American beech ?

[dad2nine]

Talked to one of my logger buddies yesterday, He called me on his cell phone from the woods. "Hey jeff, I'm sitting here in the sheer, starring at a monster American beech, I want you to have this tree, you want it?" What was I supposed to say no? Seeing I'm a beech virgin, I figured I would ask the experts. What's the best way to saw beech and does it benefit in appearance being QS (like oak and sycamore ray flake). I'm kinda looking forward to sawing a monster American Beech... I just hope it's not one of this 5' diameter logs again that I have to bust out the chainsaw for. Any advise/pictures would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[SwampDonkey]

It could be interesting quarter sawn. It has two types of rays. Broad ones like oak and narrow. It is in the oak family non-the-less. I wouldn't quarter it all though, looks nice flat sawn and can be steam bent for chair arms and rockers. It almost looks like maple to me until you look close and notice the wider spaced, short black lines (pores) on the flat sawn surface and broader rays on the end grain. ;D

[Engineer]

I've never sawn beech, but I do have a nice stockpile of it that I bought from someone.  It's best quartersawn.  I am using what I have for butcherblock counters for my kitchen and some shelving.  

Not much of what I have is straight, BTW.  Warped and twisted pretty bad.

[Don P]

I haven't sawn much but it is active stuff while drying, burns good though. I've used it for cabinets and have seen it in some nice looking flooring. It was considered a good tool wood that self polishes for things like wooden block and molding planes, loom parts, etc..

[WDH]

Quarter sawing it would reveal the ray fleck and it would definitely be more stable.  I am awaiting some pics ;D.

[Dave Shepard]

Don P, it was also used for the assorted cogs and workings of water powered mills for the same reason. I would love to get ahold of some nice beech to make some hand planes. What little beech I have sawn moved a lot. It rippled like a potato chip. :(


Dave

[Don P]

That's cool, didn't know that  8)
grandad's little maul, the one I knew as the ice crusher, for making homemade ice cream, was made of beech. That was perhaps my all time favorite hammer  ;D

The ray ends on flat sawn were pointed out to me as "chicken scratches" for a quick ID in the woodshop. I've always liked the look of beech, it does seem stable once dried, just seems to be one of those dense ones that moves alot on the way.

There's a couple of beeches in my future, holler if you want Dave, I'd be happy to throw some blocks up in a corner and see what happens.

[Riles]

Beech is notorious for being hollow, courtesy of real thin bark and hunters making coon habitat. Let us know how it comes out.

[dad2nine]

Lots of good information - I was thinking about QS @ 4/4, but it sounds like it moves a lot while drying so if I wanted a 3/4 finished board would 5/4 green be better? Scott Smith will be doing the kiln drying, he hooks wire up to some of the boards, I think there is a plunger on the other end of those wires. The way I figure it if he gets fed up with trying to dry the wood I saw, he simply pushes down the plunger and BAM problem solved. ;D Seriously what's your thoughts on the 5/4 for 3/4 finished product or should I think of something else?

Thanks

[Engineer]

The beech I have was sawn a full 1-1/8, and I'm having a hard time getting pieces longer than four feet out of it at 3/4" finished thickness.  Worst problem seems to be twist.  I have a few good-sized beech trees around, and I've noticed that many of them appear to have a spiral grain pattern - in other words, the tree appears to twist as it grows.  Almost looks like a corkscrew in the bark.  I culled through about 30 pieces of 6 to 12" wide by 12' long stock and got ONE piece for a long shelf in the kitchen that was reasonably flat enough to use.  The shelf is 6-1/2" wide by 11'-4" long.  I'm not gonna saw any beech around here until I figure out how to cut it and dry it so that movement is minimized.

[metalspinner]

Spalted beech is stunningly beautiful.  If that tree is hollow, there is a good chance it has begun spalting.  I tried spalting a full log a couple years back with mixed results.

[scsmith42]

Jeff - how do you keep figuring out my secrets?   :D

I'll query Don and Tripp Lewis to see if they have any advice re drying.

Scott

[lmbeachy]

I have plenty of Beech in my woods, The largest, my brother-in- law cut for fire wood. It was 60 inches acrss the stump, but it turned out to be hollow. Have some that have grain that is all twisted and then some that I cut are straight grain. I cut most of it for fire wood, it burns real good in a wood stove. I have some old recycled 2 x's in my barn. Came from the house that my grandfather built in 1916 or therabouts. I have used some for projects here in the house, it is hard as nails and has beautiful color. Will bring my camera home and try to post some pic.

[Kelvin]

Howdy,
I just quarter sawed some beech this last week. I noticed its real hard to get the figure to be exposed.  You have to be dead on 90 degrees to get it to show.  By the time you are over to 85 degrees not much of anything so it requires a lot of cant turning.  Where as an oak will show some figure for quite awhile before disappearing, though i try to keep that between 85-90 degrees to the surface as well as that makes the biggest flecks.  Just make sure you keep a lot of weight on your stacks while air drying and in the kilns.
Good luck.  I'd quarter saw and saw at 1 1 /8" as proper weight should keep its flat. 
KP

[getoverit]

I'm interested in buying some QS 8" wide beech if anyone wants to sell some. I dont need a lot, but a few boards would be nice to have.

[dad2nine]

Howdy,
I just quarter sawed some beech this last week. I noticed its real hard to get the figure to be exposed.  You have to be dead on 90 degrees to get it to show.  By the time you are over to 85 degrees not much of anything so it requires a lot of cant turning.  Where as an oak will show some figure for quite awhile before disappearing, though i try to keep that between 85-90 degrees to the surface as well as that makes the biggest flecks.  Just make sure you keep a lot of weight on your stacks while air drying and in the kilns.
Good luck.  I'd quarter saw and saw at 1 1 /8" as proper weight should keep its flat. 
KP

Kelvin, Thanks for the tips, sounds like this could be interesting. Is beech as tight as sycamore for showing off flake? We found a beech but log in the surprise pile out at the log yard. It's good and spalted, I'm going to "practice" on that one while I'm waiting for the other beech to be delivered. I'll try and snap a few pics if the log produces any eye candy  ;)

[Part_Timer]

I sawed up 3 beech logs last weekend.  THe butt log was great the next one up was so so and the third wanted to trist so bad that my 6x6 came out as a 6x3 1/2.  I cut that one into fire wood.  I'm going to try for another 6x6 out of the last one.  The only thing I noted was that the q sawn boards are wanting to crack right down the growth lines?? ?? They are 8 feet long an 1 1/8 so we'll have to see how it all works out.  GOI I have your beech on the bottom of the pile drying as we speak. ;) I'll be sending the ash one day this week.

[scsmith42]

Jeff, I don't normally weigh down the boards on my kiln carts, but I'll plan on putting your beech boards on the bottom of the kiln cart and about 1000 bd ft of other boards stickered on top of them - that ought to serve the same purpose.

Scott

[Joel Eisner]

I had a good sized one that we took out at our old house in a neighborhood.  We were unable to get the mill to it so it became firewood.  I did split some of the pieces to make mallets for cutting my frame.  I used one turned mallet for the entire frame and it was pretty durable.

[dad2nine]

Jeff, I don't normally weigh down the boards on my kiln carts, but I'll plan on putting your beech boards on the bottom of the kiln cart and about 1000 bd ft of other boards stickered on top of them - that ought to serve the same purpose.

Scott

Yeah I'm sure we'll figure something out, stacking on the bottom of the kiln cart, sounds like a good practical approach. If not I could always bring a few sections of rail road Iron ;D. I'm still wondering if I shouldn't set the saw @ 5/4 instead of 4/4 for a 3/4 S2S board. I would hate to have the boards get to thin because it like to do all kinds of weird things in the kiln. Thinking in terms of quality - I know if I saw it at 5/4 I'll produce less boards, but maybe this is one of those species I need to bit the bullet on and sell it as 4/4 even though I sawed it @ 5/4. I'm still thinking better to be safe than saw up a pile of junk.

Thanks

[Greg]

I've got some pre-civil war beech beams, more than I can ever use for my TF projects, if anyone is interested I can cut some up into small chunks for your resaw to make tools with.

Beautiful wood.

I'm pretty sure after 150 years, its dry/done twisting ;-)

If interested, send me a PM.

Greg

[lmbeachy]

Following are some pics of the beech wood that I used for a knick knack selve. This wood came from the house my grand dad built in 1916.

[SwampDonkey]

I saw some picture of QS beech on the net the other day and it didn't look too dramatic. But, one can't always rely on stuff they see on the net. Some one else could post a piece with a lot more figure.


Imbeachy, you can use the img tags to present the photos in the post instead of a link.

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[img]https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13416/Beech003.jpg[/img]

[Norm]

Here's a pic of q-sawn beech I've shown before of a drawer that Brian Bailey made for me.



I'd love to have some logs of it but it's pretty rare in our area.

[Part_Timer]

We have lots of it around here but I don't see many people cutting it.