Planer tells the tale

[Wlmedley]

I've had my sawmill around four or five years now and I've got lumber squirreled away that's either as old as my mill up to freshly cut. Been trying to improve a little in my sawing every time I use the saw. Just looking at the lumber I couldn't tell a lot of difference between when I first started up until now except I now know a lot more about reading the log to get the best lumber and a lot of other things I mostly learned from this forum. I bought a planer last fall and found out how much my lumber has improved. I have been planing some boards that I cut about a year ago and found that they cleaned up pretty easily and I usually could get them cleaned up by taking about 1/16" on each side.Sometimes a little more but not much. I pulled one out today which was probably cut shortly after I got my mill and thought I was going to wear my little planer out before it cleaned up.Luckily I don't have very much of that older lumber left but I've learned that if you want to see how good the lumber is that you're cutting try running it through a planer. 

[Digger Don]

That's how I discovered how much I still have to learn. I suspect set-works of some sort would be helpful, but I don't see that in the near future.

[SawyerTed]

Using your own lumber teaches a sawyer a lot.  

Planing, jointing and ripping to width lets us know just how rough (or not) our lumber is.  

[YellowHammer]

We get lots of new customers that come in and say "I bought some wood from such and such sawmill, and their boards looked OK until I got them home and planed them, then I saw they were garbage.  Do you plane your wood?"

Me: "Yup, every board, and welcome to Hobby Hardwood."

[customsawyer]

I had well over 10 million bf sawed when I bought my kiln and planer. With that much experience, I thought I was a pretty good sawyer. I've said it many times. If you want to know how good of a sawyer you are, buy a kiln and planer. 

[Resonator]

Yup, a jointer and surface planer can cover over a multitude of sins.
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Rather than wear out my planer, I'll pick out any dried boards that really don't make the grade and rip those into stickers. I always need more stickers, and I still get use out of the lumber I went through all the work to produce.

[Wlmedley]

I failed to mention that one of the reasons I don't have a lot of that lumber left that I sawed shortly after getting my mill is that I used some building my sawmill shed and a few other small projects. I also stacked some that wasn't stickered properly and dried like a washboard. Some that was cut with pith split crooked like a dogs hind leg and some that was so thick and thin a blind man could tell it. When cleaning out my shed this so called lumber either went in my firewood shed or the burn pile. I still have to throw some away from time to time but at least now I know when it's no good before I go to the trouble of stacking it.

[barbender]

I knew the first time that I jammed a planer up on a thick spot around a knot, that I had a lot more to learn😁

This principle is true in all endeavors. For instance, in the woods, the more experience that you have in all aspects of timber harvest, the better you will be at any particular job and understand how your role affects the whole operation. 

If a processor operator has never had to pick up the wood he's cut, he won't understand what he's doing to frustrate the forwarder operator. And the forwarder operator might not understand how aggravating his piles are to work with, if he's never drove truck and had to load out of them.

[LeftFinger]

It's when you start out planing 5/4 and suddenly find a use for 1/2"

[barbender]

😂😂😂

[SwampDonkey]

What a lovely journey of hard labour it is from tattered and battered to smoothed over.    Congratulations on now making fine lumber. 

[SawyerTed]

A good friend bought some lumber from an estate sale.  He sorted out some 14-16" wide poplar lumber from the piles that he wanted planed. 

It was cupped and twisted.  Once it was planed about the middle 2/3 was usable.  The ends tapered like propellers. 

He said, "I should've gotten my boards from you.  You don't cut lumber that's twists like that."

"That you've ever seen," I said. 

It's unusual that 100% of a rough cut stack of lumber doesn't have some cull material after drying. 

The attentive sawyer looks at the cull material to determine if it was him or the wood that caused it. 

[Digger Don]

The attentive sawyer looks at the cull material to determine if it was him or the wood that caused it. 

Please, give me a few pointers on how to do that!

[SawyerTed]

A few examples of what a sawyer should be asking in evaluating their dried lumber. 

Did the wood excessively crook?  Did the sawyer leave excessive sapwood?  That should be evident.  Did the sawyer ignore stress?  Not so evident  Unbalanced/off center sawing?   Pretty easy to see. 

Are there other defects that caused lumber degrade such as knots, excessive checks, cup or twist?   Did the sawyer overlook/disregard log defects?  Inclusion of pith?   Spike knots that weaken the lumber?   Rot or decay inclusions, wane?  Disregard of end crack, stress crack orientation for example centering an end crack that splits a series of boards rather than containing splits in a few as possible.

Did the sawyer disregard a dull blade?  Saw too fast?  Waves?  Teeth out of set?  Did the lumber dry  in less than ideal conditions?

Sometimes wood does what it does.  Did the sawyer minimize the problems or make them worse. 

[Wlmedley]

Ted, you just summed up what it took me about four years to learn and I still have to be careful or I'll forget what I think I know.

[Resonator]

Boxing the heart, eliminating the juvenile core, and capturing the pith. Whatever you want to call it, it is a good habit to get into when sawing hardwood lumber. Better to have the low grade wood in a dunnage block, than try to make it into grade lumber. (Took me a while to learn that).

[YellowHammer]

You guys may not (or maybe will) believe it, but I get quite a few comments on my videos from sawmillers who say the most outrageous things about low quality sawmillng, and I'm paraphrasing below. 

"I've been sawmilling for 50 years, I ain't got time to make it straight or good, I saw it up any way I can, the suckers (customers) snatch it up, hand me money, and I laugh all the way to the bank. So why try get better, when I'm selling what I'm sawing?" 

I used to get pretty mad at these comments, I'd fire off a few comments about their worthless and poor attitude, but now, I just delete them.  

So if are sawing better and flatter, and proud of it, then I commend you and your attitude.

There are a lot of sawyers who just don't care.  Unfortunately.  

[customsawyer]

I'm one of the few around that will take in others lumber to dry and plane for their customer. Lots of times it gives me the opportunity to educate the sawyer and the customer. Like YH says, some sawyers will never care. Then their customer becomes mine.  

[SawyerTed]

. So why try get better, when I'm selling what I'm sawing?" 

That attitude really does cost them more than they think.  

I'd rather sell 10 $20 boards than 40 $5 boards.  Why?  It's the same money?   Except for the labor it takes in handling and making the lumber usable.  

That doesn't even consider the cost in reputation.  

Bill Hanks Lumber Company was a mill in our county.  Jeff Hanks took over the business from his father over the years and developed an international customer base that included several Japanese manufacturers.  Jeff went to visit their plant when one of his shipments of hardwood lumber arrived.  

Jeff said the receiving inspectors used micrometers to measure thickness among other tests before sending the lumber to production.  He said that made a huge impression on him and the sawmill's attention to quality sawing.  

He realized that the manufacturers lost money having to bring an inconsistent raw product into spec before they started production.  That consistency was worth money. 

[Digger Don]

A few examples of what a sawyer should be asking in evaluating their dried lumber. 

Did the wood excessively crook?  Did the sawyer leave excessive sapwood?  That should be evident.  Did the sawyer ignore stress?  Not so evident  Unbalanced/off center sawing?  Pretty easy to see. 

Are there other defects that caused lumber degrade such as knots, excessive checks, cup or twist?  Did the sawyer overlook/disregard log defects?  Inclusion of pith?  Spike knots that weaken the lumber?  Rot or decay inclusions, wane?  Disregard of end crack, stress crack orientation for example centering an end crack that splits a series of boards rather than containing splits in a few as possible.

Did the sawyer disregard a dull blade?  Saw too fast?  Waves?  Teeth out of set?  Did the lumber dry  in less than ideal conditions?

Sometimes wood does what it does.  Did the sawyer minimize the problems or make them worse. 

Ted, Thank you for all the pertinent questions. Now, would you give me a few answers? I can tell sap wood from heart wood and I know that the pith should be avoided, except for larger timbers.

What is off center sawing? Not centering the pith in the cant?

I don't ignore stress. I'm just not sure what it looks like. Is that what I would call a crooked log, that probably should have been left in the woods? If it looks like a ")", will it tend to bow in the same direction?

When I see an end split, I try to open the log in such a way that the split will end up in only one, maybe two, boards.

I'm pretty sure that I'm guilty of using dull blades and improperly set bands. The mill's owner, and I , are trying to do that ourselves. We haven't figured out the setter we have, yet.

We should probably be using more stickers. Currently, we are aiming to put them approximately three feet apart. I suspect someone is going to say we need to double that.

Thank you (and anyone else who responds) for the education. I need lots more! Don

[Rhodemont]

I was sawing oak the other day and thought to myself the LT35 HD I got in 2016 is running better than when it was new.  But then rethought, no, it is running the same, I am running it better.  Everything from felling trees, bucking logs, reading the logs, sharp blades, correct speed, stickering, etc....has improved.  Not saying I can keep up with the big dogs but my boards and beams are much better now.  The 20 inch Powermatic planer does fix a lot of issues but I clean up boards (well most of them) easier now. 

[thecfarm]

.

"I've been sawmilling for 50 years, I ain't got time to make it straight or good, I saw it up any way I can, the suckers (customers) snatch it up, hand me money, and I laugh all the way to the bank. So why try get better, when I'm selling what I'm sawing?"

   

That is an awful thing to say.
I wonder where else they use that phase? 

[customsawyer]

If there is a crack in a log, it's indicating where the stresses are. If you position a hardwood log so the crack is only in a couple of boards, then most of the lumber you are producing will bow in the drying process. It is really hard to sell lumber that isn't flat. It might clean up in the planer, but it won't be flat. They might make small cutting boards, but not tables or desks. There's different sawing techniques when sawing hardwood compared to when sawing softwood. Learn the best way to saw for the product you are targeting. 

[Digger Don]

If I understand the definitions, isn't a bow better than a crook? At least in construction, where a few extra nails will hold it down? For finer work, like furniture, a crook can be sawed straight, but not so much with a bow. Most of my sawing is in oaks and some pine.

[customsawyer]

Down here we use softwood for construction and hardwood for finish/furniture. To a point what you are saying is correct. Like I said earlier, knowing your finished product will tell you how to position the log. Also keep an eye on what the boards are doing as you are sawing them. Are they raising on ends or in the middle, or are they moving to one side or the other. Their movement will indicate the direction of the stress.