through and through or saw for grade? (yo, Scott)

[TomFromStLouis]

When is sawing through and through preferred to sawing for grade? If you have a log with one or two knots, I have always chosen to saw for grade and get as many FAS boards as possible. But I see where Scott B. espouses through and through and has pictures of nice stacks of cut logs that woodworkers drool over on his website.

I had a burly elm that I sawed through and through and it came out fine. Now I have a burly cherry (burl eye clusters all over the surface of the log but not likely very deep, just like the elm was) and will probably go through and through with it, but tell me what criteria y'all use that saw for furniture makers. My lumber market is urban hobbiests mostly.

[iain]

Dont know what to say for best Tom, i use a lot of timber, 99.9% solid hard wood, and saw 98% of it through and through as i LOVE matched boards.
If you got a nice log that looks promising, and you can use/sell the timber, then go through it, if not then grade cut it. Thing is, when im out cutting for others, and unless they want something specific, they just say "get the best you can"
then you got to find out what they gonna do with it how its going to be used and when etc etc

 does this help any?


 iain

[ARKANSAWYER]

Tom,
  When you saw top to bottom like that you get some good boards and some poor boards and some rift and qsawn all from the same log.  To really get the best grade you need to turn as a face grade drops.  Now on logs that you want natural edges I put the knots out and saw top to bottom.  On logs of low grade I take off 4 slabs and saw top to bottom.
  With a cherry with the burls I would slab through and through at about 8/4 and leave the edges.  It is a crap shoot some times and there is no better way.
  But on a high grade log it is better to cut and turn to a better face and keep the boards as wide as possible.  Also put your knots in the corner so they can be trimmed out.
ARKANSAWYER

[MemphisLogger]

Tom, Arky beat me to it--I was at work still, don't know what Arky's doin' home 'putin  :

Anyhoo, I only saw through and through on Cherry and Walnut. 'Specially if I've got a good crotch. The game for me here is my own love of natural eges and a desire to make the same available to other woodworkers locally.

The trick to getting good yield it puttin' the log on the mill with the best 2 opposing faces up and down. If there's a lot of taper, toe the face up parallel to the blade when you saw it. If it doesn't taper a whole lot, I'll center the pith on both ends.

I usually saw off the first face until I lose grade and then flip it 180 and do the same on the other side.

Then you have a choice, tip it up 90 and saw some grade boards off the side if they're there or keep sawing through the middle. If I do keep sawing it through the middle, I usually swith to 10 or 12/4 since I stand a better chance a getting a piece of table leg/turning stuff in an amongst the knots.

The decision as to how thick is determined by which thickness will put the pith closer to the center of the middle piece--this usually gets cut out as a skid/AD pile crossmember.  

Arky's right about it bein' a crapshoot, as is large diameter QS--just never know what lies a few inches below that pristine bark  :-/