Quartersawing White Oak

[Danny Hamsley]

I will be quartersawing some white oak. Will probably use two methods as the logs are just big enough to quartersaw. I hope to try the octagon method where the log is prepared with 8 facets to aid in turning the log and clamping it so as to get the growth rings perpendicular to the board face. This might work on the largest of the logs. The other method is called the modified quartersawing method which yields less perfectly quartersawn boards, but is much easier and faster, and works better on smaller logs.

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[Dennis Ford]

The only quarter sawing I have done was fairly easy but not perfect (a LOT of effort before getting to the mill). The logs were quite large ( >40" dia) and had to be quartered (chainsaw) before I could load and transport them. I put the quarters on the mill and made a cut about halfway up and then moved the top section off the mill. Cut the bottom (wide) section into boards and then put the top section back on and cut it. The attached sketch shows the results (in theory anyway); the square piece was about 3" x 3", might make table legs someday.

[John TenEyck]

I just got three WO logs this AM. Free to a good home - mine. The guy even delivered them.

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The largest is 24" and the two others about 21". They are pretty small for quarter sawing but I'm still going to try with at least the larger one to see how much I can get out of it. I still need to come up with a plan on how best to cut them while minimizing how many times I have to pull sections off and back onto the mill. Any ideas appreciated.

John

[Danny Hamsley]

I sawed several of the logs today. The first one was the largest, 20" on the small end. I made the log into an octagon to create 8 different
clamping surfaces to facilitate being able to orient the growth rings 90 degrees to the board face.


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Here is a view showing the annual rings and the facets of the octagon.

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The downside to this method is the waste. There are a number of triangular cuts that are of limited practical use.

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In the second method, you saw out the center of the log, 1" above and 1' below the pith. This center section can be left as a 2" slab, or you can cut two 1" boards. This leaves a half log on the top and the bottom. These two sections are flipped 90 degrees and sawn through. Here is the center 2" section. I left it as a 2" slab.

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Here are the top and bottom halves rotated 90 degrees and being sawn through.

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Some results:

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I call this one the Starry Night board, after the famous painting by Vincent Van Gogh.

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[John TenEyck]

That's interesting Danny, but I'm confused by the 5th photo. If you are sawing the two halves after taking out the center 2" board, shouldn't those halves be full crescent shapes? Clearly I'm not getting something.

John

[Danny Hamsley]

John, yes, you are correct, both halves are full crescents at the beginning. I had already taken a couple of boards before the photo was taken, so that is why the cants look like that.

[John TenEyck]

Thanks Danny. So you end up with a mix of quarter and rift sawn when you saw those halves, correct? I like rift sawn, too, so that's not a bad way to go.

John

[Danny Hamsley]

Yes, about 50% quartersawn, about 45% riftsawn, and about 5% flatsawn.

[Cody Colston]

So, how do you like having hydraulics for log turning vs using a cant hook and old muscles?

[Danny Hamsley]

I think that I will be able to get used to it .

[Ron Barnes]

Thanks for posting the pics