Different cuts for different butts!

[ucoulddoit]

I wondered if anyone has any experience of quartering oak logs by cleaving/splitting using wedges rather than sawing? I've seen a picture showing an oak log being halved this way in a book about green oak framing and wondered if it might be a viable method for initial conversion to make smaller sections that would then be easier to move to a roadside or transport to a sawmill. I gather oak splits well along the grain but it probably wouldn't work with other species.

 

Andrew

[agg221]

I wondered if anyone has any experience of quartering oak logs by cleaving/splitting using wedges rather than sawing? I've seen a picture showing an oak log being halved this way in a book about green oak framing and wondered if it might be a viable method for initial conversion to make smaller sections that would then be easier to move to a roadside or transport to a sawmill. I gather oak splits well along the grain but it probably wouldn't work with other species.

 

Andrew

 

I don't have a lot of experience specifically of doing this with oak, but I have done a bit - more sweet chestnut. It works, but it does show up all the defects, particularly knots. Here the grain tends to dive or climb, which results in a bit of wastage. If there is any twist at all to the grain, forget it.

 

Obviously you need to create split lines radially, out from the true heart of the tree, which may not be the geometric centre. I find it works best to start by tapping a fairly sharp wedge in so it just bites so only about a quarter of an inch, right at the edge, then knock it out and move it in a bit and do the same again, so you end up with a continuous line across the tree, right across the heart. This tends to start the line of weakness, which then gives you a straighter split. I then drive two wedges into the end, both fairly near the outside edge. Once they start to bite I check that the split is following my line. If so, I keep going. If not, I put another wedge in at the point where it's starting to diverge, to correct the line.

 

Once it's running nicely across the end, I drive the wedges home. At this point, if not before, I make sure that the split is horizontal. I then drive wedges in pairs, one from each side, to try to keep the split running as close to equal halves as I can. I don't start a matching split from the other end, as they never line up, so I just keep the split running to the end.

 

Splitting the halves into quarters is the same, but you don't need the pairs of wedges - a single wedge will run to the centre, although I like to use a very long wedge to be sure it's running straight through - I have one made from a straightened length of transit leaf spring, which is about 15ins long, which seems to work quite well.

 

The biggest bit I've split is about 2ft6in across, on a site where chainsaws were not permitted. It went well enough to be prepared to do it again. Mostly I'm splitting down 1ft diameter chestnut for tile batten.

 

The other thing I would add is that it's worth getting a decent side axe for truing up surfaces if you're using this approach. It can really rip material off the surface fast when needed.

 

Alec

[ucoulddoit]

Thanks Alec, that's useful advice. I meant to say in my post that my Alaskan mill is the small log mill which is fine up to about 18 inches width of cut. So splitting a log this way would mean I could convert larger logs up to perhaps 3 feet diameter. I find that planks about 18 inches wide by 3 inches thick by 7 to 8 feet long are almost too heavy to move by myself, so I'm keen to stay within these sizes if possible but be able to mill from larger logs. I also use a Mini mill, which is useful to reduce the size of a large log.

 

Andrew

[Pan]

Thank you very much for that pricing information Jonathan. Its seems a bit of a minefield out there for the uninitiated a bit like buying a second hand car!

 

Its great to have an idea of a price in mind even if there is a bit of haggling involved!

 

Many thanks again