Well, not quite. It was cold and rainy all day here in WNY.
Getting back to the subject title, I mentioned on an earlier post that I had been sawing up Beech (Fagus grandifolia) for survey stakes. I had never sawn much beech before until this fellow hired me to cut stock for stakes. Beech was the cheapest logs available so that is why it was being sawn.
While sawing, I became intrigued with the ray fleck in the radial sawn surfaces. I decided to get a couple of logs of a decent grade and sufficent size to specifically quarter saw out some boards.
Here's a picture of 2 logs that I wanted to QS. The bigger log was 22" in dia.
(https://forestryforum.com/images/04_01_03/100_0014%20o.jpg)
This view shows the bigger log halved, I'm about to cut two center boards out of the half. These 2 boards will be true Q.Sawn.
(https://forestryforum.com/images/04_01_03/QSBeech%20mill%20o.jpg)
This view shows the ray fleck pattern that I was after.
(https://forestryforum.com/images/04_01_03/QSBeech%20on%20mill%20o.jpg)
The way I had sawn the logs gave me a high % of true QS. I was really impressed with the appearance of the QS Beech. I checked out some local lumber dealers in my area and no one offered QS Beech, they were getting up to $2.80 / bf for 4/4 kd plain sawn stock. I thought to myself, hmmm, maybe there might be a little niche market here ?? :)
I agree with you Brian, that is very interesting fleck pattern
I once had an inquiry about QS beech. The Japanese were using it for bowling alleys. Seems that the beech was cheaper than the maple.
I have always thought Beech was a beautiful wood. We get quite a lot of it. We had some big frozen stuff that I figue should have been veneer this winter. I couldnt cut the stuff! There is a thread on here about that somewhere.
Beautiful wood Brian! I had some curly beech once and that was gorgeous. The only downer I had with the beech was getting it dryed and keeping it flat.
I do think it is beautiful though.
Beech is one of my favoprite woods,and I think highly underated and underused
I agree with everyone that beech is underrated & underused. I think it is a very nice wood.
My place is loaded with it in all different sizes. The stuff grows like a weed. The animals like it for food. I like the logs and the rest makes great fuel for the stove. You just can't let the cord wood set too long because it breaks down pretty quick.
I have also found the the heartwood can be finished real nice. It sands smooth as glass and takes a stain very evenly.
Oh Yeah I was thinking I was at the beach to ;)
Sun. toasting me brown
Wet feet.
Roar of the ocean.
Bright Bright sand.
Then I realized I was sawing white pine and the dust was bright, my feet were wet from the dew, the engine was roaring and I need to build a shed to keep the sun off me.
:D
Oh yea: love beech, bitch to dry tough.
.Start a new stack (drying shed not in the open air) and put it on the bottom.
Back to the Beach
JIM
Jeff,
Why couldn't you saw it,was it frozen? Most of the time it saws pretty good but tou want to stay away from beech with spiral grain,even cut into crossties it'll twist
Dunno, it was just one bunch of tough logs. Niether one of our mills would cut it til it thawed. I think the problem was it was in effect case hardened. Froze solid on the outside, and not on the inside.