Anybody Making Handsplit Shakes

[Bigdogpc]

I went out and told my little truck about the Magnolia...when she started laughing I had to walk away in disgust...'course I can't knock her too bad, she has pulled my trailer sorta loaded with wood a few times.  I really like her dainty dining on gas!

For those who don't know, I have a 1998 Isuzu Hombre with the 2.0 engine.  Nice little truck as long as you don't ask more than you should out of it.

[lamar]

Just flip the block end for end.I wish I knew something about cypress.I wonder if it would taper?Also old or 2nd groth? I guess they have some around here(east texas palestine) but I havent looked.Id like to saw some.
In Wash. they split a thick shake and then resawed the taper.This is mainly using 2nd. growth.Also they made thick butts resawn (1') they looked great but were hard to work with and wood quality was lower.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  This is old growth. We have a couple of 4 footers spotted. When the water gets up, we are gonna pull 'em and see if they are solid or Pecky.

[Swede]

If I remember to take my old Canon camera with me when I go to my brother next week I´ll take a photo of his Splitting machine.

It´s a bench on 3 legs, in one end there is a wheel Ø 5´ for a belt. The speed is 50-100 rpm. On the axle there is a crank, pulling/pushing a horizontal knife in the other end. He place a piece of wood, usally spruce, on the bench and the knife split it. You have to turn the small log right all the time to get a good product.

We use to make them 18-20" and 1/8" thick. Making a good roof we nail them in 4 layers and turn them so the water want to flow off, not flow into the wood.

This machine is all made of wood, I think, and looks very old.

Swede.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Swede, that would be great. I love old machines. Love new ones too. Right now, looking at a book to build a CNC Router table.   Man, think of the projects that I can spit out with a CNC Router table