Quartersawing

[Rick-Wi]

I found this site and thought it was interesting. So I am passing it on.

http://www.altalabinstrument.com/wood/quartersaw.htm

Rick-Wi

[Bud Man]

Ric-Wi,   I enjoyed- Thanks !

[Scott_R]

Somebody correct me if I am wrong. and I sure hope that I am. The first quartering cuts run from bark to pith. Then he saws the pith out by turning the quartering cuts at about a 45 degree angle to the blade. Standing the cant on this small flat and cutting parralel to it means that he is still only cutting toward the center of the tree when he is near the center of the cant. This would seem to produce the same lumber as sawing through and through except that all the lumber would be narrower. This seems to be an awful was of what was a super premium log. He could have made some 24 inch wide or better boards with tight grain density and still gotten the little bit of CVG that he ended up with. Tell me that I am wrong please. Scott

[Tom]

Scott,
Busting the log up the way he does, allows him to cut vertical grain from several different angles.  

Quartersawing can be done a lot of different ways.  The important thing is that you go after the widest and/or most vertical grain available.

What looks as if he is sawing through and through is because he verbally said to turn the cant 90 degrees the last time, but he didn't make it very clear.  If you will look at his last picture before he said he went after vertical grain, the right side is at 90 degrees to the bed of the mill.  By turning the cant to the right he leaves the sloped, left side as the top surface.  By cutting down through this, he gets narrow bastard grain and then more and more vertical grain as he progresses.  Look at the paint design and you will see that the pith is on the left and he is cutting down perpendicular to the grain.

It is difficult for a circle saw miller to visualize the approach of a horizontal bandsaw and vise-a-versa.  Our brains don't register immediately in the same direction.

Quartering the log isn't as important as slicing it up so that you can get to the grain.  I have cut logs up into 3 to 5 slices that were 4+ inches or greater thick so that I could turn them on edge to get to the vertical grain.

The wedges off of the top can be cut into vertical grain by alternating taking a board off of the bottom as it is turned every cut.

Bibbeyman and I both have offered ways to approach the cutting of vertical grain boards on a horizontal bandmill on this forum and neither is exactly alike.  The methods will vary depending on original approach and the size and shape of the tree.  The attempted end result is the same though........vertical grain.

Here is Bibbeyman's thread https://forestryforum.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?board=sawmill&action=display&num=992742902&start=10

Its a rough diagram but here is how I was taught.

[woodman]

    Tom thats the way Woodmills1 showed me to do it.