The guys who look after the district council’s (www.macpherson.co.nz) trees called last week. Walnut coming down at the old pool site. If I was in quick (before the firewood vultures) it would be mine. Hired a trailer first thing Saturday, pressed the good wife into service, and we picked up 3 loads of nice (mostly well dead) spalted and crotchy walnut.
Biggest piece is a couple of metres by about 400mm diameter, with some good heart colour. Don’t ask how we got it on the trailer!
Here, the oldest trees of any species date from about 1890, and this one is only maybe 50 years old. Local walnut is rare, there’s no commercial supplies, and you take what you can get.
OK. So the question. Given this is a rare log (even if pretty small) I want to saw it with minimum waste. Has anyone here had any experience ripping logs this size by hand? I don’t mean with a 2-man pit saw, but I’ll need more than a carpenter’s 650mm hand saw. I’ve taken a quick look on Google with no joy. I’m prepared to buy a suitable saw if I can locate one!
Malcolm
Replies
Kiwi,
Steve Larkham's arm is only bruised, so I will not be excomunicated for having a go at answering this.
In Cambodia they do this all the time with a one-man saw.
Take a piece of wide bandsaw blade with a hole in each end and make a bowsaw with the blade set 90*. lay the timber onto an elevated frame, stand on top and away they go. I have a photo in the archives somewhere when I went around photographing their cabinet making techniques.
The bloke I saw doing it looked about 75 and seemed to be coping Ok. The saw loked to be long enough for a stroke from shoulder to waist.
Dave
Thanks
No comment on arms, bruised or otherwise! Cricket, for the northern un-initiated.
I spent more time than I could afford fossiking thru my local hardware retailers today and found a Swedish handsaw with rip teeth. Been in stock so long the price was handwritten! I bought it, and will have a go later in the week. Should just about reach thru the largest of the logs. No-one rips by hand any more!
I'd think about getting this walnut to a chainsaw miller (or one of the commercial band mills) but the best stuff is likely to be from the crotch at the base of the log, and I'd waste most of it just getting it onto a commercial bench!
Malcolm
New Zealand | New Thinking
Edited 4/4/2005 6:23 am ET by kiwimac
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