The Forestry Forum

I know there are a million posts about this topic but I ran into a complication today on the hemlock I have posted lately, hence another post. When the tree was felled one of the logs got a crack perpendicular to the natural crack one sees going through the pith. The crack due to the felling was much larger (sorry, no pics) than the pith crack and went completely across the log at about 1/5 from the diameter on a 20" diameter log. The pith cracks were small and were about 1/5 of the diameter long but, of course, at the diameter. I had to choose which crack to saw parallel to and I chose the felled crack because it was so much bigger. Ended up with long narrow centered cracks in many 12" wide board. I assume I made a bad decision. Is there a general criterium to go by in such a case? 

I would have probably done the same thing. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes the tree has the game rigged.

I would have done the same thing, part of the issue might just be it's Hemlock growing outside of its preferred range.  

Southside, sometimes I think of you as a hemlock outside of its preferred range😁

You ain't kidding. Especially this summer.

Depends on what your finished product size needs to be. If you have to make 1x12 you did what you had to do. If grade sawing hardwood I would have put the cracks at a 45° of the blade and edged them off and just had a little narrower board. Same with if you could have used narrower boards than the 1x12s

I was cutting paneling for a customer's barn/shop. I could have used narrower boards but I already had enough of them so I was fixed on 12s. 

Yup, you turn the log to maximize the customer's cut list.  thumbs-up