# Milling Maple for Figure



## Kicker_92 (Feb 22, 2009)

Just cut a broadleaf maple today, and will mill it in the coming weeks. Looking for advice on which way to slice this up for hopefully the most figure. I have a couple of crotch pieces as well, but will probably just end seal those and let them dry for a year of two first.

So how would you slice up this piece in the photo? For reference, that is a 16" bar on the mighty Poulan.


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## SilverBox (Feb 22, 2009)

Kicker_92 said:


> So how would you slice up this piece in the photo? For reference, that is a 16" bar on the mighty Poulan.



I don't know how to say this, but it appears someone puked on your saw


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## Kicker_92 (Feb 23, 2009)

SilverBox said:


> I don't know how to say this, but it appears someone puked on your saw



So, if I repainted my old Poulan to look like your Stihl/Husky, would that make it cut better? opcorn:


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## Backwoods (Feb 23, 2009)

I would roll the log onto the loading arms and raise it up onto the bed, then I would raise the log turner and rotate it looking for the worst side then level to the pith. Generally, the worst side is horns up. The first cut would be low enough to get 6” of flat wood all the way down the log. Then I would flip the log and cut a 6” face on that side as well. Then do the same to the other tow sides. This will give you a roughly square log that has the pith centered in it. From here cut for quality. I know my mill is different but the concept should be the same.


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## Kicker_92 (Feb 23, 2009)

Backwoods said:


> Generally, the worst side is horns up. The first cut would be low enough to get 6” of flat wood all the way down the log. Then I would flip the log and cut a 6” face on that side as well.



So you would probably make your first two cuts as shown?





And then rotate and make most of the cuts flat sawn? I'll probably cut to 10/4 and then resaw once dried since I lose so much to the CSM kerf.

What about quartering and going for the most vertical grain? I haven't cut any maple before, and am new to milling, so any help is appreciated. What are the odds of this piece having any curly or figure?


Thanks!


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## BobL (Feb 23, 2009)

Widest boards are in the black box
There's a very nice bunch of quarter sawns in the blue boxes - but they would not look as good.

Personally I would go with the red block but I'm not sure if I would peel the boards off R to L or vertically?


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## SilverBox (Feb 23, 2009)

Kicker_92 said:


> So, if I repainted my old Poulan to look like your Stihl/Husky, would that make it cut better? opcorn:



Heck no. I'm selling all my stihl/Husky. All I got left is a clapped out stihl 010 av that my ebay buyer backed out of, and a Husky 40 thats disassebled sitting in a milk crate.. I'd post pics but they are even uglier then your puke machine 

What that saw needs is some pink flames or maybe some bright yellow lightning bolts.. Just so people know its that color on purpose ...


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## excess650 (Feb 23, 2009)

Kicker_92 said:


> So how would you slice up this piece in the photo? For reference, that is a 16" bar on the mighty Poulan.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## arbadacarba (Mar 6, 2009)

Unless you are just looking to maximize production, try to cut FOHC whenever possible. This will minimize your warpage and reduce shake later on. I have found that cutting big cants and leaving them for a year or so air drying really relaxes the wood and now get no more than 10% falldown on later resawn wood. I cut for furniture grade and high figure and go slow. with bigleaf you sometimes hit short pockets of phenomenal figure. Also, if you can get the stump it will always have the most figure. Pressure wash it, block it to approximate sizes and then seal it, put it in a corner and forget about it for a while. If you turn yourself you will find it one of the easiest woods to turn to get an above average finished product. If you don't turn yourself then trade the stuff ro some free turnings. Stumpwood is hard to come by and is very stable.


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## Freehand (Mar 7, 2009)

There's a very nice bunch of quarter sawns in the blue boxes - but they would not look as good.

I beg to differ,the quartersawn maple has very showy"fleck",not to mention the superior stability quartersaw offers.couple this with some opportune fiddlleback and/or bird's-eye and you have a superior product.

cheers and good luck,excess


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## slabmaster (Mar 7, 2009)

You want to flat saw as much as you can.You won't get any quilted figure when quarter sawing big leaf maple .Flat sawn is also best for birdseye maple as well.Quartersawing maple is only good for flame and ray but never good for birdseye or quilt.


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## Kicker_92 (Mar 7, 2009)

*Started Milling Today*

Started out milling today on the 36" base crotch section:






Unfortunatly, it turns out that the two sections of truck only joined at the rootball, so this ended up just becoming seperate slabs. It's always a surprise when you open up that first slice...






Managed to still get a couple nice 2.5" thick slabs for use someday:






Will hopefully get to that main trunk tomorrow if the snow and hail stop this evening. I think I'll go the easy route and go for the two lower blue boxes that BobL has drawn, and flat saw the upper section into 2.5" slabs.

Thanks for all the suggestions!


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## BobL (Mar 7, 2009)

Nice, . . . . . I see you have given the mighty poulan a rest?


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## Kicker_92 (Mar 7, 2009)

BobL said:


> Nice, . . . . . I see you have given the might poulan a rest?



It's a handy little back-up saw to the 385, and works pretty well for and old 56cc, and has a great bar on it. 

Here's the current lineup:






As you can tell I'm not very brand loyal:
Poulan 3400 / 16"
Husky 385XP / 30"
Stihl ms880 / 41" (3/8" 8-tooth)


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## artie__bc (Mar 8, 2009)

One thing with Western maple I've learned is to cut the longest boards I can. It's bad for end splits, even if you seal. Also the logs usually have a split through the pith. I often split the log into two cants by cutting down this split, and then turn those cants 90 degrees and taking 8/4 boards off those. Gives you mostly rift & qs, and they're pretty stable. This is for straight grain like what you show there, of course. If you don't take that split or stress crack, or whatever it is into account and cut across it rather then along it, I've had all the boards from a log split into two as they dry.


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## BobL (Mar 8, 2009)

Kicker_92 said:


> It's a handy little back-up saw to the 385, and works pretty well for and old 56cc, and has a great bar on it.
> 
> Here's the current lineup:
> As you can tell I'm not very brand loyal:
> ...



Nice - should keep you busy for a while!


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## Kicker_92 (Mar 9, 2009)

Started into the main trunk today:






Mounted on the angled log stack:












Unfortunatly this crotch sections was also very weak, a lot of bark:











Managed to even catch some sunshine today, always a nice break from office work during the week.


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## Zodiac45 (Mar 9, 2009)

slabmaster said:


> You want to flat saw as much as you can.You won't get any quilted figure when quarter sawing big leaf maple .Flat sawn is also best for birdseye maple as well.Quartersawing maple is only good for flame and ray but never good for birdseye or quilt.



That's been my experiance too. Once in a while you can catch some birdseye but it's fleeting.


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