Sawing Cedar

Paul_H · July 04, 2002, 10:12:58 PM

I remember reading on a forum about sawing Cedar from top to butt,or vice versa.We milled some Red Cedar a while ago and it came out rough,almost like it was chattering.Today we milled up some and it came out beautiful.It was all sawn top first.

Is there anything to this?The logs were all from the same cutblock,same size,more or less.(24")

Frank_Pender · July 05, 2002, 07:40:04 AM

Paul,
I have not had any trouble with such issues. I cut primarely from butt to top. Cedar is the hardest on the saw blades themselves, especially the shanks. I was told by MD that it has to do with the fiber configuration of the wood. You also might want to check the angle you are sawing. Is the main blade parallel with the log? This could have something to do with the texture of your lumber when sawing. Just some thoughts. I will try and bunk up a cedar log in the next few days and see if I have such a concern. Has the log been down for some time or is it rather fresh from the woods? This too could be some of the difference.

J Beyer · July 05, 2002, 08:06:11 AM

Could it be that Red cedar has many knots in it? Not much of a problem for a circular/swinger type mill. I know that guys with bandmills go from the top down, for them this gets better results.

When trying to split red cedar for firewood (to small to mill) it was very stringy compared to the white cedar that I split. The white cedar split very clean, while it was difficult to split red cedar.

JB

DanG · July 05, 2002, 01:04:44 PM

The only Red Cedar I have cut, was when I went to the seller's place to try out my mill, before purchasing it. The logs we had were very dry, having been down for several years. There was a little tendency for the wood to "chip out" on the edge where the saw exits the cut. I wrote it off to the wood being very brittle, which it was, but noticed later that the teeth weren't in the best of shape.
If your logs are not real fresh, you may want to try some moisture, and make sure the teeth are really sharp.

(NOTE) The above is the observation of a RANK rookie. Let us know how this saga turns out, ok? :D

Bro. Noble · July 05, 2002, 02:13:55 PM

Paul,

Your Red cedar is probably not like our Eastern Rec Cedar. It,s easily sawn and the nots don't seem to be any problen. They are numerous but small. We do get a lot smoother cut on the WM or band resaw than on the edger or circle scragg. the circle saws do like DanG describes-----pulls little chunks out on exit. There is a manufacturer of cedar closet lining in our county. The bands on their resaw have very fine teeth like on a handsaw.

Noble

Kevin · July 05, 2002, 04:29:59 PM

I`ve milled a whack of white cedar with both the chainsaw and the LT-15, it just doesn`t get any better than that.

D._Frederick · July 05, 2002, 04:39:58 PM

Paul,
If you have a band mill, you could be having harmonic vibration of the blade in the cut. Blade tension and feed rate effect this.

Paul_H · July 05, 2002, 06:19:26 PM

The cedar logs,are longbutts off our poles,and they have been piled a couple of years.They are mostly clear,but it makes sense what DanG said about dry logs.It chipped out on the boards.The top logs were the ones I sawed first.The logs we sawed yesterday and today came out fine.
It is a Mobile Dimension,and the teeth are kept pretty sharp.Maybe slowing the feed would help?

Thanks for the help

DanG,it's good to know I'm not the only Greenhorn.I've read near all the threads on sawmilling here,trying to gleen all and any info.