Circle saw jig

[Portageman]

Has anyone purchased or built a jig to put marks on lumber to make it look like it was cut with a circular sawmill?  I have an Lt50 bandsaw and would like to make some of my wood a little more decorative. 

Thanks. Ron

[beenthere]

Portageman
Welcome to the Forestry Forum. 

One would need a circular saw of 50-60" diameter to scratch out such "tooth" marks. That is if wanting to simulate such saw marks. 

Now a pendulum with the right length swinging a tooth or marker might also work. 

If I recall, last time this was discussed, there were no good answers to how to build such a jig. 

Do you have any ideas? 

[barbender]

 I thought @tule peak timber maybe had a machine of sorts for making circle saw marks?

 When it comes down to the different methods I've seen, it always seemed easier to me to start out with circle sawn lumber🤷

[newoodguy78]

How wide are the boards you're looking to put the pattern on?

[Ventryjr]

Hop on your local online market place.  You can sell that lt50 and buy a circle mill!  And still have money left over for diesel! Easiest way to get circle marks.

[doc henderson]

It depends on how much you need to do, and if the boards are all the same width, and how accurate it needs to be.  Some talked about skimming with a band that has a tooth set too far.  you could experiment with how freq. these teeth are.  like every 10th tooth ect.  you could even grind the ones in-between flat and then go quickly.  these marks will slant but still be a straight line.  This would now be a dedicated band to use on pre-cut boards.  You could make template with a curve that you scribe along with a box cutter or some other tool.  I would put a fence on at least one side, or both if boards are the same width.  just slide along the board.  you can make them evenly spaced or random.  It this for some Esty style project?

[Vautour]

 ill be doing horizontal siding on the bottom third of my house this summer and want to add circular saw mill marks on my boards also,  i got another one of my crazy ideas and will build some sort of a "jig-a-ma-jig contraption scary don't try this at home" machine, will start this project in the next few weeks, will post pics of the success (or the failure) :D  

[maineshops]

How about a bicycle wheel with some of those old spring loaded lawnmower dethatchers^fastened to it? Or make a wooden disk 50 in. Would envy even have to be round. Dan

[moodnacreek]

I know a guy who bought a lot with a hand set mill on it to start a sawmill business with his fancy hydraulic band mill. Now he runs the circle mill everyday and only uses his band to square up oversize and the puts it [big cants] on the carriage.  Circle sawn rough cut is becoming a specialty that can command more money.   My friend here is only doing it for speed not finish.  By the time you build a jig to scratch up lumber you might as well set up an old hand set sawmill.

[tule peak timber]

I thought @tule peak timber maybe had a machine of sorts for making circle saw marks?

When it comes down to the different methods I've seen, it always seemed easier to me to start out with circle sawn lumber🤷

After a bunch of gyrations on how to get the circular marks, I ended up with just putting them on here and there with a Festool hand power planer and one of these 2 heads. It eliminates the problem of big radius vs. small radius arcs, depending on the size of the project and it's really fast. 
A couple of things on distressing; #1: It's best if it's multiple subtle layers. 
                                                 #2: Multiple subtle colour differences
                                                 #3: Best if it's multiple people doing the different layers to avoid pattern repeat
If you want to produce a nice looking board, with a 3D look, try bending teeth on your saw blade, taking out some of the kerf and pushing the blade a little too hard, producing waves in the board. A little light wire wheel work (my whisker machine) and then bouncing the power planer here and there off of the high spots for the circle saw look will produce a pretty good looking board. From this point, some colouration, light sanding, more colouration, etc. then sealing will yield the old time look a lot of people want. You can use this fake circle saw look on individual hit and miss boards or across the face of an entire project. Again, hit and miss. Hope this helps.