1/4 sawing

[canoeboy]

hi all i"ve just purchased a hudson 30 ive had a go with previous owner all fine.Then i find this forum and 1/4 sawing comes up is it possible to do it with this sort of mill ? and what are the advantages any thing greatfuuly recieved

[TrollSpiel]

Canoeboy, look at the growth ring markings in the boards in these pics, and the effects of warping

 

1/4 sawing is the best way to minimise drying defects - and likely a few other things which others might enlighten you on.

[agg221]

You do it as Trollspiel's excellent illustration shows, and yes, stability is its biggest advantage, not just against warping as shown, but also with respect to seasoning shrinkage. Many timbers show much less shrinkage across the rings than around them (look at the ways the cracks typically form) so you get a board that can be used greener, and also they don't tend to expand and contract with changing humidity, so are less likely to crack later. There are others - some timbers can have very different and attractive markings when quartersawn (e.g. oak). You can do it with any mill that has the capacity to go straight through the middle of the log.

 

The downsides are, as you can see from the illustration, either pattern is fiddly and you don't get as many wide boards as with through-and-through sawing (also note that the two true central boards illustrate the typical problem of hitting pith and centre defects, so both of these would also be likely to end up being split in half).

 

I tend to compromise, taking thinner boards from the middle third of the tree, so they're wide and fairly stable, and thicker, more structural stuff from the outer thirds, or even flipped the other way, i.e. I might skim the outside to get a 6" width, then take a 4" slab off, then rip that down into 2off 4x3s with the 4" face as a 'quarter' as both of these will be pretty stable.

 

Alec

Edited March 5, 2012 by agg221

[canoeboy]

thanks for that guys guess i"d better start practicing

[Tigger the Trigger]

How would you be able todo 1/4 sawing with an M series LOGOSOL?

[TrollSpiel]

How would you be able todo 1/4 sawing with an M series LOGOSOL?

 

Slowly