| Blog series by HalDougherty | updated 09-03-2011 04:42 PM | 3 parts | 27835 reads | 19 comments total |
Part 1: Quartersawn red oak - splitting a big log
It’s Been a while since I’ve split logs. When I was growing up, I lived in a farmhouse that was heated by a furnace and a fireplace. I cut, split, and stacked a lot of wood. I got 3 big red oak logs and one big sycamore log this week. All 4 are big enough to quartersaw and one is so big, that it has to be split to make it small enough to fit on my sawmill. It got easier after I made some big hard maple wedges. My neighbor across the road lives in a log home that was built in t...
Part 2: Quartersawn red oak - The Lumber
Here’s a small part of the lumber I cut from a 48” X 4’ red oak log. I had to split it before it would fit on my sawmill. The red oak is stacked on a few yellow poplar boards I cut the same day. This is 1/2 the short 4 ft log. Here’s a closer look at the boards on the top of the stack. There were 5 boards cut from the top and bottom of the log that were riff sawn and the rest were quartersawn with beautiful flecks in the wood. I ended up with 10 riff sawn boar...
Part 3: Quartersawing a BIG red oak log
Here’s a photo and a description of how I sawed a huge red oak log to get the most quartersawn lumber from it with the least waste. My saw has a 34” capacity at the widest point, but the bolts holding the adjustable guide for the blade reduce that some and I had to use my chainsaw a couple of times to get enough clearance for the widest part of the log. The throat opens to make a 29.5” cut at the widest point. (If you take off part of the lube system) The red lines show t...
