# White Pine



## Clark (Aug 13, 2009)

I have started dabbling in milling some of my own hobby wood from small stock I collect on my 14 band saw. 
I had some good luck with a dead chunk of cherry, some old spalted maple, and some fairly green ash and oak. 
I had about a 2.5" foot length of dead pine 6" in diameter so I thought i would try to quarter saw it (just for the heck of it; I know it is super small and soft wood to boot) and then glue them up for a small table top when they had dried out.
The first cut down the center of the log went fine, as did the second cuts down the center of the halves (quartering). From there it seemed to go down hill. I am using a very imperfect home-made fence on my saw but it has served me well to this point. As I was cutting I noticed that about halfway through the log, the piece was starting to pull away from the fence, tapering down the width of the cut board. I thought this must be me not paying attention to what I was doing but the same thing kept happening as I continued cutting. I'm not sure if it was the blade following a grain pattern or if there was some other flaw in my methods but it was extremely irritating. 
I think the boards will still be usable (to me) when they are planed down since the taper is about 1/8" over the length of the board (boards are 1" on one end and 7/8" at the other, roughly). I'm just wondering why that happened, when I figured that soft wood would be nice and easy. It did seem to be fairly wet (not green, has been dead for a while) but I'm not sure if that could have contributed to anything. 
I have another 5' lenght from the same tree but am leaning towards the firewood option since I was cutting the first one for Sh*ts and Giggles, and wound up with mostly Sh*ts.
Just thought I would post my experiance. 
Also here are a couple of pictures.


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## Logger (Nov 26, 2009)

*white pine*

It could be do to the stress/tension in the log, it shows up more when you 1/4 saw than flat saw.


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## interceptor (Feb 6, 2010)

I agree with Logger, wood develops stresses from uneven drying, actually a form of hydraulics. It's often called "Timber Bind". Folks that recover submerged timber for sawing encounter this quite often, have to take special steps in drying before sawing. I run into it from time to time with air dried softwoods, especially White Pine. When cutting down wider boards to width, the thinner portions often curl away from the blade.


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## Clark (Aug 13, 2009)

Good to know, thanks for your input.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Your bandsaw must be set up correctly to resaw*

Including a sharp blade with no "drift" or cutting to the right or left when attempting to cut straight along a fence.

Your quote" The first cut down the center of the log went fine, as did the second cuts down the center of the halves (quartering). From there it seemed to go down hill. I am using a very imperfect home-made fence on my saw but it has served me well to this point. *As I was cutting I noticed that about halfway through the log, the piece was starting to pull away from the fence, *tapering down the width of the cut board. I thought this must be me not paying attention to what I was doing but the same thing kept happening as I continued cutting. I'm not sure if it was the blade following a grain pattern or if there was some other flaw in my methods but it was extremely irritating.

This tells me that in may not have anything to do with the wood, and it shouldn't. You may want to build a bandsaw sled. Here's a link, but the title is wrong or misleading, not for crosscutting: 
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f27/cross-cut-sled-band-saw-9638/


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