Sawmill School, Getting the Most out of each Log, Quarter Sawing Beech by Out of the Woods.
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The Reason Folks Choose Sawn Wood
The most common reason why woodworkers choose to use quarter-sawn wood is because of the wood movement, or lack thereof. Quarter-sawn materials will not move much if at all. As we’ve learned from working with makers and kiln owners, for green lumber there is a lot of movement to be expected. If you want that flat sawn slab to be at its highest quality, reducing that moisture content and kiln drying is a value-added process necessary for the finished product. For Quarter-Sawn materials, they have a vast range of uses, but they are also more forgiving.
It depends on the species of wood as well, in this video Beech is discussed, but there are many species of wood that dry better than others and that simply don’t work well when you are trying to saw them into flat-sawn slabs. So if you don’t quarter-saw that stuff and you’re hoping for something flat, it will just turn into a mess when it dries. It will not stay flat and it will move.
It also all depends on the type of kiln used. Some folks may say they flat saw beech and then put it in the kiln, but it’s entirely possible the majority of that tree ends up in the burn pile after it dries because of warping, checking, other imperfections, and overall the loss can be huge.
Core solid stuff
Even if you’re just planning on making hand tools, the grain and whether it interlocks or not and the species is crucial. You need to carefully check and see the pattern of the grains to get the better part of your lumber.
Get the heart or pith of your lumber
The pith is also a part of your log you may need to deal with depending on the species. In this video, we see how Nathan deals with the heart or the pith of the wood. He explains that it is the juvenile part of the tree and ultimately it is the least stable and prone to cracks. Watch through the video to see this incredible visual demonstration of how to get the most out of each log.
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