Figured Maple & Oak

[FarmingSawyer]

Nearing the end of my 3 week sawing stint for this one client. This week he has me drop a sugar maple in his yard and mill it up, and a couple of ash and oak trees along his fence line. The best part--NO HARDWARE!!

I wish I'd got some photos of the maple slabs I pulled off of the sugar maple butt....30" wide, clear and gorgeous. The owner couldn't believe his eyes.

Near the top though, it was rotten, but still I managed to pull out quite a bit of scale. Anyone know what these worm patterns are called? And what worm makes them? When it's not too deep and there's just a hint of it, it's really pretty......


 


 

And yes, I know there's oil on that wood......I asked the owner for a mix of diesel and oil.....he decided to clean out the rest of a jug of used diesel motor oil....I had to switch to water till I get away from this job and can purge the black crap out of my jug......

Then I cut a large red oak. I decided, despite some severe ant and worm damage, 1/2 of it was well worth quartersawing......I wasn't disappointed. I got a decent overrun and the owner was very pleased with the results.



 


 

I had to flatten the top a bit before I could saw it in 1/2:


 

Separating the 2 halves is really nice with the right equipment....too rich for my blood usually though:


 

Working by myself can be interesting.... a ratchet strap has come to the rescue more than once so I could get to the other side and dog the flitch.....



 

Before I rolled the 1/2, I took off a few nice 6/4 slabs....



 

A couple of the 1/4's made sense to taper saw, and the remaining cant still yielded some great wood for flooring....



 


 

I ended up with a lot of this nicely figured patterns.....Can someone refresh my failing memory as to what this figure is called? I'm sure I used to know....looks like trout back stippling to me.....


 

At the end of each day I stack and sticker the day's cut. There was a nice breeze today, so I stickered the oak as I went along. The owner's already whining about having to move these piles inside for the winter and get them properly stickered....I'm just doing it quick--ya, right...slow and steady wins the race--and dirty to get them off the ground and drying.


 
The owner, who is bagging all this wood for a future house loves the taper flitches and off-cuts. I showed him some fantastic short crotch pieces which could be used for shelf supports or table knees..... A few more days here playing with the mill and then it's back to glazing all the windows I built him for another week.....