true quartersawn yield

[TomFromStLouis]

ANY QUESTIONS?ARKANSAWYER

Yeah Arky, I got one. What percentage of your boards come off looking that good sawing through and through like that? They sure are purdy.

Or, more scientifically, what percentage of your board footage comes out with that kind of fleck?

[TomFromStLouis]

The Arkansawyer was showing me how to predict the quality of the 'flame' in white logs so you would know if they were worth the extra effort to Q-saw.

If I can sell QSWO at $3 or $3.50 and plain sawn goes for $1.50, why would I ever plain saw? Surely my yield would be greater than 50%. And note I said IF I could sell... - but that is the pricing around here....

[ARKANSAWYER]

  If you go back and look at Larry's photo of the rings in that slice of tree you can see lines that run across the rings.  In most cases you will have these lines cross the rings at 90 degrees but not in Larry's tree this time.  If you will saw so that your blade cuts these lines you will get the best rays in the wood.  Not all trees are good for qsawing.  The pith should be centered on both ends (or pretty close) and these line should be thick, wide, and rund straight from the pith to the bark.
  I saw with the pith as close to centerd on both ends when I take off the first slab.  This is just so I can clamp the log low so I can saw all the way through.  I often just get 3 or 4 cuts from the center.  I roll the whole log 90 degrees and remove the center boards and clamp the 2 halves back and saw 3 or 4 more times.  When done I have some boards and 4 pies.  I clip off the tip and back of the pie and saw it to the deck like in the photos above.  If the qsawn boards are going to be less then 6 inches wide I often just clamp the pie down and flat saw it.  No waste that way and I have gotten all the good qsawn lumber and saved the flat sawn.
  The big log in the photo had 200 bdft by the Doyle scale.  I qsawed the whole log and got 196 bdft of qsawn lumber like in the bottom photo.  This was a good log and had good rays and piths were only 1/4 inch off center.
  You have to learn to pick the logs with good "flame" and saw by the rays and forget the rings.
ARKANSAWYER

[Larry]

I agree with Arky 100 percent.  The rays are the secret to the whole idea of getting good fleck.  Took me a couple of years to really get a good handle on it.  I found a couple of scraps of wood for a photo session this morning.




In this piece the rays are nice and thick.  They intersect the cut surface at an angle and create strong figure.  I call it bubble figure for lack of a better description.  The pattern commonly runs length wise with the grain.  As the angle of the ray to the surface increases the bubbles get smaller and eventually disappear.




In this piece the rays are parallel with the surface.  The fleck makes a pattern across the grain know as "tiger stripe".  Most of the time I get the tiger stripe on the part of the board closet to the bark but it changes to the bubble figure when it gets close to the pith.  Arky's board picture right above Wanda shows this perfect.  Notice the rays in this piece are much thinner than the rays in the first picture.  Same wood – bur oak -- but different trees.  

This isn't much help for sycamore as the rays on that tree are so small they can't be seen most of the time.

[music_boy]

Hey,
     I just wanted to say this has been one of the most interesting, educational, and informative threads. ;D (for me anyway) As a rookie\newbie to the art of sawing, this type of sharing of informaion is   incredable. I've started a binder to put this kind of info in for future reference. Not too many places anymore where people in business share information they've learned through the school of hard knocks, their grandfathers, and close friends, to folks that they've only known by way of telephone lines hooked up to a computer screen.( not even that in most cases)
As always
Thanks alot
Rick

[sandmar]

I agree music_boy.
I know I lurk WAAAAAAY too much...but learn something new most everyday. Thanks to all you guys and girls for sharing your knowledge with the ones of us that are trying to get started. You will never know how much trial and error you save for us newbies.
Not to mention the good wood that would be ruined for lack of experience. You guys eat some piggy at Jeff's for us lurkers on the list! ;D
Sandmar....who has learned that you must get something about eating in every post possible :

[chet]

Sandmar yur right on target. Everything eventually leads to food.  ;D   :D    :D