We had a 48" dbh Pin Oak blow down a few weeks back and it snapped off due to being hollow for the bottom 20' or so. It was very limby and knotty, but I was able to get a couple of 5' logs about 16" diameter. I had some time last evening and tried quarter sawing it as an experiment... I know it's not the White Oak money tree, but it was fun and I got some interesting boards. I cut a 2" slab for a live edge coffee table if I can keep it flat while drying. I will use some of the smaller pieces for live edge legs on it. Hopefully it will come out nice. I'll have to find someone to plane the slab as my planer is only good to about 13" wide. It was a fun experiment.
Getting ready to try my hand at quartering some 5' and 6' long white oak log I recently brought home. they are not real big and should be easy to rotate . Will send pictures when done.
Did a second small log from the same tree using a method called reverse roll quarter sawing. I got much better results on this one. Once you find the rays in the grain, you can adjust your cuts to stay with it instead of just blindly cutting quarters and hoping for the best. I'm just learning it and if it turns out this good it's gotta be the technique cuz I'm a rookie on the mill. I'm hooked. The pictures don't show it as well as live but you can get the idea.
It's a lot of fun. Especially when you have access to logs like I do here. We have over 60 acres of woods that had had been timbered out 15 years or so ago and was torn up pretty badly from that. We are working on culling, planting, and crop tree release so we are ending up with tons of firewood from that along with all the standing dead Ash that can be cut and dried fairly quickly. A neighbor and I went together on the sawmill so we can take advantage of logs that wouldn't be commercially viable to sell, but still have value for a hobby guy like me who is looking for fence posts and woodshed lumber along with miscellaneous friends and family needs. What doesn't make logs heats our homes. One of my goals is a Honey Locust quartersawn deck on the back of the house. Still need to get a shed up around the mill and using Honey Locust for all the posts and anything close to the ground. We have a lot to do yet, but it is fun to be able to spend time in the woods and end up with materials for projects. The base for the mill is all locust posts and beams. We had cut those after assembling the mill on a trailer, then once the mounting frame was built, slid the mill off the trailer right onto the frame. Leveled and straightened it all real well and it's been fun making squares and rectangles out of round stuff ever since.
Some pretty cool looking slabs. You can always build yourself a router sled for planning wide boards.
Dang nice boards I’ll say. I’m no carpenter but if you have plywood pieces, make a level form set around your slab and then you’ll have your baseline for a level spot. A handheld electric planer would help you here then sand?
Sawdust from a sawmill is addictivebefore using honeylocust for your shed remember honey locust is not rot resistant for ground contact it is rot resistant above ground for posts in ground you want to use black locust for anything with ground contact I saw a lot of black locust for outdoor building of decks and gazebos . another fact is that honey locust is actually in the same family as kentucky coffee tree one other little trick I use 10 degree Bi Metal blades for sawing locust I usually get 600-700 board feet out of each blade with the carbon blades i would maybe get 200 Good luck jb