Why would anyone want to quartersaw sycamore, you ask? Sycamore flat sawn is boring, and isn't very stable either. Mostly these logs get cut up for pallet stock, and railroad ties. These were destined to be railroad ties. However, quartersawn sycamore looks completely different that flat sawn sycamore. Quartersawn is gorgeous. It has a figure ranging from a lizard skin pattern to a fish scale pattern, and all the way to a heavy elongated scaling that looks like it was engraved into the wood. The colors are creamy white to orange to reds and russets! It is very nice stuff, IF it is cut correctly. Cut wrong, and you just ruined a log that would have made a nice railroad tie!
One of the Amish mills that I work with came across a whole line of giant sycamores growing along a stream. Sycamores always seem to grow where it is wet. As a matter of fact, fresh cut (green) sycamore lumber is so wet that it will sink, so don't be building a canoe out of it. I happened to be there at the mill for something else when they came in. After a little negotiating with the main man, I was the owner of an entire log truck full of sycamore logs. There were even bigger ones there, but I knew these would have to be cut in half with a chainsaw to get them to fit onto the sawmill. That sure doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, so we left those there. I had the logs trucked to another Amish sawmill as the production mill where I bought them from would not have the time to cut them properly. Little did I realize how long cutting these 11 logs would actually take.
Here they are (below) in all of their glory. Ten of the eleven are here, and we had wrestled, and I mean WRESTLED, one onto the deck already . I'm worn out now, and we having even started yet.
From this pile we used cant hooks to move them down the runway which lined up with the bed of the sawmill. We had to put a pipe on the other side of the mills frame. We did not want the momentum of the log to push itself right across the mill bed, and onto the floor on the other side. These logs were around 1500lbs each, so like a fat hungry guy at a buffet table, there is no human that can stop them once they are on the move. You can see the runway in one of my other blogs if it interests you. We started with logs on top of the pile, and worked our way down. It seemed pretty dangerous since the top logs were about six feet off of the runway, but my Amish friend told me not to worry. He said, "Just do not get in front of the moving log, and you will be fine!" I guess that's some good advice to remember.
Okay, we have one on the mill. We set the mill bed, so we are cutting right through the heart on BOTH ends of the log. Easier said than done, but it's done! The picture below shows us making our first cut right through the center of the log.
The word crap, and other colorful words were used next. The debarker, and the frame that holds it, is hitting the outside of the log. The debarker is a grinder that removes bark, mud, ice, and rocks that may be stuck to the log. Removing this material saves wear on the blade.
Well we can't move the mill head back as the log settles onto itself where it was cut, plus we have to finish the cut anyway so onward ho! We have to get out the chainsaw and do some whittling, so the blade can move forward.
We have to cut a groove, so the mill can continue its progress. Below is a picture with it done.
This took a while, and this is one of the smaller logs. What are we going to do when we get to the 35" diameter ones? How much more lumber am I going to lose? That debarker has got to come off. Two flipping hours later, and yet more colorful language and we got it off! There was lots of frozen sawdust jammed into the pivot pin which made it hard to drive out. Nothing is ever easy, especially when it is seven degrees out.
The next step is to roll the top half of the log off of the bottom half. Now we have to rotate the bottom part, so that when we cut the bolt ( a bolt is a wedge) off of the half that the grain lines are perpendicular to the face of the board.
Below we are cutting the bolt:
In the picture above, we are cutting an 8/4 (two inches thick) bolt.
After we cut the bolt, we are no longer into premium quartersawn figure anymore, so we have to take a wedge off to get back to outstanding figure, see below:
We have to pay close attention to the grain lines. If the lines are not a straight 90 degrees to the face then all of the figure is lost. By cutting the wedge in the picture above we will have the figure back, if not, cut another wedge until you see it. The wedge gets tossed. There sure is a lot of waste when quartersawing.
Repeat the process over, and over. Here below we are cutting another 4/4 (1" thick) bolt off of a smaller piece:
Notice the quartered wedge in the picture is rotated with a shim for maximum figuring.
Below are a bunch of bolts that we cut, and tossed onto the floor awaiting to be turned into planks. Some will be made into 4/4 boards, and some into 8/4 boards.
Now we put them back onto the mill, and square them off, so they are a flat board, see below.
The little wedge on top gets tossed leaving a board with two flat highly figured surfaces. The board will still have the chamfered edge, but we can take care of that easily with the edger.
Next time we will do Method Two of quatersawing our sycamore. It is slower, but we do get some wider boards. We will also follow this lumber all of the way through the drying, and milling, so stay tuned! I will also get you some pictures of what quartersawn sycamore looks like too.
Thanks for reading:
Kevin Koski
Curly Maple Wood
Dry Kiln owner/operator
