Why Feather Edge?

[wills-mill]

For cladding, so only one face will be exposed, there are several advantages. The first is yield - assume you want a 3/4" bottom edge, parallel sawn it takes 3/4" of timber to make a board whereas feathered to 1/4" you need 1" plus saw kerf to make two boards. Assuming a 1/8" kerf, in a 20" cant that means the difference between 35 boards and 26 boards.

 

Feather edge lies flatter, so it drains better and should last longer. Lying flatter also decreases the size of the corner cappings - the 'stick out' of flat boards as above would be just over 1.5" whereas feather edge will be just over 1". It also keeps weight down which decreases loading and means smaller fixings. It also puts the thickness where you need it, on the bottom edge without compromising lifetime.

 

Practical experience of installing it, it is also much easier to get a tight lap as you easily deflect the 1/4" edge to conform to the profile of the thicker edge and close the gap.

 

Alec

 

 

Aye, the flexibility of the tongue is useful but it's often abused when people smash the life out of their cladding with a Paslode.

 

As far as the yield per log goes (if you don't have a dedicated resaw) there's the big issue with a lapsiding attachment on a mobile bandmill that you can't make use of the falling boards. You are limited with featheredge yield because you can only get featheredge from the central cant.

With plain rectangular boarding, you can clamp and edge all the falling boards as well, and that ends up being very useful and productive.

 

If you have either a dedicated resaw machine, or something like the Woodmizer powered resaw attachment, or a Lucas mill with tilty-angle thing, or you do a bit of hilbilly USA style 'poor boy resawing' then it's not an issue.

 

Woodmizer lapsiding maker

[wills-mill]

I've been asked by one of my customers for feather edge. As such we'll be buying a horizontal resaw in the new year to produce a lot of feather edge. I have been askedf or it now and again in the past, but have not been able to cut it. With the promise of over 100 cubic metres a year, it makes the machine cost justifiable.

 

I do like feather edge myself, and would probably use it for cladding if I produced it.

 

Mr Trak Met again or something from the States like a Baker resaw?

[wills-mill]

This is my homemade tilt-o-matic. It's impressive but you need machinery on site to handle the cants.

 

[Big J]

Mr Trak Met again or something from the States like a Baker resaw?

 

Woodmizer actually. Their machine is the most competitively priced. About £8k with the extra roller tables.

[agg221]

Aye, the flexibility of the tongue is useful but it's often abused when people smash the life out of their cladding with a Paslode.

 

Very true - my careful pre-drilling of slightly oversize holes to allow movement, aligning the holes just above the tongue to allow for expansion and contraction in the width and nailing down with stainless ring-shank clouts, using a punch to avoid marking the surface is rather at the opposite end of the scale

 

As far as the yield per log goes (if you don't have a dedicated resaw) there's the big issue with a lapsiding attachment on a mobile bandmill that you can't make use of the falling boards. You are limited with featheredge yield because you can only get featheredge from the central cant.

With plain rectangular boarding, you can clamp and edge all the falling boards as well, and that ends up being very useful and productive.

If you have either a dedicated resaw machine, or something like the Woodmizer powered resaw attachment, or a Lucas mill with tilty-angle thing, or you do a bit of hilbilly USA style 'poor boy resawing' then it's not an issue.

 

This is true - it probably depends on whether you are producing to order or for stock on either product. If one or the other is for stock you can afford to convert the falling boards to plain sawn and the central cant to feather edge. Otherwise, a block bolted to the fence on a vertical bandsaw to produce the tilt is fairly straightforward, so long as you saw the falling boards to a thickness which allows for the central kerf (I did this to make use of a few wedge-shaped offcuts from something or other).

 

Most of mine were actually milled using the Ripsaw, which is a bandsaw that runs down the log like an Alaskan. I rigged a tilt jig, rather like using a tilted ladder, referencing off where I wanted the thick edge to be. This worked rather like continuous quartersawing, going round the log and pretty much cutting along the same grain as the older cleft style of boards. Boards were then seasoned and edged to a chalked stringline. It worked well but would not be a good solution for high volume production.

 

Alec