Old hickory and oak

[peterduncan]

We have been asked to resaw some hickory and oak boards that were originally sawn in 2001. What problems can we expect? They are now 6 x 6" and 3 x 5". We have a Timberking B20

[Bibbyman]

Expect poor results.   

The cants are dry and no matter how well they were stored, there will be some twist, bow, shrinkage, cracking, etc.  You'll likely need to make an adjustment cut just to get the cant flat again.  I'd guess you'd lose about 1/4 the footage just getting the cants flat and boards made from them. 

Sawing speed will be slow due to the hardness.  Use your best blades for dry wood – something with 4 to 9 degrees tooth hook.

Good luck and please report back your results.

[WH_Conley]

Same as Bibby said, except, walk the county road and pick up beer cans, probably pay better.

If yer gonna do it anyway, get a dust mask, that stuff will make normal bandsaw dust look huge.

[solidwoods]

Make sure you arent throwing away allot of the material because it is cracked/checked just so you can get to a cut that you can get paid for.
The tally should be from the cant size not the results.
jim

[Chuck White]

I don't know about the oak, but the hickory is really hard.

Last summer I sawed out three 8' hickory logs that I had stored in the back of my garage since the Ice Storm of 98.
They were "end checked", but not too bad, I just had to pay attention to their position on the mill as I sawed them.
Well, I didn't know what was going on at first, but I was feeding the blade through at about 1/2 or maybe a little less speed than normal and the sawdust didn't really look like "normal" sawdust.  It was like little chunks.
Just do it sometime when you are not in a hurry.  It will most likely require special handling.

The hickory turned out to be some nice looking lumber.
Good luck