Hi.
I’m about to have several 25” diameter, 12′ long pine logs milled. The sawmill guy told me he often ”slice” the entire log from top to bottom without ever turning it to saw boards from all four faces of the log. He says he leaves the bark, so I can ”reconstitute” the log (plus stickers) for drying (wich would yield around 20 boards, from 2-3” to 25” and to 2-3” again, just to make the picture clear). He pretends the lumber is less prone to bowing that way.
I’ve always believed that the log must be relieved of internal stresses by slicing it on all four faces, alternately.
Any thoughts?
Fred
Replies
Fred,
Standard (whatever that is) procedure around here is usually to find the best "face" (orient bowed side up, for instance), from that flat face, square the log into a "cant", then rotate to yield the best face for grade. Saw that face until knots, etc are exposed such that another side will yield a better grade board, then flip to that side. Repeat till all used up. You may choose to saw for width, if knots, etc are far enough apart to yield usable,shorter but wider boards.
Unless you are planning to use the boards with free form edges, leaving the bark on will just make it more difficult to rip the boards into useful widths in the shop. My .02 worth.
My limited experience suggests that bowing is more often a result of how carefully the lumber is stacked and dried. If the log has strresses in it, it will often be obvious as the boards come off the mill. I've seen boards curl away from the blade as they were being sawn. In this case, rotating to another face may help
Regards,
Ray
Preface this by saying I've owned a sawmill for a couple years and have sawed 20,000 board feet of pine and hardwood on it on weekends.
I rarely saw pine for grade unless I know there's clear stuff in the log. Normally it's flitch sawn (as you described - cut through from top to bottom) or box the heart for a timber and get flatsawn off the sides, which is a similar process to gradesawing. Pine doesn't have a tendency to warp or bow very much off the blade, and if it's stacked and stickered properly, it should be fine.
Conversely, I have sawed ash and black birch for grade, and have had boards come off the mill looking like pre-bent rocking chair rockers. I was slicing up some birch last week, and on an eight-foot log, the end of the board was rising three inches (!) off the cant by the end of the cut. Not much I can do with it other than hope I can flatten some of it out, and cut it into short pieces. Small logs tend to yield lumber that warps.
Your sawyer seems to be on the right track, but it will be more work for you in the end because you will need to edge the boards somehow. Usually I only see a log cut and left together if it's really prime wood that will be used for matching pieces, in order to minimize color and grain variations. Pine won't matter.
Pine doesn't have a tendency to warp or bow very much off the blade..
Unless you rip a pine board after 'cured' a bit!
Oh yeah. I had that happen last week, tried to rip a 4x10, that had been sitting for a year, into some 2x4's. First one off turned into a corkscrew - warp, twist, bow and cup, all in one. And badly, too. Went to the firewood pile.
It looks to me like the end use would determine how it is sawn. Unless you intend to handcut "custom boards" from it, let the miller do the work and cut dimensioned lumber.
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