Different cuts for different butts!

[Pan]

Hello all

 

Nothing taken personally! Just keen to learn from others who know more than me.

 

Andrew - Lovely table! I've never thought of cutting a slab like that on that scale. I've made a few house signs before - similar process but never thought table top size I will give it a go.

 

Alec - The oysters you refer to I think were originally made from Laburnum. I once tried making these and dried them in a box sandwiched between layers of sand - everyone split! perhaps I hadn't cut them at a steep enough angle?

 

Rob - Point taken I will try to be more specific and keep things brief - Oops typing out a long reply again!

 

Jonathan - Keen to hear how you you got on 1/4 sawing today. When you halve your longer logs with the chainsaw mill to take out the pith do you do this by eye? Or do you measure down from each end to ensure you follow the line?

[Big J]

Hi Pan,

 

I measure down from the rail I use for the first cut. Usually more or less accurate to within a quarter of an inch.

 

Quarter sawing went very well today. In the end I could be bothered to properly quarter the log, so sawed the halves until a quarter was left, and then quarter sawed that. So effectively a little over half the boards from the log are quarter sawn with minimal effort. Here are a couple of photos of the best of the boards.

 

 

Really wonderful quality log though - best quartersawn figure I've seen in my Oak cutting.

 

Jonathan

[Pan]

Hi Jonathan

 

Wow! there are some lovely looking rays in those oak planks.

 

I need to ask your advice on something - I've got a small stack of different timbers to start myself off milling but I'm not bringing much back from my tree work these days as everyone wants to keeep the wood for logs. So I'm thinking of approaching a few local forestry contractors to see if I can buy some sawlogs off them. I've never purchased timber in the round before so I haven't got a clue about how much it's worth.

 

I know the price will be very variable based on quality but could you or anyone else give me a rough guide on the price of different species of sawlogs in the round (rideside). I want to be able to offer a fair price at the same time as not being ripped off!

 

I guess I'm mainly interested in Oak, Ash, Sycamore, Cherry and possibly Walnut. What are these worth per hoppus or cubic foot for an average quality sawlog?

[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

[Big J]

Hi Jonathan

 

Wow! there are some lovely looking rays in those oak planks.

 

I need to ask your advice on something - I've got a small stack of different timbers to start myself off milling but I'm not bringing much back from my tree work these days as everyone wants to keeep the wood for logs. So I'm thinking of approaching a few local forestry contractors to see if I can buy some sawlogs off them. I've never purchased timber in the round before so I haven't got a clue about how much it's worth.

 

I know the price will be very variable based on quality but could you or anyone else give me a rough guide on the price of different species of sawlogs in the round (rideside). I want to be able to offer a fair price at the same time as not being ripped off!

 

I guess I'm mainly interested in Oak, Ash, Sycamore, Cherry and possibly Walnut. What are these worth per hoppus or cubic foot for an average quality sawlog?

 

Price does vary according to quality and region, but I'll do my best:

 

* Oak - £3-8 a hoppus foot dependent on quality. Low end for fencing/rough beam, high end for pippy clean logs. Burr Oak is on a whole other level.

* Ash - £2-4 a hoppus foot.

* Sycamore - depends on whether it's rippled, figured or plain. Plain would be £2-5 a cubic foot, figured about twice that and good rippled twice that again.

* Cherry - easier to find further south than here. £3-5 a cubic foot in my mind.

* Walnut - can't really say as I've only ever bought one walnut log.

 

Jonathan

[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