Preparing Blanks

[Jon Shively]

John, I notice you talked of using your chainsaw to prepare the blanks Eli, THE HORSES, and you harvested. While splitting wood with my wood splitter I squared off a few hunks (chunks) of wood that I thought would be nice. Am I stressing or tearing the wood and should use a chainsaw? Just thought I would ask as I cut a nice cherry limb a while back and was going to split it into a square blank this coming weekend.

[Jim Becker]

Jon, riving (splitting) wood is an age old method for creating reliable, stress-free stock to work, especially for things like spindles.

[John Hart]

The chain does cause some tearing. Tearing that you wouldn't normally experience with the bandsaw....and the vibration can cause some stress as well. What I try to do is do all my ripping with the chainsaw, then do my crosscuts with the bandsaw. This also gives me a good surface for sealing. But...alas, I can't always do that due to the thickness limitations of my bandsaw (6.5"), so I do my best to hug the chainsaw to the wood, make sure the block of wood doesn't bounce around, and keeping the cut as smooth and vibration free as possible. Then I seal right away. If there are any crosscuts, already done, that are over a day old, I'll put a fresh cut in it and seal it. I just try to keep in mind that the drying process begins immediately after cutting, and any cracks, no matter how small, will open up rather quickly.

Edit: Kinda misread your question Jon. Jim answered you though....so my answer was kind of a rambling misguided tirade of irrelevant information. This describes my life.:o :D :)

[George Tokarev]

But...alas, I can't always do that due to the thickness limitations of my bandsaw (6.5"), so I do my best to hug the chainsaw to the wood, make sure the block of wood doesn't bounce around, and keeping the cut as smooth and vibration free as possible.

Try tilting and nibbling to bandsaw thicker pieces. Tilt the table first, not last, as you do with a regular blank, make a cut that will go under the guides, then face it down and remove to your circumference. You can even do a triple nibble if you want, going bottom, top, middle. It'll give you another inch and a half.

[Jon Shively]

Jim, thanks that covered it well.

John, rambling, that's me!!! I hear a person gets that way from being around horses! Your answer was fine, thanks.

George, that my friend looks like a scary cut to make. The more I use my band saw the more I respect it.