How to slice a big White Oak?

[Rob Will]

A friend of mine has some old growth White Oak logs. Some are 30" at the small end. I'm thinking about buying some for future use - mostly in making various furniture items. A kitchen table would be near the top of the list. There are about a dozen logs. I'll probably take the best 5 or so.
I'll have a big pile of wood that will last for many years.

So, here's the question: If you were a beginning woodworker with some sreious big WW machinery (24" planer, 24" jointer etc.) and you get a kick out of machining W I D E boards, how would you cut these White Oaks?

How much should be quarter sawn?
How much should be flat sawn?
What part of the tree should things like table leg stock come from?
For a table top, would you prefer quarter sawn or flat sawn?

There may be some Red Oak available as well.

Are nice logs worth $1 / bf?

Thanks,
Rob

[Kyle Kraft]

I'd QS the whole thing. Talk him down to $0.85 /bf.

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Kyle...QS WO is the only oak I actually like and it's wonderful milled that way. If you have big logs that are clear, it's the only way to go, IMHO.

[Rob Will]

That leaves one more question.........
What is the best way to cut table leg stock?
Should I cut out a few 4" x 4" chunks?
Where in the log should this come from?
Drying those thick pieces without cracking / twisting is a problem.

Rob

[Dennis Peacock]

QS as much of it as you can.
Seal the end of all your boards, including the 4x4 stuff with Anchorseal to reduce the cracking/checking of the ends. White Oak fresh off the mill here goes for 80¢ BDFT.

Congrats on your nice "find".

[Marci Anderson]

I've cut up quite a few White Oak and it's kinda cantakerous to dry. If flat sawn, it will move around a bit, especially through the heart. Cut it thicker than you want and you'll have some wiggle room. QS won't move nearly as much, so you won't waste as much wood in milling it flat and square. Be sure and sticker it well and puts lots of weight on top to try and keep it from warping as much. From lots of experience, once freshly sawn it looks so pretty, straight, and flat....but then when it dries it seems to move around so much. Be mentally prepared to do a bit of milling work to get it back to straight and square.

White Oak is really really heavy, so even though it's kinda fun to cut up big boards to have lots of options with later on, they are HEAVY to move around. If they are 2" thick and wider than a foot, it would be quite a bit easier to have someone else around to help heft them around.

As far as cutting it 4" thick, it might be touch to dry (and handle cuz it's so heavy!). Check out woodweb for questions on drying. I'm not so sure that White Oak would dry well enough all the way through without taking forever to do it. Even kiln drying something that thick may not work well. You might have to cut it smaller and laminate together to get that thickness.

[Kyle Kraft]

I would add to Dennis' reply about the Anchorseal. Apply it to the log ASAP after the log is felled and bucked. This will provide immediate protection for the log and be less work than trying to seal the ends of hundreds of individual boards.

[Homer Faucett]

I have some 4x8 QSWO beams that I purchased seven years ago. They were supposedly air dried for 3 years before I purchased (and I have no reason to doubt it). Many did have quite a bit of twist to them over their 8-10' length, but the sawyer had cut them oversize, and sawed them off square for me again before I set sail with them. Since then, none of them have added any appreciable twist.

I would personally quarter saw all of it as has been the concensus here. Flat sawn will give you greater yield, and will give you the widest boards if you are wanting a few tabletops that are one piece of wood, but that will be a lot of hand work. I love QSWO, mostly because I got a lot of it as my first rough lumber, and it is TOUGH stuff. I think I paid $.75 bf for the flat sawn boards, and $2.00 per linear foot for the beams. The axles on the pickup were close to bottomed out.

[Pete Brown]

I'd quarter saw as much as I can, and maybe rift saw some for leg stock.

I really don't like the busy look of oak unless it is quarter sawn. A table top made up from many matched QS boards, to me, looks a ton nicer than a single flat sawn board.

Pete

[Greg Cole]

General rule of thumb is to air dry one year per inch of thickness then either kiln dry or put through a dehumidification chamber.
So if you fell a log in 2007 and cut 4" thick stock you can think about using it in 2011....... We woodworkers are a patient lot. But 4 years is beyond my realm of patience.
I'll cast my .02 for the quartering of all logs as well.

[Tom Andersen]

I agree with the others: Quarter saw the logs!

[Rob Will]

Is ELM good for anything in furniture making?

Thanks,
Rob

[Jim Becker]

Elm can be beautiful stuff, Rob. Do a search...I think this has come up before here as SMC.