Reverse Roll Quarter Sawing

[Brad_bb]

Nice QS Brad. I see that get a few knots in your wood also.

Those small knots are near the center of the tree, self pruned from the young tree.  Still way nice boards, Many don't have any knots, but I don't mind them.  Unfortunately it's not my wood I'm sawing, I traded a guy this milling for chipping all my slabs for mulch.  One thing I learned is that a commercial vermeer chipper has no problem with chipping slabs as long as they aren't too big.  For the one being used, It's best to keep the thickness to 2 inch and under.  It can chip 3 and even 4 inches thick, but it has a hard time sometimes and got jammed once with a thick piece.  It's easy to keep the slabs to that thickness by taking an extra cut.  Width is also a consideration.  I had a few too wide so I split them with my maul and they then fed in fine.

[Bigly]

I wondered as I was reading through this thread whether sharpie bleeds through anchorseal like it does through pretty much any paint I know of (other than shellac)?  If it does, you could potentially mark your rays, then apply the anchorseal and still see your marks.  Might be handy if you knew you were going to RRQS but had to put the log aside for awhile.

[Brad_bb]

I used a red paint pen on top of the Anchorseal, Not a clear solid line, but worked good enough.  That log had set for 2 months with the guy before I got it to mill.  I was too lazy to recut the end.  I could see the ray lines especially due to the minor checking.  I'll have to try marking the lines on a fresh face and then anchor sealing to see how well you can see them.

[PA_Walnut]

This is a project a customer of mine did with some red oak that @PA_Walnut sawed for me.

Woohoo! Looks great. I have some BIG white oaks needing sawed. Was deciding between live-edge slabs and RRQS them...this has inspired to qs them!;D

[YellowHammer]

I much prefer to just not do anything to the log ends, and follow the natural checking of an unsealed log.  Generally, if I have to buck logs to length, I'll make the cuts a few days before sawing them to give time to get the checks, and so I can also see the grain easily.  I'll seal the ends of the boards when the sawing is done.

Anchorsealing or otherwise obscuring the log end, is like painting over a road map, try to avoid it if possible until after the sawing.

[YellowHammer]

I did a little chestnut oak today, it quarter saws pretty nice, with lots of fleck.  Its a little darker than the true white oak I normally quarter saw, but I'm sure this will sell well.  The logs weren't that big, but the waste is minimal with this technique.
   



 

 

 

 

[doc henderson]

the QS and darker wood really bring out the freckles on your fingers.    I love to watch Roy Underhill on the Woodright shop.  all the freckles and at least one healing wound on his hands in every episode.   smiley_carpenter_hit_thumb

[Stephen1]

Nice looking wood . I like the shade of brown. Are they about 8"?

[Brad_bb]

Wicked fleck Robert!!

[YellowHammer]

Thanks, it is some pretty distinctive fleck.  It also was pretty easy to hit, I did 7 logs in this batch and only had one miss.  Most of the boards were 6 inches to 10 inches wide, from logs 20 to maybe 26 inches.  The stuff cuts a lot like red oak, very fast, with no waves. Pretty routine sawing, I was thinking of making a video.

I did see more wind shake than I normally do, apparently that is common for Chestnut Oak.

I enjoyed watching Roy Underhill, I loved to watch him injure himself, seems he'd do it about every show.

As a matter of fact, it was watching one of his shows that helped the RRQS light bulb click on.  He was splitting white oak logs and hand planing the resulting wedges into flat quarter sawn boards.  It was very organic and easy, and always resulted in QS boards.  I remember thinking that there should be a way to make quarter sawing equally easy and routine.  I mean if he could do it with a splitting wedge and hand plane, I should be able to do it with a sawmill.

I have some more chestnut oak, and a few very clean red oak logs still in line to mill.  To put things in scale, the smaller log in the middle is 24 inches in diameter, although because of the camera it looks much smaller, while the log in the back is about 5.5 feet in diameter and isn't quite as tall as the Porta Potti in the background, and the chestnut oak on the foreground is about a little less than 3 feet.


      

 

[customsawyer]

Robert you need to get to work. Your log yard is getting as bad as mine.

[Stephen1]

How will you break down  the large log? 

[terrifictimbersllc]

What's that gem top center in your photo?

[YellowHammer]

I break down the large logs with my handy 52" chainsaw.  

Since I have the 70 Super, I can generally fit some pretty big whole ones on the mill and take flat sawn wood off them down while I gun barrel it, then I RRQS as normal.  I have to get it down to 34" or less to clear my blade guides.

The particular log by the Porta Potti is never going to be milled, I originally bought him to RRQS a couple years ago, but before long, he became our photo spot, as customers would go over and stand infront of it and take their photos.  Before long, the regulars had named him as "Fred" and then he started getting old and growing a beard and mushrooms, so now he will sit there until he rots away.  Everybody wants to take a picture in front of him.

The logs in the photo behind the oak are spalted ambrosia maple, I will slab up now that the weather has cooled.  They have aged for many months and are just about ripe.  I milled a test batch a couple weeks ago, and they are ready.  Its not unusual for me to age some batches of logs up to a year, if called for, to make them more marketable.

Some people prefer the basic ambrosia look, so I don't spalt all of them.  

Behind that are some hard maple.

On the other side of the yard, not in the photo are walnut logs, cherry, poplar, hickory, pecan, persimmon, locust, and some other stuff.

[WDH]

I have named that aged red maple as "Blue Ambrosia Maple", and it is a top seller for me. 



 



 

[ellmoe]

I have named that aged red maple as "Blue Ambrosia Maple", and it is a top seller for me. 

Danny , like it! Why fight the bluing/greying? Embrace it and "make some lemonade!".

[Greyhound]

I did a little chestnut oak today, it quarter saws pretty nice, with lots of fleck.  Its a little darker than the true white oak I normally quarter saw, but I'm sure this will sell well.  The logs weren't that big, but the waste is minimal with this technique.
 



 

 

 

Awesome milling!  I've got about 2 dozen ~18-25" dbh chestnut oaks dead standing on my property.  @PA_Walnut quartersawed some for me and some of it came out amazing.  It makes me wonder what's left out there on the stump.
 

 

 

[YellowHammer]

PA knows his stuff, and makes some great wood.  Its nice seeing wide boards with fleck all the way across.  

[widetrackman]

Beautiful QS wood, I assume the qs pics are of white oak? I don't have much white oak in my woods but a lot of red oak. Will red oak qs out to be desirable or close to white oak. I like your method and plan to apply when my hyd LT35 gets hear in Dec. Looking at your pics guess I'll have to buy some logs. Great work product you are producing.

[WDH]

The rays in red oak are smaller than in white oak, but they are still among the largest rays of the domestic trees.  So, red oak will also show beautiful fleck when quartersawn.  Four species (or groups of species) have large rays that show strong ray fleck.  Sycamore, beech, the white oaks, and the red oaks. 

[Sixacresand]

Another example of QS Red Oak.  The sap wood was falling off, full of bugs.  


   

[YellowHammer]

From a retail point, I sell almost as much QS red oak as white oak.  It's cheaper for the customer because the logs are cheaper, and looks real nice as Sixacresand beautiful wood shows.

 

[scsmith42]

Ten years ago I had more calls for QSRO than QSWO.  That changed about 8 years back; now 98% of my QS calls are for white oak.

QSRO can be striking, to say the least.

[widetrackman]

The rays in red oak are smaller than in white oak, but they are still among the largest rays of the domestic trees.  So, red oak will also show beautiful fleck when quartersawn.  Four species (or groups of species) have large rays that show strong ray fleck.  Sycamore, beech, the white oaks, and the red oaks.

Thanks for the info ,I was wondering which species had good ray fleck. I have 6-8 26" Sycamore and Beech I have found so far. 

[YellowHammer]

Well, I finally made a video, step by step on my RRQS technique.  I hope it helps explains things.  

Reverse Roll Quarter Sawing (RRQS) with Hobby Hardwood Alabama - YouTube