Milling burr oak

[ucoulddoit]

With hindsight, I probably need to keep an open mind about how it is milled and if the burr is disappearing as it is cut from the most burry side, I can decide on the best way forward. The following two pictures were taken by Tim who I bought the butt from. The first one shows the side with the most burr with a metre length ruler for scale. The second picture is one end where the burr appears to extend virtually to the heart. The left side is the most burry and appears to be clear of shakes or other defects. Not sure about the total quantity of timber. It was estimated to weigh a ton, but the loader who lifted into my trailer measured it as 1.4 tons. Maximum width over the burr is about 40 inches.

 

Andrew

[ucoulddoit]

I finally had this burr oak butt milled yesterday and the planks are stunning. So I thought I’d upload a few pictures as requested/promised and a few notes about how the milling went.

 

It wasn’t possible to cut through and through planks across the most burry side which was 40 inches wide, as had been my intention. This was because the relatively short length (70 inches) and uneven shape made it very difficult to set it up and support it properly on the carriage of the large Stenner vertical bandsaw mill. After about 45 minutes, the 3 guys who were struggling to get it into position concluded that we’d have to change the cutting plan. I suppose that is where a chainsaw mill can be used to cut almost any shape of log? So, I suppose the disadvantage of extra wastage of sawdust with a chainsaw mill could, in some situations, be offset by being able to get planks from a smallish, odd shaped butt and get a waney edge on both sides? Perhaps it might have been possible with a horizontal bandsaw mill?

 

Anyway, a few planks were cut off the first side, then it was rotated and a few more cut, then it was rotated for a third time and several more were cut. The aim was to cut planks as wide as possible with one waney edge and in pairs of the same thickness. The burr extended almost to the heart and some planks have over 20 inches width of solid burr over most of their area. There was a small shake on one side close to the heart, but this only appears in two planks. We got 16 planks ranging from 20 to 30 inches wide in thicknesses of 1 ½ inches, 2 inches and one 4 inch slab through the centre. In all, about 27 cu ft of milled planks, 2 cu ft of sawdust, and also about ¼ ton of large burrs, some 2 feet in diameter which were cut off the outside so that the butt would sit properly on the carriage. I’ll probably mill these later using my chainsaw mill or cut veneers from them on my bandsaw.

 

The second picture below shows a typical pair of book matched planks, about 4 feet max width by almost 6 feet long. Third picture is perhaps the best pair of planks, although there is a bit of rot starting at one end. There are six pairs, plus a few individual planks. I presume that it is brown oak?

 

Last picture are the planks stacked on a timber frame with ½ inch thick sticks at about 10 inches spacing, all as per advice gleaned from other posts, mainly from Jonathan. So thanks for all that helpful advice. The stack is under cover on the north side of our house so I’m hoping it will dry slow enough to avoid surface checking and other defects. The straps are more for safety, i.e. to stop the stack toppling over but they may help to reduce the drying distortion. I’ve piled some large timbers on top to add some weight.

 

As for the cost........! I was determined to have this butt milled on a large Stenner mill, to minimise the amount of sawdust and to get absolutely flat planks. But doing so has meant there has been about 700 miles of travel involved, so the transport costs have almost doubled the cost of buying and milling the butt. But it is for my own use, it’s been a lot of ‘fun’ getting it done, and has cost a lot less than buying dry planks of similar quality.

 

Apologies if I’ve sounded a bit enthusiastic about this. But after almost 30 years of milling timber on and off as a hobby, it’s great to have such a fantastic pile of timber to look forward to using in a few years time.

 

Andrew

[Copford sawmill sussex]

There going to be worth a lot of money I a few years to the right buyer, drying will be a very long process but well worth doing slowly and safely! English oak planks and burr seems to be very daughter after at the moment what with so much European timber coming in to the market. Lovely pics

[agg221]

Some brilliant grain in that. Yes - chainsaw mills do give you the advantage of cutting where you want, but how many boards would you have lost in the process?

 

I am about to start cutting up my 7' wide lump of oak again soon, which has the similarity to yours of being for myself, something special which is going to to be very tricky to dry correctly but get it right and it could make something unique. After things like this, mileage, milling costs etc are soon forgotten and you are left with the lasting result.

 

Alec

[agrimog]

why o why does every one assume that you loose more boards with a chainsaw mill than with a bandsaw, whats the kerf with the bandsaw, then how much have you got to plane off to get rid of the striations left by the blade deflecting at every little knot and hard bit, against the 1/4" kerf of a properly sharpened and set up picco chain which will need very little removing by the planner, perhaps 1 pass per side, plus the fact you can take the chainsaw mill anywhere, yes the BS mill for production work and speed, but for specimen timbers I still look to my CS mill

[Big J]

why o why does every one assume that you loose more boards with a chainsaw mill than with a bandsaw, whats the kerf with the bandsaw, then how much have you got to plane off to get rid of the striations left by the blade deflecting at every little knot and hard bit, against the 1/4" kerf of a properly sharpened and set up picco chain which will need very little removing by the planner, perhaps 1 pass per side, plus the fact you can take the chainsaw mill anywhere, yes the BS mill for production work and speed, but for specimen timbers I still look to my CS mill

 

10mm kerf on my 088 with a 0.404 pitch chain (most common setup for chainsaw millers) versus 2mm with the band mill. My band mill doesn't deflect either, so not wastage in that respect. On a 40 inch butt cut to two inches, you get at least an extra two boards band saw milling. Big Stenner mills like that certainly don't deflect at all.

 

Lovely boards Andrew - did you take the butt to Helmdon? Looks familiar to me!

[nick1854]

Andrew forget the cost and the logistics those boards look fantastic. That stack is sitting there waiting patiently, and you can look at it every day and wonder what you are going to make......That timber has a story

 

You mention brown oak. From the photo it doesn't look like it to me. Brown oak is caused by beefsteak fungus growing on the tree. The staining colours the wood right through, whilst it still retains its structure. Most I have seen is a rich brown colour.

 

I bet that drying timber smells fantastic too.

 

Just noticed that there is an owl in the first pair of book-matched boards.

Edited November 11, 2013 by nick1854

[teepeeat]

ha ha spotted the owl too Nick

Fantastic bit of timber Andrew.

As has been said, the costs incurred will soon be forgotten, if not already considering the outcome.

A few years of letting it season quietly will be well spent planning exactly what and how you are going to use the timber.

Once you do get to that stage, please update us with the results. No pressure to rush, just let it evolve in its own time - it will be worth waiting for.

[Big Beech]

those planks look gorgeous! a quick question, will that sapwood not rot / fall off when dry, or will it stay attached for ever more??

[ucoulddoit]

Thanks for all the comments.

 

Re the sapwood, I'm hoping it will darken a bit but there should still be a contrast to the heartwood once it is seasoned and it should be OK for indoor furniture.

 

The butt was milled at G&S Specialist timber just outside Penrith. Their Stenner mill can take logs up to 5 feet diameter and up to 28 feet long. But I suspect there will be a weight limit for lifting a log onto it so it probably isn't possible to go to the maximum sizes in both dimensions. I'd delivered it to them in April but their mill was then unexpectedly out of action which was a bit frustrating. But realistically, it is much better to have waited until now so that the first 6 months or so of air drying will be over the winter.

 

Re the kerf width, the Stenner blade is 3mm thick, so about a third of a normal spec chainsawmill. On this butt a chainsaw mill would have created another 4 cu ft of sawdust. The butt was easily accessible and Timmy who I bought it from was able to organise getting it lifted into a trailer. So I paid what I regarded as a top price. Not quite sure of the total volume of the log before milling because the weight measured by the loader doesn't tally with my measurements of the planks. But I paid somewhere between £8 to £11 per cu ft. So at that price, I was keen to maximise the yield from the log which I suspected would be a one off for me. If the butt had been inaccessible and could only have been milled by a chainsaw mill, perhaps the value would have been not much more than a firewood price and so less important to maximise the amount of timber milled? I'm a real fan of chainsaw mills and have two Alaskan mills, but this was a situation where I felt it was worth using a static mill.

 

Andrew