need to be aware of?

Hopefully, I will have a couple White Oak logs quartersawn tomorrow- if the ground dries out enough. My sawyer has a Woodmizer LT40H.

 

[Kyle]

Scott is a nice fellow. He runs a setup similiar to LT40 sans hydraulics and does just fine.

I use method 1 most of the times because its just easier even for larger logs.

If I ever get off my butt and take the Hardwoods grading course in memphis I will go visit him.

 

[The WoodButcher]

Hi Alan in Little Washington, I use method number 1 most of the time, like Kyle said it's EZ'r. I don't really cut alot of quarter sawn lumber though. Folks round here don't seem to mind flat sawn. I only cut QS when customer ask's for it. Then about half way through when they see how much waste there is they say, hey just flat saw the rest ok? I say Ok with a grin. :lol: Then I can make some time.

 

[jeff...]

Kyle, Jeff, Woodbutcher,

What method(s) do you guys use for quartersawing White Oak? This link has nice summaries, with pics and graphics, of 3 methods. Any special procedure(s) or caution not mentioned at the link that we need to be aware of?

Hopefully, I will have a couple White Oak logs quartersawn tomorrow- if the ground dries out enough. My sawyer has a Woodmizer LT40H.

Geeze I guess I'm the old ball here. I use method #3, but follow the QS flakes - if the flake starts to disappear, I turn the quarter a little bit, till the endgrain is close to 90 degress with the face, take a thicker cut then come back a resaw to the thickness the person ordered. I guess I use a modified #3 since I have yet to see a log with perfectly round growth rings.

Thanks

 

[tonyps]

Evening all,
Ok, you wood guru types, educate me, please.....I have been told for years that QS produces more stable lumber than Flat Sawing.....Is this true, generally, or does it depend on what the intended use for the wood is, or do I really not have a clue here....:slap:
Thanks......
Tony ...

 

[DaveO]

QS does produce more stable lumber in any application. Wood expands and contracts parallel to the grain. In flat sawn lumber the grain runs parallel with the face thus giving it the greatest movement across that plane. In QS the grain runs perpendicular to the face and reduces the movement across the face plane. The next best situation is rift sawn where the grain runs ~45° to the face, you get a little more movement, but less than in flat sawn. QS like flat sawn can produce strong patterns on two faces of the lumber, where rift sawn lumber has a similar grain pattern on all sides of the stock.
Dave

 

[Jim Murphy]

Quartersawing wood is wasteful and requires a lot of effort, but produces an end result which has minimum shrinkage and, because of the way the grain lies, doesn't offer much room to twist or warp when worked.

Consider a standard pine stud. Which ones are straight? The ones that, even when flat sawn, generate a QS board. Straight grain, straight board.

For the record, I am nowhere approaching a wood guru, I am a NCWWer addict who can't resist responding to a post I know nothing about. My opinions are worth what you pay for them.

Seriously, if you can afford it, and you care, buy QS material.

Jim

 

[Kyle]

in method 1 i get a mixture of qs and rift sawn lumber which doesn't exhibit as much ray fleck as if I turn the log following the rays. If I get 60-70% QS from method 1 I am happy as a clam because I can process about 1200bf that way before calling it a day.

QS is more stable and takes longer to dry than flat or rift sawn much like drying crotch feather or curly wood or highly figured wood. All take a longer period to thoroughly dry then regular run of the mill lumber. The movement once dry is minimal and is very stable in a glue up.

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

Thanks guys. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I printed out some instruction sheets for the sawyer.

I like the grain pattern of both Rift and Quarter sawn white oak much, much better than flat sawn. Though I ran out of wood and had a lot of waste, I tried to use as much of QSWO and rift sawn on my shop cabinets. Hopefully I'll be getting a bunch of QSWO tomorrow in a barter deal- got make the wood guy a cabinet.

I guess I better get busy and get that kiln built!!!

 

[jeff...]

Even though it's so much easier to square up a log by flipping 4 times to produce a cant, then just slicing boards off. I personally don't mind spending a little extra time with a good looking log to try and get the most stunning grain I can out of it, if it makes good sense.

Certain tree's really benefit from QS'ing when it comes to appearance and make sense to QS, oak being one of them. Black Walnut on the other hand doesn't really benefit much from being QS in a appearance and is hard enough to come by, so in my mind QS'ing BW just doesn't make a lot of sense. Lets say, I were going to use white oak in barn stalls, fence boards or a trailer decking then flat sawn would be plenty good enough. But in my opinion furniture lumber is a different story. Wood has it's uses and applications - all things considered which would you rather build a piece of oak furniture with? I think most of us would vote for QS.

It's true QS lumber does take longer to dry and is more wasteful to produce, harder on the guy milling the logs, takes more time to produce, thus it's more expensive. But then again it's more dimensionally stable and in my mind, builds a better looking piece of furniture. So it really boils down to what you want to use it for, what look your trying to achieve and how much your willing to pay.

Personally I think it's pretty cool that I can take a log and produce two totally different looks based on how I saw it, but you all know I'm easily amused. Though some may disagree I don't consider my WM a production machine, nor any other portable band mill I've seen for that matter. But I do consider my WM a custom lumber producing machine that's more geared twords producing furniture lumber than construction lumber. If I were going for production or construction lumber, I would have to go with something entirely different.

Blah, Blah, Blah - enough already jeff :slap:

Thanks

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

Oh, and by the way, after stacking the oak and walnut (which is stunning by the way) and after visiting the turner who is giving us his kiln, I went with my wood guy to where his crew was taking down a big sycamore which should yield two 12 footers before the branches get too numberous. I believe the butt log is over 20" in diameter.

The next time we have the sawyer come, gonna do a lot of quartering- never got to the good white oaks and now we'll have two Sycamore logs to quarter also!

Also gonna have one of his guys cut the big 36" diam Beech in half with a chain saw so the sawyer can get it on the mill (gonna cut a bunch of it into 8/4 for a bench top).

Man, the sun is shining this week in little Washington! :eusa_danc:eusa_danc:eusa_danc:eusa_danc:eusa_danc:eusa_danc

Go on, say it! :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[jeff...]

In all honesty Alan, I'm really glad to see you excited about making lumber. It's even greater to see your tree-cycle'ing :rolf:. It pains me to see a good tree go to waste. But be careful or soon you may have my problem and have so much wood you won't be able to work in your shop, it has a habit of accumulating very quickly.

 

[Gofor]

Alan, looks like that new kiln won't even be big enough. To paraphrase the Taco Bell chihuahua:

"I theenk You need a bigger box!!":rolf:

(By the way, that is one on my top favorite's in the commercials category))

Go

 

[jeff...]

Hey guys while playing around a little with the saw mill this evening, I figured out a slick way to traditional QS. Lets just say, it's a lot easier and faster than the way I have been doing it, plus if cutting 4/4, you can edge as your slicing your next board :rolf:. I'll try and snap a few pics and share with you guys, it's to hard for me to explain in writing, but you take your boards off the bottom of the quarter not the top.

Thanks