Quarter sawing

[Jeff]

I can now see why quartersawn would be better to use, but is it really a matter of the wood being quartersawn, or that the quartersawn enables you to see and use the grain in the proper direction and weed out anything that is not?

[beenthere]

I think it is as you see it. The Q sawing is the first step to get the grain straight (parallel to the bark) and the second step is to rip out the squares after drying straight grain.  A smart way to do that, as I see it.

Highest strength lumber from a log can be obtained by sawing parallel to the bark as well, taking log taper out of the center of the log where the quality is often less. However, efficiency of sawing and volume yield is somewhat affected by sawing parallel to the bark so the practice is no(t) a popular one.

[qbilder]

I can now see why quartersawn would be better to use, but is it really a matter of the wood being quartersawn, or that the quartersawn enables you to see and use the grain in the proper direction and weed out anything that is not?

Both. I find it very easy to dry the QS maple as it stays flat & straight without having to strap it down or add weight. This stability follows all the way through to the end product. I lose much less wood to warp than I do when using flat sawn wood. Internal stress that you'd never see in cabinets or furniture, reveals itself when cut down to a long, thin cylindrical shape. The QS wood simply doesn't warp when cut down, or at least not nearly as much. Even though it seems I am wasting a lot of good wood in the milling process, I lose a lot less wood once I begin working with it. I actually lose about 30% of the QS wood where I would lose 60-70% of flat sawn. 

And yes, being able to sight the grain and keeping the grain centerline to the cue makes a huge difference. With what I do, quality heavily outweighs quantity. On a good cue, you should be able to pick a grain line in the center of one end of the shaft and follow it to the center of the other end. If the grain runs off to the side before it gets to the end, then it's junk and is liable to snap in half when flexed or linearly compressed. That's why it's important even when picking the tree, to be sure there are no wiggles, curves, or twists in the grain. Worse yet, my high end buyers want the wood void of any sugar lines or mineral stain, so being able to see the edge grain allows me to pick out the cleanest shafts before I invest so much time in turning. QSing offers a few advantages for what I do.               

[Jeff]

See, now I'm the kind of guy that would want mineral stain or better yet, spalting. But I suppose that any spalting would make for a weaker que.

[qbilder]

However, efficiency of sawing and volume yield is somewhat affected by sawing parallel to the bark so the practice is no a popular one.

Yeah I know all about that. That's pretty much why I have to do it myself. Nobody else will do it. Many have tried, but soon find out that the waste is too much so making profit is a tough gig. The few others that do cut maple for cue shafts do it more efficiently and have other markets to take up the loss from waste. They don't cut the way I do, so stability is always an issue, and they sell a 1"x1"x30" square stick of maple for $8 on the low grade end up to $40 on the high end. That's a considerable cost when I would be buying several hundred per year. Much cheaper for me to have a saw mill, and I end up with much higher control over every step so I end up with better wood than I can buy, anyway. My problem is finding maple trees or logs that are straight & clean enough to supply what I need. There's no lack of hard maple, but sure aren't very many that are cue quality. That's another reason it's tough finding a good supplier that will stay around for the long haul while keeping prices affordable. It's not a very lucrative job for a miller.             

[qbilder]

See, now I'm the kind of guy that would want mineral stain or better yet, spalting. But I suppose that any spalting would make for a weaker que.

In the butt half of the cue, that stuff is desirable. I use burls, curls, eyes, & spalted woods often in the back half of my cues. That's what makes them pretty, and expensive. But in the top half, the shaft, it's best to be clean and uniform color. The players gripe that the color moving back & forth catches their eye & distracts them. I have a very finicky market