I can buy through sawn white oak for 75 cents a BF. The family owned sawmill will saw up trees about 12-14″ diameter and figure there would be ballpark 50 bf/log. The resulting boards would of course be a mix of grades. I was wondering what I could reasonably expect in the proportion of FAS vs number 1 common vs number 2 or worse. They are also offering 4×4 8′ cedar posts for about $11 ($1/bf).
I’m asking because a nearby larger mill is offering (not through sawn) number 2 at 70 cents and number 1 at maybe 1.00-1.20 and FAS at about $2.
Replies
Off the top of my head:
14" log ---
4 pieces quartersawn 5" wide just as likely to have knots as not.
I would expect at least 6 pieces about 10" wide If the logs are good, 3 should be clear.
GHRYour reply doesn't make much sense to me, ElBubba is sawing his logs through so he will not have boards 5" wide. especially not the ones with quartersawn lumber in it.
How do you know how many boards he will end up with if you don't know how thick the boards are?C.
The quartersawn boards, however thick can't really be much wider than 5" because the pith must be discarded since including it in a board assures its warpage and other bad behavior.
That is beside the point, the boards containing quartersawn and rift lumber will be as wide as the log is at that time in the sawing process.
If one choose to remove some parts of it for a reason or an other, is not what has been asked in the original question.C.
I'd still like to have a better idea of how much "good" wood I can expect where by good I mean number 1 or better. I realize you can't predict what one log will give but I'm looking at getting about 10 logs worth which should give a "statistical sample".
Fortunately I have a need for several hundred bf of lower grade oak for outdoor projects so I thought buying logs in their entirety would work out for me where most of the wood wood go for construction applications and I could set aside the nicer stuff for bookcases etc.
You are asking "good" wood. It depends upon the log. What grade of log are you talking about. Veneer, #1 grade Sawlog, #2 Sawlog, #3 sawlog or pulp. If you are talking #1 grade sawlog I get the following yields.
A 14" log will yield a 9-10" cant of "clean" wood From there you can get about 9, 1" boards with 1/3 q-sawn, 2/3 rift and flat sawn. If you want all q-sawn you will have to ask for 3 boards out of the center to be cut and the other 2, 3" x 9" cants to be flipped and sawn vertically. The center cut boards should be resawn and box the heart to remove the "future" split that will develop in the center.
Nobody seems to understand that you want to saw these logs through.
So let's assume you start with a #1 saw log, 3 faces clean, 14" diameter.
You will get 2 slabs and 9 flitches (more or less) @ 4/4.
Flitches #1 - 2 - 8 - 9 will be clear and flat sawn.
Flitches # 3 and 7 will be clear and rift sawn.
#4 and 6 will be clear 1 face if you are lucky and the center flitch will be clear and quartersawn on the outer edges.
This although educated is never the less a guess.C.
I understood what he wanted. The truth is that the center boards will split at the pith. Because of the split those boards will be about 5" wide.
Sorry I don't agree, he will end up with center flitches close to 14" wide.
If these flitches have cracks in the middle it's irrelevant to the original question.C.
Hmmm. Is a board with cracked pith right down the middle considered #1 or better? I wouldn't think so, but I'm no expert on lumber grading.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Citrouille,
I understand fine. I saw wood for a living. I am explaining to him if he wants the best yield in the best grade possible here is what you will get. If all you want is live edge flitches then you will get 10-11 at the most with no respect to grade.
Edited 4/21/2006 1:27 pm ET by Sawmillnc
Bubba,
All this back and forth, in my mind at least, is akin to asking, "I've got these suitcases. How many pairs of pants, shirts, and socks can I expect to find in each one when I open them up?"
Cheers,
Ray Pine
I'm sorry you see it as besides the point, but the point is you won't have a 14" wide flitch through the center that will be worth doing anything with except rip it into two 5" quartersawn boards. If you are just looking for geometry, draw a 14" circle and draw parallel lines through it at the thicknesses you want, then count. The responses you got assumed you wanted something more than geometry.
Obviously you didn't read the 8th post.C.
It depends on the grade of the sawlog; I have some numbers (can't find them right at this minute), but as I recall the yield of FAS from a log can be as low as 2%, commons make up a large part of each log.
Here's a link to an article which gives some numbers for yield from three grades of sawlog....basically, you can expect around 60% FAS, Sel, and 1 common from a grade 1 log, 40-60% from a Grade 2 log, and 20-40% from a grade
three.http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/pbfiles/PB1628.pdf Cabinetmaker/college woodworking instructor. Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Thanks for the link. I'm new to woodworking and didn't even know sawlogs were graded. I knew about grades for lumber and had heard of veneer grade trees but thought that was just a slang term. I've also been reading Hoadley (and getting depressed learning about all the problems you can run into).
But post 14 explains pretty well why no one can really answer the question that was being asked. Logs vary so much that you can't tell without knowing the quality of the log, what the quality of the boards will be. Since the logs aren't being selected at random it also makes little sense to talk about the "average" log. All you can really say, before looking at the log or knowing the forest from which it comes, is the geometry of how many boards can be cut, but that is trivial, and that the center flitch will have to be ripped to eliminate the pith.
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