# Quartersawing with an Alaskan ?



## NuggyBuggy (Nov 25, 2011)

I've got a 36" oak, about 35 feet long in the trunk, and two 076s. If all I have is an Alaskan, can this be done or is it prohibitively time consuming ? All I've found is an article that talks about quartersawing with a minimill. All I know about quartersawing suggests a lot of work.. On the other hand, the stories of warpage and wastage with flatsawing seem discouraging.


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## mtngun (Nov 25, 2011)

Yes, it can be done, and yes, it is time consuming.


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## BlueRider (Nov 26, 2011)

The traditional ways of quartersawing are all based on milling with a monster circular saw and a powered log carriage. There is also a less traditional way of quarter sawing with a lucas swing blade mill that could be adapted for chainsaw milling. the lucas method does not yeild 100% quarter sawn wood like the traditional method of quartering the log and then taking cuts off of alternating faces. 

I am not very good with google sketch up so I don't have a diagram to illustrate how it is done but I will try to give a written explanation and hopefully someone else can add a drawing. 

Perhaps the best thing to do at this point is to stop thinking of it as quartering or quarter sawing the log and to think of it as producing quarter sawn lumber. When milling a log through and through with a chain saw (what most of us do) you will end up with a the slabs near the center being quarter sawn.

You start with a traditional cap cut ad then the second cut will be about 4" up from the pith (less for a smaller tree) and will create a monsterously thick slab, in the case of your 35" diameter oak this slab will likely be about 8" thick. rotate this slab 90* and take a cap cut and and then mill the resulting "cant" through and through. This will get you a bunch of 8" wide boards and about half will be quarter sawn and most of the rest will be rift sawn with the first and last boards possibly having a bit of plain sawn. Back on the log, the 4" on each side of the pith can be milled using the traditional chainsaw milling technique and it will yeild quarter sawn slabs. the bottom part of the log gets milled the same as the top.

The biggest challenge of this method is in milling an 8" wide cant with a large alaskan. If you had a Rip Saw then this would be an ideal method of milling quarter sawn wood.

If you do mill this way please post some pics up in the milling tips thread


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## BobL (Nov 26, 2011)

I've done this on a small/short (6ft long 16" diam ) log.

Split log down the middle and tek screw log back together. 

Rotate log by 90 and split log in half again.

Undo tek screws and carry quarters to band saw and mill of alternate faces.


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## Talltom (Nov 27, 2011)

I've done lots of quartersawing with oak - yields beautiful wood but is quite involved, even when you have the right equipment. An Alaskan is definitely NOT the right equipment. Splitting the logs into quarters isn't that hard, especially if you rejoin the halves as BobL suggests. An accurate right angle on the second cut is preferable, but not critical. Bigger problems occur when trying to cut the faces and edging the boards. The quarters are inherently unstable and supporting them while providing clearance for your mill can be complicated, getting more so as you make more cuts and the quarter gets smaller. A shorter mill is an advantage here. Cutting as BlueRider suggests makes handling easier, but reduces your yield. Same with gang cutting the edges of the boards; you end up cutting away some of the best lumber. I edge each board to get best yield and often end up with a taper in width. I have a Logosol M5 so I can cut the faces from the bottom and edge individual boards relatively easily. Still a lot of work. A MiniMill or the like would make edging much easier. Otherwise, I would stack them to dry without edging at all. 

One advantage to cutting the faces with an Alaskan mill is that it will follow the first cut and give you consistent thickness. Logs tend to bow out at the ends when they are split in half, so cutting the faces with a mill that cuts in a straight line yields boards that are thicker in the middle. I cut my first boards a little fat and plane them.


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## NuggyBuggy (Nov 27, 2011)

Tall tom, blurider, BobL, and mtngun, thanks for your replies.

After reading them I realized that they all require a good way to move some heavy pieces, and I don't have them. Blue rider, your points about balancing a quarter are well taken.

I guess I'll just flatsaw the log and hope for the best. Heck, I will probably have trouble moving 8' x 36" x 2" slabs.


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## mikeb1079 (Nov 27, 2011)

if i were you i'd go ahead and saw it thru and thru, chainsaw milling is hard enough without handling giant quarters between every cut. also don't worry about warpage and defect, if you stack and sticker properly you should be allright with oak. you'll get some quartersawn pieces this way (probably more than you expect) anyway and you can use those for the most visible part of your project. one thing about oak though (at least the red and white we have) is that it dries very slowly. it's a must to keep it out of direct sunlight and don't let it get rained on or re wetted after you stack it. the surface will then dry out and split. just make sure to cover it adequately and you'll be ok.

good luck!


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## Kicker_92 (Dec 9, 2011)

View attachment 210589








Here's how I do it, not perfect but it works pretty quick.

1st cut, take off the top slab

2nd / 3rd cut take off a couple q-sawn slabs, say 2" thick. Split and edge these with a worm-drive circular saw to save time.

With a mini-mill or similar, knock off a square face on the off-cuts. Stand these upright and rip off some rift & q-sawn slabs. Edge with circular saw to maximize yield.


Hopefully the picture helps...


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## AaronB (Dec 9, 2011)

I had a pretty large oak that I had flatsawn, it produced enough quartersawn boards for me to do this table. Legs, aprons, trim pieces, drawer, are all quartersawn pieces that came from the log just by me flatsawing it.


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## huskyhank (Dec 11, 2011)

That is a very nice table!


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## jrmywstr (Oct 10, 2016)

Ok, ok, I know this is an old thread but I find myself asking the same question. To quarter or not with CSM...



Kicker_92 said:


> View attachment 210589
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> ...



Kicker_92 do you think you could reshare this pic or a similar one?


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## rarefish383 (Oct 11, 2016)

I was going to build a stand to put the quarters on, and kind of forgot about it. Here's what I was going to try. Get two or three 4X4's, 4' wide, and bolt a piece of 2"X2", or 3X3, steel angle to it. Bolt the angle way out on the ends. Once you have the quarters, jack one end up and slide the 4X4's under the log. I have a boom on my MF135, so picking them up is easy. Before I had the tractor I had an A frame I built and used a cable jack to lift the ends of logs. With two people it will be easy. The log will lay on the 4X4 with the round end down. Roll it till the flat side is against the angle, chock the round side, then run some screws through the angle into the flat. Mill off the top board. Unbolt and roll over to the other side and repeat. You can keep flopping back and forth till you get close to the angle. For my mill guide I'd use a good straight 2X6 with 2 deck screws that just make it into the wood, all you need is enough to keep the guide board from shifting. If you use a screw gun, you can back the screws out just enough to release the guide board in a few seconds. Since I have the time now, I might try to build one this weekend. If it works I'll post pics. Most every thing I do is with live edge. If you milled the log into a square cant, then quartered that, just flop the squares r-l-r-l till done, Joe.


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## Shawn Curry (Oct 13, 2016)

Here's what I do - it's fast but yields a bit more firewood / flatsawn stock than a "pure" quartersawn method. And it does require a vertical bandsaw. 

I call this my "inside out" milling strategy. First I mark H/V lines thru heart center on all the logs and cut them in half with the Alaskan. Then I can set the mill for the _width _of the boards I want, and take a slab from each log half. Then I take the slabs to my bandsaw, and slice them along the vertical line I marked earlier. Finally I cut the boards on the band as from the slab halves. I usually go for 4x4s.


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## Greenland South (Oct 15, 2016)

Here is a method for 1/4 sawing on an M8. With a little fiddling you could make it work.


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## Sawyer Rob (Oct 16, 2016)

The way he "quartered" with that M8, he got a lot of "rift" sawn, not quarter sawn...

SR


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