I have some hickory logs to saw up on my bandsaw mill and was thinking about maybe 1/4 sawing them.Has anybody seen much 1/4 sawn hickory?I know it would stay more stable but wondered if the grain would do justice to the 1/4 sawing.
Any other small millers out there.Mine just a small Norwood but does great on stuff less than 22″ dia.
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TT, I did about 600 ft of hickory last spring with a rented woodmizer - basically just slabbed boards off the log so ended up with a certain amount exhibiting 1/4 grain with most flat sawn - I like the straight grain exhibited by the quartersawn boards but certainly they have less figure than the flat sawn material - I considered quartersawing but because of waste involved, I wouldn't have had enough material for the project (floor and window wall trim) so I'll use the flatsawn for floor and the q-sawn for the trim - handsome and strong, altho I'll bet it won't bend to fit any idiosyncrasies - so... whaddu gonna do with it?- do you like 'flame' figure or straight lines of quarter grain? - if you're gonna panel a room, I'd think q-sawn frames with flatsawn panels - for flooring, if you like narrow boards, I'd think q-sawing would be great - if planks, you don't have much choice but flatsawing - for cabinetry, I'd suggest q-sawn frames and flatsawn panels - it's rather coarse, hard, and splintery for fine work -
Isn't hickory similar to ash? I love Q-sawn ash for it's very straight and even grain.
Dave
I'd agree the presentation of the grain is similar between hickory and ash - color of ash is a lot lighter/whiter and certainly hickory is signifigantly harder/heavier than ash - - while I had the sawmill on site, I cut rafters for a water powered mill restoration - the original rafters (many missing after the last belated roofing job) were 2X6 ash, beautiful straight grained, most q-sawn or near, (had to come from big trees) - a treat to observe parallel lines of the grain running evenly along the 14-6 length (28' from ridge to eve)- straight, strong, and relatively light and still nailable - - over in 'breaktime', jim blogett would say 'I bow my head' - they got some very nice material for the project, but not as good as the original - ya - clean q-sawn ash/hickory/oak is very pretty stuff - -
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