# Milling a crooked tree



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

I have been working on some walnut and osage (cedar is next) I am down the last scraggly ones. I milled an osage today that was crooked as a dogs hind leg. I actually took it off the mill and sawed something else while I stewed on the best way to cut it.
In the first 2 pictures you can see I tried to slab the outside off and square it up some...that was not going to work. I like to make a square cant and grade saw (flip to the best face and take lumber there), if I did that with this log it would have been about a 10" square and 50% waste.
The other option is just flat saw the whole thing and stand the boards on edge and trim the bad stuff...again alot of waste and not much yield for the extra labor.
I just "knew" there was good stuff inside. So I decided to saw it "inside out" I just quartered it. I cut it in half, flipped it and cut in 1/2 again. Like the 3rd and 4th pictures show.
The next post (in a few minutes) will show how this all worked out.


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

With good faces to saw lumber from now I started milling. I just stood the quarters up "yucky side" down and milled what good I could. I pulled 2 boards at a time. The waste was minimized, as you can see in the last picture. I will get some yield from that waste even, chainsaw the good stuff off and table saw the chunks for small stuff. I just could not do any better on the mill.
Total milled lumber was not a huge pile, but pretty decent 10- 6"&7" wide 4/4" & 5/4" boards 11' long and a couple 3"x3"x11' posts. I don't think I could have gotten even that any other way. It cut down on labor and waste even from this terribly crooked little log.


----------



## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Nah, I have never milled any crooked osage. :laughing:


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Hey ,that with a walnut slab in the middle (crotch, bookmatch) or even a big burl slab book would make a killer table...still got em' ? Anyone who has milled osage has milled a crooked one, or 1000 :laughing:. I was just trying to show how to get some yield from a marginal log .

Oh boy, I could make something so killer from those. George Nakashima would roll over, seriously.


----------



## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

I actually planned that cut ahead of time.  I know. Me. Planning. :laughing: 

I oriented it with both ends up, and I raised my head enough to just barely take a small section of the top of each end. I did this because i knew I was going to wantg to bookmatch them the way you see them. I am gonna use two timberlinx timber framing connectors as my means of joining them. I have already done this on two large bookmatched cedar slabs and it works great. Biscuits are obviously out of the question and even the largest dominoes would be too small. 

So the I threw it on it sside and took baords. Those are 3 or 4" think I think. 

I have about 50 logs of various species if not more, stashed away that are unusual I saved for my own woodworking. You're right Nakashima would havea field day here. His daughter has revived his business by the way - after having nearly had to close the doors. They are booked nearly 2 years now. 

Are these the walnut you are asking about?


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

First thing I saw when I looked at that book was something like this. Nakashima style walnut butterflies (proper size/number) where they touch. I milled a walnut slab (couple really) the other day that has a perfectly intact and solid knot where a limb was broken off and overgrown. It was coming out on a angle so the knot and cool figure around it is oval. Set that smack in the middle of the hole in that osage to match the butterflies. The figure around the knot looks like waves, like someone skipped a rock off a still pond at midnight. The knot and curl are centered in an 18" (?) wide slab.


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

TexasTimbers said:


> So the I threw it on it sside and took baords. Those are 3 or 4" think I think.


I just reread and caught this, I would resaw that 5/4 (then we both could have a table :laughing


----------



## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

I have one butterfly on each end in my head this whole time, for looks. The Timberlinx are gonna be in there regrdless. But I like the two the way you have them better.

The species is what puzles me. I can't decide what would look better against that yellow, and I have to consider that over time the wood is going to eventually go to a dark honey, then chocolate brown eventually. 
Of course I'll be long gone and won't care at that point. :shifty:


----------

