how to alaska mill to get usable first and last boards?

[Marine5068]

Those "scrap" cuts are worth more to me than the boards from the middle of the log. I use my diy mill to cut uniform 4" thick half rounds and make tables
out of them. The leftover cants I take to a local sawmill and have them slice it up as live edge boards.

Now that's a good looking picnic table.

 

[rarefish383]

I keep coming back to this thread. I save almost all of my top and bottom "caps", as I call them. Pending on the wood, I've had people almost get in fights over them. Stuff like the Dawn Redwood that is quite fat at the bottom and tapers quickly, I've had people fit them to a corner, at a slight diagonal, and cut shelves level to the floor and put pots of hanging plants on them. Very attractive. If I find a smallish Cedar, maybe 12", I'll leave stubs sticking out, take the bark off and put a finish on it. The sap wood can be anywhere from whitish or yellow, and the heart of the stubs will be deep red. Make great hat racks. Then I took two pieces of Fir, about 5' long by 1 1/2 inch thick, and routered a grove at a slight angle on one piece for a base. Then stuck the second piece in the grove and made a display board for a rifle. Those irregular boards can have a lot of character.