How would you saw - wavy Beech

[Brad_bb]

I acquired a bunch of old growth beech timbers a few years ago that I intend to timberframe with.  When buying them I spotted one particular timber that I marked and set aside.  It's a 12"X12"X12' old growth Beech timber that appears to have very wavy grain.  I am in no hurry to cut it, but would like to know how to approach cutting it for best grain appearance?  Would you flat saw it? Or some special way?  Just looking at the surface, do you agree with my assesment that this is  going to be some special looking wood?  I just got my LT15go a few weeks ago.  I sawed one poplar log at Woodmizer in Indy.  Yesterday I flat sawed the heavily checked piece of maple you see on the front of the forklift, my first sawing by myself.

[beenthere]

Seems a bit late to try for lumber out of the faces of those timbers. But depends on what you are after in the end. Some pretty deep checks showing up there. Will they fit in with what you want?

[Brad_bb]

Any input? MM? Anyone?

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Not many choices left since its now a 12" square beam. If it were mine, I'd saw it into 1-1/2" table top stock.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

This would make a very nice rustic looking table.

[mikeb1079]

i dunno how much you're gonna salvage out of that beam.... :(

[Magicman]

Do you have a project in mind?  Without that, I would put it in the barn until I did.  Of course Poston has a $300 bench in mind to go with the $600 table top.   ;D

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Do you have a project in mind?  Without that, I would put it in the barn until I did.  Of course Poston has a $300 bench in mind to go with the $600 table top.   ;D

In all seriousness......I could make a few $$$$ with that beam.  ;D

[Brad_bb]

One thing I'm planning to make is some boring machine bases/seats.  I want to do some in figured wood.  I'd like to get a good look at what this wood would look like.  I'd have to plane some and wet it or oil it to see how the figure will look.  I was looking for some advice to maximize the beauty.  I didn't know, being a novice with my mill, if there was a certain way to approach cutting something with figure like this?

[WDH]

When you open it up, you will see if there is figure, and you can follow that.

[bruce29]

what kind of forklift is that in the picture?

[Brad_bb]

Bruce, it's a Farmall BN tractor that was converted by John's Manufacturing in Michigan.  They operated in the late 60's to the early 80's converting mostly Farmall BN's (which is why there are so few of those as tractors out there).  The tractors went to the orchards in Michigan and there are still many of them in Mi today in use.  They don't come up for sale often, and they hold a good value due to their usefulness.  A few have left Mi like mine(last year).  My vegetable farmer neighbor down the road has 2 of them that he's had for 15 years. They normally have a ROPS cage on top, but at some point a previous owner removed the one on mine.  Still has the mounts and I intend to have one fabricated when I cosmetically restore this unit some day.  It runs great though, and has been maintained very well.  It fires up immediately every time.  I wanted it for moving timbers around.  I have a bigger forklift if I need to move heavier logs or anything heavier.

[thecfarm]

I'm always fascinated by those conversions. That looks good!! They had to work around what was there to make it work. I've seen around a 1950 Ford road grader and a forklift.