Best sawing process: thick & slow or thin & fast?

[SawyerBrown]

May be somewhat a personal preference, but interested in how others do it ...

The question is whether to saw single cants and go fast, or multiple cants and go slow?

I do a lot of quartersawing of oak, and mostly I use the way that WM suggests: clean up opposite faces, then take about the top 1/3 off of the adjacent faces (and set aside for later).  Then,  I usually flip it up again and cut it right through the middle, leaving 2 cants to be quartersawn.  At that point, I usually set them both back down and start sawing boards, ending up with 2 per pass.  It seems to me that cuts the total number of passes down the track in half, as well as having to set aside the second cant, but it can be pretty slow going with only 25hp on bigger logs. (Sometimes almost as wide as the throat on my mill.). I worry a little bit about uniform thickness across that wide a span, but it seems to do OK.  But would I be better off to do one cant at a time?  Maybe you go more than twice as fast because the blade can get rid of the material? 

Guess the same issue if you're cutting construction lumber in pine, but I personally don't do much of that around here.

Appreciate your thoughts

[Chuck White]

May be somewhat a personal preference, but interested in how others do it ...

The question is whether to saw single cants and go fast, or multiple cants and go slow?

I do a lot of quartersawing of oak, and mostly I use the way that WM suggests: clean up opposite faces, then take about the top 1/3 off of the adjacent faces (and set aside for later).  Then,  I usually flip it up again and cut it right through the middle, leaving 2 cants to be quartersawn.  At that point, I usually set them both back down and start sawing boards, ending up with 2 per pass.   It seems to me that cuts the total number of passes down the track in half, as well as having to set aside the second cant, but it can be pretty slow going with only 25hp on bigger logs. (Sometimes almost as wide as the throat on my mill.). I worry a little bit about uniform thickness across that wide a span, but it seems to do OK.  But would I be better off to do one cant at a time?  Maybe you go more than twice as fast because the blade can get rid of the material? 

Guess the same issue if you're cutting construction lumber in pine, but I personally don't do much of that around here.

Appreciate your thoughts

I really like it when I can saw 2-3 cants at the same time.

It really saves a lot of time, but when you're doing this, you need to remember to watch both cants for lift, twist, etc.

[ladylake]

  I depends on how wide and what kind of wood, two   6" cants no problem, two 10" cants I'd do one at a time.  Steve

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I saw just 1 cant at a time. I make better time.
But remember, if you hit a nail or other metal in 1 cant and your blade does the Olympic Dive......you mess up twice the wood.

[Magicman]

All of the above replies are correct to bring out some important points to be aware of.  Width and stress.  You can add species which will affect both the sawing width (hardness) and the likelihood of stress.  Each log/cant can be an individual unto itself and hard fast rules don't always work.

Handling cants multiple times can also be a factor.  Sometimes it is faster to saw the individual cant rather than move it aside and then back to the sawmill.

Another question could be about actually sawing two logs at the time.


 
It is a novel idea that did not work for me.  Turning and positioning the logs was iffy at best and actually slowed my sawing time.

[backwoods sawyer]

A lot of times when i get three stacks of doug fir 2x6 I will kick out the midle one and mill the two outside ones together and come back for the third one. If one starts to move around or it is just a hard log i will kick another one off and come back to it.
Wide cuts can generate heat and heat can affect the set shortening the amount of board footage the saw will cut.
I like to put some load on the motor but not pull it down.

[Peter Drouin]

I do one at a time and if the cant bows up I can pull it down if I want with the mod I did to the clamp


  

 
But I do have to careful not to dig in the cant. If I do I get two lines down the side of the cant  :D :D :D :D :D
But with the ice we have it helps that way too