# Needed advice on Sawing Walnut, Maple and Oak



## Drew Pavlak (Aug 21, 2010)

Hello all,

The last 5 weeks have been rather good to me for logs. My dad, brother and I talked to a local farmer in the area and he let us take a good sized Black Walnut from a wooded lot that had fallen in a wind storm a couple of years ago. The tree was still alive, but layed over on it's side. Then power company came through and clear cut some stuff down the road as well. Needless to say we have some logs to saw up into lumber. 

A friend of my Uncle has a Norwood Lumbermate 2000 that needed some work, so my dad is working on that and then we get to use it to saw up the logs for free, maybe the price of a couple of blades. Here are the pics of the logs we have currently.

For the oak logs what would be the best use of the lumber? I am getting mixed responses when reading on the internet. Some swear by QS, others just flat sawn, because you get some QS and some FS and some RS. Seeing how I will be doing the sawing myself the only thing I will be out is time. Should I QS the whole thing?

For the walnut I have heard just Flat Saw it. I am fine with that. The next questions I would have would be on Dimensions and from what part of the log. If you want some 8/4 lumber, should it come from the middle of the log as you are sawing it or doesn't it matter.

I realize I got pretty lucky here and I would like to make the most of the lumber. Any advice anyone would like to offer would be greatly appreciated.

Also as a side note, I thing the lumber mill is too small for the larger oak and maple logs we have. Any one have experience splitting larger logs and if so how?

Thanks
Drew.

PS. The two models in the pics are my daughters Livi(6) and Sam(3). Livi is about 45 inches tall.


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

That big walnut looks SWEET :thumbsup:. I would just flitch saw that puppy out http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f26/sawn-flitchform-18159/.

The oak if you chose to 1/4 saw it (I would not waste my time on anything under 20" diameter) you need to look at the pith, like in the picture I attached. You are not going to just cut it in 4 equal parts when the pith is off center like this. You need to cut to the pith and 1/4 saw out the pieces. In a way the 1/2 that the pith is further from the sap is good for 1/4 sawing, for 2 reasons. One you will have wider lumber from that side. And with odd growth like that (off centered pith) flat sawn the lumber _may_ not be as stable (could have been a leaner ?)

You asked about http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f26/working-logs-too-big-mill-9592/ like a maple. There is no advantage to 1/4 sawing it, try the method in that link. For a big oak it's pretty simple if you want to 1/4 saw it, just make a kerf with a chainsaw and start driving wedges until you bust it in 1/2, then 1/4.

I would take the 8/4 from wherever in the log you see some you like. For me 8/4 is used for table legs and the like so the boards don't need to be as wide, so I take them from the outside. That is in a flat/flitch sawn situation where I would have to trim the sapwood off later anyway.

You asked many questions so I am jumping around. As far as 1/4 sawing the oak...no one says you have to. I rarely do. Even flat sawn you get 2-4 (depending on log size) 4/4 quarter sawn boards anyway.

Hey welcome BTW, if I didn't answer your questions feel free to ask more. Myself or any of the other experienced sawyers here are more than willing to help when we can.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

That's a very nice walnut alright. I just talked to a veneer buyer in Michigan who is 30 minutes from you. We didn't get to talk long because he was at his son's ball game but if that log is veneer quality he said he'd quote you a price. I asked him if the market was as down up there as I'd heard and he said not for BW veneer - they are paying top dollar for them still. Won't cost you anything to have him come look at it, and if that thing is as knot-free as it looks and doesn't have bird peck etc. you just might hear the cash register go "ka-ching!" 

If you're interested holler at me and I'll PM his name and number. Welcome to the forum. 

PS Good looking crew you have there, you'll need to be fitting them out with chaps and hardhats before you know it. 



.


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## djg (Dec 24, 2009)

Hey Drew,
I see you made it over here. Welcome. I told you would get some good advice from these guys. They're top notch.


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## Drew Pavlak (Aug 21, 2010)

Thanks djg for the PM. I wasn't getting a whole lot of help on the other site. Think it depends on topic and who's watching.

Daren, Thanks for your advice. There are actually 4 oak logs total. The one my daughter is standing on is about 46 inches at the widest part. It was also about 16 ft long. we cut it at about 10 ft on the straightest part. I am hoping to get some usable lumber from all of this and I would like to do it right. The walnut on the trailer is pretty straight, there is a slight bow to it at about 10 ft. the log is 18 ft total. There is a nice crotch section at the top. The smaller logs came from the top of that tree. It went pretty much 40 ft before the canopy.

Texas timbers - I wouldn't mind getting a quote, but I am not sure we can sell it. The farmer we got it from let us have it for our own use. Not sure how that would go over if we sold it. But I would still like to know how much it is worth. Any Ideas as a guess?

Thanks again for the advice. I am sure I will be posting more.

Drew


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## Drew Pavlak (Aug 21, 2010)

*Couple more pics of some more walnut*

I couldn't post this one in the initial post. Hit the max of 5 pics. The 3 logs on the outside of the stack are new. I am hoping that the largest walnut has some good figure. there are knots in various places all the way up. Not a huge log, but when it's free and you have the time I guess it doesn't matter all that much. I should also let you all know that I am really new to wood working. I got some tools really cheap over the last 2 years and now I am starting on gathering some lumber. Or at least that is the goal.

Drew


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Drew Pavlak said:


> . . .
> Texas timbers - I wouldn't mind getting a quote, but I am not sure we can sell it. . . . But I would still like to know how much it is worth. Any Ideas as a guess?


No I wouldn't venture a guess. If you know you aren't going to sell it, it's not a good idea to have him come look as his time is valuable. You will have some really nice lumber from all of that show us some pics when you mill it. 



.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Drew Pavlak said:


> . . . I am hoping that the largest walnut has some good figure. . . .


Don't know if it's feasible for you, but if you can get the walnut stumps out of the ground, they usually give you some killer figure. 



.


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## fromthehills (Aug 21, 2010)

Drew Pavlak said:


> . But I would still like to know how much it is worth. Any Ideas as a guess?
> 
> 
> 
> Drew



Just make a phone call to a hardwood supplier/mill. Get a bdft quote from them. Check out http://www.cswoods.com/ 

You can get rough price ideas there.


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## beelzerob (May 2, 2010)

My wife and I just had a good laugh. Standing about 5 ft back from the monitor, those pictures with the 2 girls in them could be straight from our archives. We've got a 6 yr with brown hair and a 4 yr with blonde hair and countless pictures of them posing on the objects of daddy's latest obsession.


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## Drew Pavlak (Aug 21, 2010)

*Fruits of my labor (Lots of Pics)*

Thought I would update to post some pics of some of the lumber that we have sawn. It's not a ton, but not bad for a first timer. I would also like to thank everyone for your advise and help while this was going on, it was all greatly appreciated and saved me some headaches as well.

Enjoy!:smile:
Drew


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## Drew Pavlak (Aug 21, 2010)

*More Pics*

Here's some More


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## Drew Pavlak (Aug 21, 2010)

*More Pics again......*

And More....The stack on the far right of the first picture is not a lot bigger. We added 2 cherry log to it and now it taller or as tall as the other 2 stacks in the picture.


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## Drew Pavlak (Aug 21, 2010)

*And More Again*

That's my 70 year old dad running the saw. I hope I am still able to do the stuff he can do when I am 70. Almost all of the logs we have sawn up he retrieved by himself. He would call and say "Hey, guess what, I got another log for you to saw."

If it weren't for him most of this would have been firewood.

Drew


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## Chad (May 10, 2009)

That's some nice looking lumber!


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