Resawing 2' stock

[Josko Catipovic]

I scored some 2' wide old-growth clear white pine that's now dry and stable. Planks are between 10/4 and 12/4. I'd like to resaw it to 4/4 for a batch of sea chests. It's too wide for my bandsaw, local sawmill won't/can't deal with it, and I haven't found anyone local (Cape Cod) with a portable bandsaw mill. I'm tempted to get a Roubo frame saw and have at it. I'd guess it's between 100 and 150 lineal feet of sawing, so it seems like a handful for a handsaw, but I'm game to try. I've also thought about ripping in half (width-wise) and then gluing back up, but that seems like a less preferable option.

Before buying a frame handsaw, I'd appreciate any comments from folks who dealt with this.

[Bryan Lisowski]

If you aren't willing to expand your search for a portable bandsaw mill, there has to be someone near Boston or in Maine. Try looking on the Woodmizer site or Norwood site. Otherwise by hand is your only option.

[Andrew More]

Call around to local wood working shops? You might be able to work something out with them. I know a few youtubers with nice equipment have mentioned renting it out on occasion to other wood workers.

If you DO decide to go the hand route, I'd suggest running it through a table saw on both sides first. It will save some effort, give some room for the wood to twist and pinch, and help guide your saw blade.

[Josko Catipovic]

Thanks guys. I did get access to a 2' jointer and planer that way at a local boatbuilder. I'll cast out a wider net for bandsaw mill(ers). Still, how well do those large Roubo framesaws work?
And yes, I was planning to kerf in both sides of the cut on the tablesaw.

[Mark Bolton]

Agreed, there are without a doubt dozens of woodmizer owners within an hour of your location that could resaw for you. Piece of cake for a bit of windshield time.

[Prashun Patel]

"less preferable" is relative.

To me, ripping them into managable sections is way more preferable than manually resawing it tall for a batch of chests.

Also, when you resaw - especially stuff you've dried on your own - it's hard to anticipate the movement after resaw. Ripping will give you narrower boards that require less work to get them flat (and with less waste) than wide boards. Ripping narrow gives you the ability to remove sections close to the pith, orient for stability and pattern match, and minimize growth ring arcs.

There appears to be a strong bias for people to maintain original width at all costs. But there are huge gains in terms of handling and stability by narrowing things.

[Mark Bolton]

and stability

Thats my #1. We run a lot of hard maple and get boards that are 12-14 inches wide on a regular basis and even my help argues with regards to leaving them wide for panels and so on as opposed to breaking them into glue ups. They dont take into account when one decides to take a left hook down the road and roaches the entire project.

[Richard Coers]

There's a reason saw mills went from man power with a pit saw, to water power. If you need convincing, try resawing a 2x12 by hand and see how long it takes. Then double it with the double width. Not sure I would have even attempted that 40 years ago when I started woodworking! I'm guessing you would have over 100 hours in hand sawing those 20" boards, including time to bandage blisters. Band saw mill will have it done in less than 1.

[Alex Zeller]

It's been years since I've looked but Home Depot use to rent a Makita circular saw with a 16 5/16" blade with a max depth of cut of over 6". With a fence and some patience you should be able to get good results. If you don't mind spending a few bucks for around $400 or so you can buy a used one off of ebay and then sell it after you are done without loosing much.

[Brian Holcombe]

Can a Roubo frame saw be made wide enough to deal with a 24” wide board.

I agree with Prashun, I like keeping wide boards wide but there is a strong possibility that this turns the material into a scrap pile. Less chance of that at the narrower width.

I’d stash this away for a project in which it can be used full width.

[Thomas Wilson]

There is another option. Your 10/4 stock is perfect for Windsor chair seats. Sell to a chair maker at a profit and buy 4/4 white pine. Lots of that available in your neck of the woods.

[johnny means]

What's your resaw capacity? Jointer? Planer? No point in milling it to 4/4 if you can't dress it afterwards. A Woodmizer type saw is unlikely to leave surfaces flat enough to work with. In my situation, I'd rip it down to 16" and resaw it with the equipment I had.

[John K Jordan]

...I haven't found anyone local (Cape Cod) with a portable bandsaw mill...

https://woodmizer.com/us/Find-a-Local-Sawyer

[Josko Catipovic]

Guys, the whole point of doing sea chests is they were traditionally made with full-width white pine planks, occasionally showing grain continuity across corners and bookmatch between front and top. https://books.google.com/books?id=xA91sJ1LNQIC&pg=PA112#v=onepage&q&f=false
Mystic seaport and New Bedford whaling museum have intriguing examples still hanging together after who knows how many decades at sea back in the 1800. Most are 18" tall with a 5-10 degree inward slope, calling for ~20" planks.When I saw this wood, seachests flashed right to my mind. White pine ones were just lighter enough to carry than mahogany, and the design evolved robust enough to deal with shipboard banging and abuse.
As I mentioned, I do have access to a 2' planer and jointer - just need to figure out how to resaw them. The Woodmizer-man search is on.

[Brian Holcombe]

Those matches we’re probably sawn wet, then dried and retained as a boule. When you resaw really wide, dry material, often enough it will not behave well.

[John K Jordan]

Those matches we’re probably sawn wet, then dried and retained as a boule. When you resaw really wide, dry material, often enough it will not behave well.

I wonder if you could resaw them on a bandsaw mill if you sandwiched the planks between heavy, straight slabs to keep them flat. I'd worry otherwise about relieved stress in the dry wood causing cupping during the cut. The alignment would need to be perfect. Maybe find a 20" dia log, slice it down the middle, then put the boards between the halves and resaw while sandwiched. Might protect the dry boards from the moisture in the wet wood with plywood or something. Just imagining, no experience with that. I have no idea what to do about lubrication which is usually a stream of water.

I've cut a lot of dry wood on my Woodmizer but only straightening beams and edging, never resawing like that.

I thnk I'd saw it very slowly.

[lowell holmes]

https://www.lowes.com/pl/Jointers-planers-Power-tools-Tools/1530346085?int_cmp=PowerTools:C:Tools:Merch:PowerT ools_Jointers_and_Planers


I have the lower price Dewalt and it performs to suit me.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Alex's method: Not something I'd want to try, but.... 16" circular saw. Watch your fingers! And leg.

"https://waco.craigslist.org/tld/d/waco-woodworker/7055757352.html"

[Jim Becker]

Bandmill for sure with attention to keep them flat though the cut. And then there's another round of drying before you use them as the moisture content is absolutely going to be different between the existing surfaces and the newly cut ones. I'm absolutely with you on using the material wide...I live for that kind of thing. But it does require patience and care relative to moisture and movement.

[lowell holmes]

You can rip boards with a straight 1X4 for a straight edge using a skilsaw.

[Prashun Patel]

Lowell, what am I missing? He's asking how to resaw, not rip.

[Jared Sankovich]

You can rip boards with a straight 1X4 for a straight edge using a skilsaw.

Didnt know a skill saw could have a 24" depth of cut.. that 50" blade must be rather unwieldy handheld.

[Jim Becker]

You can rip boards with a straight 1X4 for a straight edge using a skilsaw.
This isn't a ripping situation...it's about re-sawing.

[Josko Catipovic]

So this pine's been in my shop for three years, after spending a year outdoors in a covered shed. It measures at 9%, and it'll likely go a percent or so higher in summer. Will it become more stable if I let it sit another year, or is it what it is now?

[Jim Becker]

So this pine's been in my shop for three years, after spending a year outdoors in a covered shed. It measures at 9%, and it'll likely go a percent or so higher in summer. Will it become more stable if I let it sit another year, or is it what it is now?
The small challenge you face is that the moisture content on the "inside" is never going to be the same as the "outside" where you are measuring. So you can expect some initial movement when you first resaw these wide and currently thick boards into thinner stock. It will be necessary to stack and sticker with weight and allow them to further dry....whether or not you intend to use them air dried or also get them finished in a kiln. This is the reality of pretty much all thicker lumber/slabs when it comes to pairing them down to thinner pieces. Letting things sit another year "as is" isn't going to change this, so personally, I'd get it milled now and use the additional time for the resawn pieces to dry properly before you start your project(s).

[Brian Holcombe]

If you're dead set on resawing it then do so and you'll learn a lot about the board in short order, it very well may come out perfectly but personally I wouldn't do it because I expect that when the stock is so wide it'll cup almost guaranteed, so if it cups at 24" wide and 4/4 then you'll be at 3/8" thick boards before you know it. Chance that the stock won't even be usable, so I would just leave it as is and find a project suitable to material that heavy.

[kent wardecke]

I had some old longest pine beams drawn. They came out fine. The problem is that the metal pins that holds the material in place limits the last piece to about 6/4. So you're going to get one plank from each board unless you can improve the method of securing the material.
It's old right straight trained pine thoroughly dried. I would be surprised if there are any surprises when it's resawn.
Use the Woodmizer site and make some calls. Some guys won't be interested but I'm sure you can find someone,you aren't the first guy in New England to want to resaw some old wood

[peter gagliardi]

A woodmizer that is operating properly and has a proper operator, can, and will cut accurately enough for this job with ease.
They can take 3/32" layers of veneer off that stock one piece after another- in other works they are extremely accurate.

I do not know if you can still get them, but Blackburn Tools I believe would have, or did have parts and kits to make your own Roubo style saw, including blades. That style saw is very controllable, and quite quick for what your doing- it ain't a race.

The material is not likely to get much more stable at this point.

Stability over width actually gets a bit better in my experience if dried properly, and good material. 24" is wide. 12" not so much, but it appears to have more to do with how the tree grew, AND having a mix of flatsawn going to rift or even quartered on the edges. Also has to do with diameter of tree to start.

I think you are on the right track, if you picked your material well.

[Geoff Crimmins]

If you can't find someone with a bandmill near you, then you could use a chainsaw mill, or just plane it down to the thickness you need. I know that's rather wasteful, but it beats cutting it by hand.

[johnny means]

All the seasoning in the world won't relieve internal stresses. Those will only be revealed by cutting. Imagine two opposed leaf springs bolted together. The stored energy will be there until you take them apart.

[Jim Becker]

Along the lines of what Johnny just wrote, if resawing with the band mill reveals more movement than would be expected from just moisture imbalance, the option to rip narrower is still there. I'd be more concerned about twist or bowing lengthwise in that respect and that can happen with narrow boards just as well as with wide boards. So I remain of the mind that I'd do the bandmill resaw first and then make plans from there since there is still a need to get it thinner anyway, regardless of other operations that may or may not become necessary depending on "the mood of the tree".

[Josko Catipovic]

We resawed on a small bandsaw mill - very anticlimactic. Nothing bad happened. Started out cutting to 6/4 expecting some movement, but after seeing none on the first couple planks, decided to go to desired thickness (4/4). We did loose a couple planks to cracking while handling/transporting after sawing. It seems 2' 4/4 white pine is rather fragile. It's all stickered now in the shop, and hopefully won't do anything exciting. Humidity spot-checks place it all at 9-10%
A related question is whether this is a reasonable way of sourcing wood. I posted earlier (https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?280025-sourcing-wood) about having to look for a new lumber source, and going to sawmills instead of KD FAS stock from a lumberyard. I've been buying 8/4 (or thicker, basically the heaviest planks i can handle) sequentially sawn green stock, stashing it in a shed, and planning on resawing (in advance of) when I need it. I''d be curious to hear of the pitfalls of getting wood this way.

[Jim Becker]

The biggest challenge with sourcing material like that is less about drying it, which most folks can do properly if they want to; rather, it's more about insuring over time that it doesn't have "critters". Sometime this year I'll be having a bunch of ash and a few other things milled here on my property (ash borer devastation). I'll be stacking and stickering it for a requisite amount of time, but will also likely take it for further KD just to be sure it's clean. One thing...don't stash it in your shed until it's already been air dried with proper ventilation stacked outside. You need that air movement to wick off the moisture. Once it's down reasonably close to where it will likely go, they you can warehouse it. But even then, I suggest keeping it stickered for good air flow.

[Brian Holcombe]

Glad it worked out!