Is it quarter sawn or rift?

[Brian Knop]

We are having a discussion (argument) at work about how quarter sawn is cut from the log. At this web site on popular woodworking http://www.popularwoodworking.com/features/fea.asp?id=1043 , is a picture showing how quarter sawn and rift sawn are cut from the log. Is this correct or are they backwards?

Brian

[Dave Richards]

It looks right to me.

My understanding of quartersawn is that the wood is cut at 90° to the annular rings and that seems to be what they show.

[Joe Tonich]

It looks right to me. With rift cuts the rings are at approx 45* and QS they are at approx. 90*. A lot less yeild cutting QS, my sawyer won't cut it unless you buy the log.

Joe

[Jason Roehl]

Here's a link. QS actually wastes LESS wood if done properly, but takes more time.

<a href="http://www.frankmiller.com/Quartered_Rift.htm">Quartered vs. Rift Sawn</a>

[Joe Tonich]

Here's a link. QS actually wastes LESS wood if done properly, but takes more time.

Quartered vs. Rift Sawn (http://www.frankmiller.com/Quartered_Rift.htm)

Thanks Jason,

All the sawyers arond here that I know of said there's too much waste QS'ing logs that it's not worth doing. Now I know "The REST of the story". (Paul Harvey) The only QS they get is when they flat saw the center of the logs.

Joe

[Jason Roehl]

Thanks Jason,

All the sawyers arond here that I know of said there's too much waste QS'ing logs that it's not worth doing. Now I know "The REST of the story". (Paul Harvey) The only QS they get is when they flat saw the center of the logs.

Joe

You should print out the Frank Miller explanation and SHOW them how to properly QS! It would be nice to get more sawyers sawing some pretty wood instead of just doing it the quickest way they can.

[Brad Schafer]

t'would be hard to QS with a band mill. hmmm...

b

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

No, Brad, it would not be harder just more time consuming. I must confess that I did not know the proper way to quarter saw until I saw Jason's post. I sure wish I had known that back when I was running my band mill. It is embarassing to see how much ignorance I have labored under for all my years.

[Jason Roehl]

Brad, just by looking at the FML description, the process that jumps out at me is that once the log is quartered, each wedge is passed thru on alternating flat sides--rotated back and forth 90deg between passes. That is where the extra expense is incurred--the time/labor spent flipping(spinning?) the log back and forth.

[Charles McKinley]

I did not see a way to QS on a band mill on the link. To do it on a band mill I think you would have to square the log first, then quarter it so you have a flat side to put down while you run it through the saw and spin and flip to cut at 90 degrees. This would lose several inches off the widest boards.

Now if you could only get a band mill that ran up and down like a circular mill. Curcular mill = big kerf = waste

Unless I'm missing something

[David Rose]

Jason, draw lines around that "quarter sawn" log. After about two boards off each 1/4, it appears to me that you have rift sawn stuff.

David

[Brian Knop]

If you look at the pictures on the web site that Jason has shown, they are opposite of the pictures on the popular woodworking site are they not? So one of the sites have to be wrong, right?
Brian

[Barbara Gill]

I have run a Wood-Mizer for about 18 years now. During that time I have quarter/rift sawn thousands of board feet of wood. According to Bruce Hoadley who wrote Understanding Wood, the terms quatersawn and rift sawn are used interchangeable for wood with the growth rings 45 - 90 degrees to the surface. In one place he says that rift is closer to 45 degrees.
I have developed a refinement of the quarter sawing technique suggested by Wood-Mizer when I picked up my first sawmill. It is not as simple as either of the diagrams linked above and changes slightly depending upon the log and the desired finished product.
It is more time consuming to saw this way.

[Glenn Clabo]

This is a scan of a sheet of paper I've had for a while. It's from an old book on furniture making. thought I'd include it just in case those website links die.

4 = true quarter sawn or radial cut log.
3 = majority of quarter sawn lumber where many boards don't have annual rings at 90 degrees to the surface
2 = Billet sawn
1 = Plain or flat sawn

[Brad Schafer]

i missed the alignment in earlier graphix - didn't realize that a log was actually quartered (as in draw an X on the end, cut in half twice, then make boards out of each quarter). Glenn's scan cleared that up.

a slightly interesting aside - we visited Old Sturbridge Village in Mass a few years ago ... they had a waterpowered sawmill. it was a reciprocating saw, not a bandsaw or circular - kinda like a giant jigsaw. extremely interesting to watch them saw with it.


b