How should th sawmill cut my birch logs
Hello all,
Last weekend I cut down some large birch trees that had their tops snapped off this winter.
I’m just getting into woodworking in the last few months and I’d like to do something with the wood from them in a couple years when they dry out.
I’d like to use them for a kitchen table top or perhaps for a future workbench.
As my pickup has an 8′ bed I’m thinking about cutting them into 8′ lengths this weekend and take them to a local saw mill where they said they would mill them up for me. I’m guessing they are approx 24″ around. I’m hoping 8′ will be long enough for whatever I dream up for it in the next couple years.
Here’s where I could use some advice:
Does anyone have any experience using birch for table tops? I really haven’t seen any projects use it that way before, but its what I have access to locally so I’d like to make the most of it.
Also, whats the best pattern to have them cut it?
I’d like to have them cut thick (say 3 1/4″) so that I can use them for a bench or even resaw them thinner in the future.
The guy at the sawmill said he could cut them anyway I want. His standard way of cutting is what I think I’ve heard described as PLAIN SAWING in the past. He described it from the perspective of looking at the end of the log would be to cut a couple 4″ wide boards from the top of the log and then some 8″ and then some 10″ and then some 8″ and 4″ or something like that, though I don’t know the exact numbers. He says thats the most efficient use of the wood and as I want thick lumber, warping should be less than if I were asking for 1″ wide boards.
I’ve also heard that QUARTER sawing minimizes the chance of warping in wide boards. He can do it, but he says it will waste a lot more wood and he would charge more (how much I don’t know) To be honest if I’m investing the money to have them sawn, as well as investing a couple years in waiting to use them, I’d rather focus on getting good quality, and more stable wood from the cutting than just quantity alone so I’m open to paying more now.
Any other patterns of cutting I should consider?
Any one have any similar experiences or suggestions with cutting and using birch?
Anything special I need to worry about getting it cut 3″+ thick?
I don’t need to decide until Monday so any advice is appreciated.
Thanks!
Replies
First of all you should seal the end grain of the logs immediately, as in yesterday, or you're going to lose much of the wood to checking.
If the logs are 24" in diameter a single eight footer will weigh around 1,500 pounds, which will be hard to load and possibly more weight than your truck is designed for.
3" thick lumber is always a challenge to dry properly without stress problems, for your first time out, you might be better off sawing to 4/4 and 6/4. Even if you plain saw the logs you will get around 20 percent of the wood quarter sawn.
John White
See if you can get a copy of "The Woodbook".
I got mine from Lee Valley. I shows what the grain looks like depending on how the wood is cut for various varieties of Birch.
I think I would start with a small section and make some cuts myself to see what it looked like.
Birch will make a nice table top. Some woods, like oak and sycamore, have large rays that create a beautiful fleck pattern when quartersawn. Birch does not have the large rays, and while you will still be able to see them on a quarter sawn board, the effect is not dramatic like in white oak. You could get several thicknesses cut. Definitely get some 1" from the outside of the log where there is the best grade. From the center of the log, where the grade is lower (some knots), you could ask for thicker stock for table legs.I would not recommend cutting thick so that you can re-saw later because thick lumber is very difficult to dry. Let the sawyer cut the wood from the logs to maximize the grade and he/she will know the best way to get the most quality wood for you.
sorry, but did you say the best wood is in the sap wood ,and not the heartwood?????
I don't know which species birch you have, but most of the wood sold commercially as "birch" comes from yellow birch. In that tree the sap wood is the common creamy colored wood we most often think of when we say birch. The heart wood is sold almost as if it were a different species--called red birch, with a color very much like cherry.
Thanks.
Edited 5/24/2008 7:01 pm ET by SteveSchoene
Steve ,I think you meant to say that the heart wood is simular to cherry? I tottally agree ,and personally like it very much. as for what type of birch I have ,yellow yes, paper birch and red birch from Mexico .thank Dan thewoodbug
Hi all,Original poster here. Thanks for the advice, I just thought I'd post a few pictures of my truck filled with wood and let you all know how I got on.I went out into the woods yesterday and cut my birch trees up into five 8' lengths and four 4' lengths and then put some anchorseal on them while I was still in the woods. I ended up bringing back more than I planned to get cut (as you can see in the picture) when I felled the trees last weekend. The wood higher up the tree was just as straight as the bottoms so I decided to take as much as I could.I goofed when I initially wrote they were approx 24" in diameter, I really meant circumference, so sorry about that. I got two eight footers at 13" in diameter and the rest 10"+. I learned that my truck bed is exactly 8 feet long with the gate up and that manually getting a log 8' in length and 43" in circumference into the back of a truck is a two man job that requires no small amount of grunt work.
This morning I drove them over to the sawmill and in the end decided to get the 8 footers plain sawn to 2" and the 4 footers into whatever post he could make 3x3's or such for some chunky legs for a future workbench or other project.I debated whether or not to get them quartersawn and was leaning in that direction after reading the advice here about how difficult it will be to dry these, and from the advice I was getting it sounded like quartersawn would be more stable, but in the end, my saw guy said that if I'm going to have problems I'll have them no matter what and as someone pointed out here that birch doesn't have the reflective patterns as some other hardwoods do. Perhaps I'll try it with my next batch, but this one I went with the easier and less expensive option.Thanks again for all the advice, now I'm off to read a bit about the drying process. I have a woodshed that has a concrete floor and is enclosed on all but one end that I'm hoping to use, but I'll have to learn more first, especially as these things will probably take years to dry. Can anyone recommend a good book about seasoning wood?I enjoyed reading your comments, so thanks for posting everybody.I'll post more pictures when I go pick them up from the mill next week.
There are no big secrets to drying wood like you have. You need a level surface, like your concrete floor, and some dry spacers (stickers) for the wood. You may want to start with some 4x4s or stack 2x4s to get to wood off the floor. Place these every 16" or so under the wood and then you want spacers between each layer (1 x1 or 1x2 for spacers). The spacers (or stickers) should be lined up so they transfer the load. Put the thinner wood on the bottom and the thicker on top. I don't have a photo of properly stickers drying pile of wood or I would post it. Do NOT wait to get this wood started drying. Frenchy, who posts on this site, uses two racket straps around the pile to keep the top layers from warping (you need to keep tighting the straps as the wood dries). Until the wood is under 20% moisture you want some airflow over and through the wood (in your shed, leave the doors and windows open). Once under 20% mold, fungus, and bugs are less of an issue.
Good luck, in a couple of years you should have some great wood for woodworking projects.
PhesantHunter and Kidderville,Thank you for your drying advice. I'm looking forward to getting started drying it. When you say to use ratchetstraps, do you mean that I should wrap the straps around the whole pile in parallel and inline with the stickers so that the pile is essentially squeezed down onto the stickers? Do I leave them on for the full couple of years? I just wanted to make certain.Not that I think I will with these but in the future, do I just call around to lumber yards to find someone who has a kiln?Actually, while I am at it, I've always wondered how people use those moisture meters on wood thats a couple inches thick? I'm guessing the probes only measure just partway into the wood and not in the middle. Does an accurate reading require cutting a board in the middle to measure?Thanks again for the advice and Kidderville, the pictures look awesome - you must go through a lot of wood!
The straps are intended to hold the lumber flat as it dries. An alternative is to put a piece of plywood on top and then stack up cinder blocks to weigh the boards down.
Sawmills are often kiln operators, too. Lumberyards per se don't usually have kilns.
Moisture meters do only penetrate part way into a board, so anything more than about an inch thick you have to either extrapolate (based on experience, mostly), or take a sample from a test board. Kiln operators typically dry some sacrificial sample boards along with the rest of the lumber, although they also run their kilns according to predetermined time/temperature/humidity schedules, which takes out much of the guesswork.
-Steve
Wood,
I can only quote my experience with boards that have a propsneity to twist and bow. They typically have been boards that are the result of logs cut from trees with stress in them. When they are sawn they usually twist and squirm all over the place and I haven't had much luck straightening them out, similar to recalcitrant teenagers. :-)
I have never used ratcheting straps or any other hold down contraptions but should think they are best used in line with stickers and depending on the length would wrap the entire stack. This could lead to in some cases really long straps, etc. I question their effectiveness, i.e. if a board wants to wander there is little you can do to make it do otherwise. Once dried they could always be used in curvacious pieces.
When we encounter them we usually set them aside and place them on top of the pile. Don't want them leading others astray so to speak. If boards are stacked and stickered properly other than those upstarts, all should dry relatively flat and straight.
One of the best sources that I've read is the Encyclopedia of Furniture Making by Ernest Joyce that talks about the different methods of processing wood from tree to board. Great book that covers many aspects of our craft.
My consumption of wood is not nearly much as it may seem but my appetite is quite another matter. I be getting a stash put aside for my impending retirement and the stack in the pic is 540 bf of a mix of birch, maple and cherry.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Thanks, I've just requested Encyclopedia of Furniture Making from my local library, thank you for the advice and recommendations.
If you find it valuable you can purchase it through the library, or at least here in NH we can. I signed one out and liked it so much I bought it - brandy new for $18 and normally it was $25.
I think libraries in general get a good deal and pass the savings on to folks. I can also get DVDs, etc from them at good savings too.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Wood,
An option to consider is to air dry the wood as Pheseanthunter suggests for 3-5 weeks then have it kiln dried and I would further suggest a kiln that uses the dehumidification process. This process uses dehumidifiers to remove/extract the moisture from the wood as well as heat.
I have a mix of maple, birch (white & yellow) and cherry that is currently air drying for 3-5 weeks and then will be kiln dried with the above method. I'll post some pics when I get it from the sawyer for ya.
View Image
View Image
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
That's some mighty fine yard ornaments you have there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
I wish!
They're actually stacks at the sawyers place of business. Mostly pine/fir boards and framing wood. I get 2" x 4" x 8' studs KD for $2/ea, and they're straight too!
This guy is tops; he'll slice up your logs any way you want 'em and very reasonable too. He'll take the slabs off and stop and turn the cant till you tell him to go ahead so you can pick the grain patter you like.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
"They're actually stacks at the sawyers place of business."
Wait a minute. There's bare ground and grass in those photos. I thought up in your neck of the woods, what with the permafrost and all, the ground was always covered with snow.
-Steve
Steve,
That grass you saw is actually astro turf that we forgot to mow. :-)
Just so you won't think we're in the tropics I'll take a pic of the frost on me windshield tomorrow morning. This morning our lawn was white with frost. The peonies were hanging their heads....
We're expecting a heat wave on Friday - 65+°!
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Bob! What're you doin' with all that lumber! You know, New Hampshire isn't that far away, and I have a truck... wonder what a couple hunert board feet would look like in the bed of my pickup... course, I'd have to be awfully quiet (I hear you have a shotgun).
Edited 5/27/2008 5:40 pm ET by pzaxtl
Dear Mr. Pretzel,
I hear you have a shotgun
Not to worry as I'm deef in one ear and caint hear out 'tother. Me glasses are so far out of date ah caint see all that well either. Drove home from work yesterday on the wrong side of the road and backed into my driveway and parked in the neighbors garage crosst the street!
It's the Magoo in me I tell ya,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
It depends on the species, but in maple and birch, the creamy white sapwood is preferred over the dark heartwood in the wholesale market. In other species, like walnut and cherry, it is the dark heartwood that is preferred.
It's interesting about the heartwood vs sapwood preferences within a species. Just had some yellow and white (paper) birch sawn. The yellow birch was sawn for best grain.
The white birch I wasn't sure about so we sliced and looked before making any decisions. After several 5/4 boards which were all sapwood we began seeing cathedral patterns of the heartwood appear and get lerger as we proceeded to the center of the log so we switched to 3/4" boards.
After getting thru the center these same/similar cathedral patterns of heartwood reappeared and graduated from large to small as we neared the outer edge of the other side of the log. I carefully stacked/stickered all the boards so they are in sequence.
The sapwood was the typical creamy whitish color whilst the heartwood had a distinct reddish color to it. Would this heartwood be referred to as red birch? All in all I should think these boards, coming from an ~10' log will make for some very interesting boardmatching, especially in a tall piece.
I had the sawyer saw these as 3/4 boards as I anticipate using them as flat panels in cabinet doors. I ended up with 11 - 3/4" boards with the heartwood pattern in them.
The wife wants new kitchen cabinets..........
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
DHAM ,the heart wood is still much harder and more stable even if it is plain sawen. The wholesale market generally throw away figured maple and birtch or cut it paper thin for use in making paint grade plywoods, I have always hated the fact that wholesalers always disgard all wood which is not bleach white and dead straigt to satisfy those who want wood that does not look like wood at all. This why for the last 20 years or so I have always tried to buy my own logs. Dan thewoodbug
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