Quartersawn White Oak

A few days ago I reported on sawmilling a large oak log. The log was ten feet long and thirty-three inches in diameter. I estimate it weighed around three thousand pounds. I sawed this log using a technique called quarter-sawing. Simply stated, this is a method of ripping the log in fourths. Imagine looking at the end of a round log and drawing a cross-hairs. Then imagine a saw blade cutting from one end to the other starting at the cross-hairs. You would then have four pie shaped pieces of log. Then you saw each piece individually by cutting a one-inch board off the flat side alternating sides after each cut. This method of sawing causes the growth rings of the tree to be perpendicular to the flat sides of the boards. This produces a beautiful surface and yields flashes or tiger stripe patterns as you often see in antique furniture.

Today I stacked the lumber to begin a year of air-drying. See pictures.