Log milling question

[Kevin Bourque]

I have amassed a rather nice pile of hardwood logs in my back yard.
They are all nicely stacked and the ends are sealed to prevent checking.
I have about a dozen cherry logs 12' long and 18"-30" in diameter.
5 or 6 huge walnut logs 12' long and up to 36" in diameter.
2 huge white oaks 12' long and 48" diameter.
A bunch of hickory 12' long and 30" diameter.
And about a dozen smaller white oaks 12' long and 24" diameter.

I'm going to use the wood for furniture making and I'm curious to know how I should proceed with saw milling this wood.
Should I try to get the widest boards possible? Should some be quartersawn? Or some other ways?

[Richard Coers]

First off, sealed ends will not prevent checking. Slightly slow it down, but massive stesses build as they dry. Cracking will happen. Kiln drying? If not, treat it with a Borate based insecticide.
Quarter sawn or rift sawn are the most stable cuts. Less movement while drying. Cherry and white oak will both show ray flecks when quarter sawn, white oak way more. The large white oaks should really be quarter sawn if you like that look.
What style and kind of furniture? If tables are planned, leg stock will need to be cut. So some at 8/4, unless you like heavier style furniture. If you are planning lots of cabinets, you won't need anything thicker than 4/4. Natural edge slabs are getting popular again lately. Maybe some slabs for natural edge tables. I don't know where you are located, but sitting logs is a magnet for bugs and mold. Hickory will discolor pretty quickly.

[Prashun Patel]

I have just gone thru this. It's tricky.

You need to find someone with a portable band mill or have them trucked to a mill.

You really should get it milled as soon as possible.

Narrower boards will in general be more stable than wider. It's tempting to make big 24" wide slabs, but I would only do that if you have something spectacular in there.

It's also tempting to cut them into 8/4 or wider, but for a novice, you will have fewer problem going a little thinner if you can, like 5/4.

You'll get the most yield by cutting them as short as you can work with. If you cut them 9ft, and sticker them 6" off each end, then you have a good chance at stopping checks that might develop.

Plan how you will store them after milling. You need to sticker and stack them off the ground in a place that receives decent air flow but not a lot of direct sunlight. Cover the pile in a way that keeps the elements off but keeps the ends exposed. Inside a garage or barn is better.

Last, send a PM to Scott Smith or one of the other milling experts here.

[Cody Colston]

Those are some huge logs. I'm taking you at your word that the dimensions you quoted are diameters, not circumference. I see that mistake a lot on forums.

Anyway, definitely have the lumber milled asap. This is the best time of year for it.

I would probably have all the White Oak quarter-sawn or rift-sawn. That 48" diameter will probably need to be quartered anyway if sawn with a band mill. I would probably have the three or four largest Cherry logs QS & RS with the rest flat sawn. Walnut appearance isn't helped much by quarter-sawing. I would flat saw the Hickory, too, and I'd saw it first. That stuff gets really, really hard after it dries a while.

Wide boards can always be ripped later if necessary. Ripping them down just prior to using them will also help with color and grain matching.

Some rift-sawn 10/4 or 12/4 stock from each specie would be nice for table legs.

Wish that was my log stash. :)

[Cody Colston]

I hope you have a place to store all that lumber. I ran some numbers through the log volume calculator at Woodweb. I averaged the diameter where you gave a range and I plugged in 5 Hickory logs where you said a "bunch") Here's the numbers using the Doyle scale:

Cherry - 3,600 bf
Walnut - 2,535 bf
White Oak (2 x 48") - 2,904 bf
White Oak (12 x 24") - 3,600 bf
Hickory - 2,535 bf

That's over 15,000 bf of lumber in those logs.

You could build a house full of furniture and the house to put it in.

[Scott T Smith]

Those are some huge logs. I'm taking you at your word that the dimensions you quoted are diameters, not circumference. I see that mistake a lot on forums.

Anyway, definitely have the lumber milled asap. This is the best time of year for it.

I would probably have all the White Oak quarter-sawn or rift-sawn. That 48" diameter will probably need to be quartered anyway if sawn with a band mill. I would probably have the three or four largest Cherry logs QS & RS with the rest flat sawn. Walnut appearance isn't helped much by quarter-sawing. I would flat saw the Hickory, too, and I'd saw it first. That stuff gets really, really hard after it dries a while.

Wide boards can always be ripped later if necessary. Ripping them down just prior to using them will also help with color and grain matching.

Some rift-sawn 10/4 or 12/4 stock from each specie would be nice for table legs.

Wish that was my log stash. :)

I concur with Cody's recommendations. Find a sawyer that is familiar with "grade sawing", as they should know how to mill your lumber in order to obtain the highest quality lumber - although not necessarily the highest yield. Many millers are well versed in producing "barn grade" lumber, fewer truly understand proper grade sawing. You want to find the guy that knows how to mill to generate the highest quality furniture grade boards.

By all means have that large oak quartersawn!

Personally I would try to keep the boards as wide as possible; you can always rip them narrower later. Mill wide boards a bit thicker than narrower ones; this helps to ensure that they will clean up across the entire face after drying. I would also flitch saw the walnut, (and mill at least 50% of it as 9/4) and sticker the logs as flitches.

Read up on proper stacking, stickering and air drying lumber; it would be a shame to lose a lot of wide lumber due to drying degrade.

Scott

[Frank Drew]

I agree will all the advice to have the logs sawn sooner rather than later, and, as Prashun suggests, be prepared beforehand to stack and sticker the lumber appropriately. The lumber will dry only as well as you stack it, so take some time to do this well.

Personally, I'd flitch saw (saw through-and-through) most of the material, depending on the sawyer's capacity. You'll get an assortment of flat , rift and quarter sawn from each log this way, and you should request a mix of thicknesses, even up to (IMO) 16/4 or even heavier, which is great for turned legs on big tables. These will take a long time to dry but consider it an investment in your furniture making future.

As Scott recommends, wider boards probably shouldn't be sawn thinner than 5/4 to ensure that you can flatten them after drying and still have a usable thickness left. For my tastes, the best looking walnut and cherry boards for table tops, panels, etc. are flat sawn through-and-through, leaving the rift- and quartered stuff for legs and framing members where straight grain is appropriate.

Opinions differ on drying lumber between kiln or air drying; I've had great results with air drying, but it requires a lot of patience.

[Paul Murphy]

You also might saw some legstock of 12/4 (or even 16/4 if you see a future use for it).

[Jim Andrew]

Logs crack from the outside in, the longer they lay the more they crack, and after while you have some fine firewood. Or you could hose them down every few days. Water slows down the cracking.

[Kevin Bourque]

Thanks for all the great advice guys. I'm scheduling the portable sawmill guy for early January.
I have plenty of acreage to store the wood so that's not an issue, and I've been reading up on proper stickering methods.
One recommendation I've gotten from someone was to rift cut the cherry and then stack it exactly as it was cut from the tree.
Pretty much everybody said to QS the white oak and I was planning on cutting the hickory at least 8/4 because I'm planning to build a new work bench with it.

One question: I have at least a half dozen poplar trees downed by recent storms and some older ones lying around too. Some are tulip poplars up to 48" in diameter.
Previously when these trees fell they were piled up in a corner of the farm somewhere to rot since they make lousy firewood, but I was thinking if they could be used I would try to salvage them.
I haven't really used poplar since I was in trade school; We used it a lot because it was cheap, so I'm not really up to date on its limitations and uses.

[Paul Murphy]

Yellow poplar makes very nice secondary parts such as case backs, drawer sides & bottoms, web frames, and so on. Some folks with more finishing skill than me have finished poplar to look like cherry, and it is a great wood for painted projects. Poplar is not rot resistant, so its for indoor uses, and logs laying on the ground will decay faster than walnut or white oak.

I like poplar, I milled 3000 bf of vertical t&g to panel my prior shop. It was beautiful, and I miss it even now.

[Tom Fischer]

I was in the George Nakashima wood shed once about 15 years ago. All flat sawn stuff, mostly walnut.
The big stuff was stickered as flitch, as it originally came off the log.
Pretty sure it was strapped as well (the metal stuff used for pallets.)
Had a some pics of it, but can't find them right now.

[Danny Hamsley]

Cut a mix of thicknesses. 4/4, 6/4, 9/4, 16/4 (a few for mantles, etc.). Put the highest quality wood in the logs in the thicker stock. Low grade thick stock is not worth much whereas, with 4/4, you can work around the defects easier. I also agree with the wide width, especially if you plan to sell any. Wide boards sell much better. When you sticker your lumber, put the best quality on the bottom and the lower quality on top so the weight of the low grade works for you to keep the high grade flat.