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QS Oak

Started by tacks Y, October 08, 2017, 05:02:27 AM

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tacks Y

I have a couple questions please? After sawing one log and not getting the rays as good as I want. (I read the latest posts on QS) Will the rays plane out? If I saw them after marking them out on the end and get good looking boards and plane them am I back to no rays? Or do they spiral in the board, remove 1/4" and it moves up the board? My logs are not big 15-19" red and 20-24 white oak. Hoping to saw, build a kiln and use for flooring. If I mix wh and rd will I see it in the floor? Age different? With or with out stain? Thanks Tom

Ianab

When you look at the board from end on, you should be able to see the growth rings at about 90% to the board. You should also be able to see various medullary rays going out across the width of the board.  When you plane the board the surface ones will get cut away, but you should uncover a similar number of previously hidden ones.
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

PA_Walnut

Get as close to exact quartering as possible. The growth rings should run perpendicular to the face of the board.
This video explains it well (in spite of being ancient and painful.)  :o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVBsA1KbfY8

note: some oak just seems to display more rays than other, but when you're on the 1/4, you should definitely see it. Good luck!
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tacks Y

The log I did cut 90 degrees, maybe not the best log? Will try another the first of the week.

Magicman

Some Oak sub-species have better rays than others, probably White Oak having the best but even it would vary between trees/logs.
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scsmith42

It depends upon how the rays run in the log. Sometimes they don't run in a straight line from the sapwood to the pith.  In these instances if you mill perfectly 90 degrees you won't have great ray fleck.

However, from what I've seen from the 1'000's of logs that we have quartersawn, usually only one portion of a log will have curved rays while other portions have straight rays.

If you want maximum ray fleck, follow Yellowhammer's guidance on Reverse Roll Quartersawing on this forum.
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PC-Urban-Sawyer

Nobody has addressed your question about mixing red and white oak lumber on your floor...

I believe you will find a fairly significant range of color and grain variation between the two types of lumber...

Herb

Ben Cut-wright

Quote from: tacks Y on October 08, 2017, 05:02:27 AM
I have a couple questions please? After sawing one log and not getting the rays as good as I want. (I read the latest posts on QS) Will the rays plane out? If I saw them after marking them out on the end and get good looking boards and plane them am I back to no rays? Or do they spiral in the board, remove 1/4" and it moves up the board? My logs are not big 15-19" red and 20-24 white oak. Hoping to saw, build a kiln and use for flooring. If I mix wh and rd will I see it in the floor? Age different? With or with out stain? Thanks Tom

Whatever features the QS Oak has will continue to appear as long as the growth rings remain perpendicular to the face.  They will change as you surface the face, but normally not disappear. 

You will definitely see the contrast in Red and White Oaks. 

My preference for QS Oak is currently the large Post Oaks.  The few of these big enough to QS can produce some breathtaking feature.  Tight pin knots, dramatic cambium color, stable lumber and slabs, make prized and valuable pieces.

The cut on both sides of this book matched set showed so much feature I was certain to not ruin this pair when I separated the slabs.  To my surprise there was even better feature in this cut. 




tacks Y

Thanks guys. I have been using Yellowhammers direction. Most of the logs I marked out the rays had a slight arch to them.

Larry

I always draw lines following the ray pattern on both ends.  Than I mark the log defects.  That helps me make the decision as to where to put the blade.  I want consistent figure the full length and the widest clear board I can get.

The red marks are the rays....can't remember what the black marks are for.



If you study the rays in the end of the log you will see a correlation between the thickness of the ray and the amount of figure.  Burr oak usually has the fattest rays. 
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

YellowHammer

Quote from: tacks Y on October 08, 2017, 08:42:32 PM
Thanks guys. I have been using Yellowhammers direction. Most of the logs I marked out the rays had a slight arch to them.
I'm going to repost one of Larry's pictures because quartersawing is much easier if you can visualize the structure of the logs, and also understand what the target is, what structure in the logs needs to be sawn to maximize fleck.

Basically, think of the rays as being a thin ribbon like structure, very easily seen in this picture generally running perpendicular to growth rings, and in the case of oval, off center, or clover leaf growth still mostly perpendicular to the growth rings as the grain changes and looses its concentricity.  So the rays may not run in a straight line but may curve and swerve with the grain.  Also like a ribbon, the aren't very thick.  The goal is to arrange the log so as to split the ribbon with the saw blade.  In the picture, you can see how the more perpendicular the cut, the longer the blade stays in the ray and splits the ray so better figure.  At some angles, the band saws through the ray, instead of splitting it which determines how wide the fleck on the board. This is where adjusting the axis  angle of the log with the toebaords and the radial angle of the log for perpindicualrity are the two adjustments to make.  In a perfect log, with perfect adjustments, splitting the ribbon would be easy.  However, logs aren't perfectly straight or round things get difficult.

The nice thing about the Reverse Roll technique is that it allows you to stop and chase the rays and make adjustments on the narrower low value boards to get the fleck where you want it.  Make an adjustment, take a skim cut.  Sometimes it gets better, sometimes worse.  Take another skim cut, if needed.  Zero in.  When the figure looks great, then take the board. 

It was all frustrating hit or miss magic to me, sometimes I'd nail it, sometimes I'd miss using conventional quartersawing techniques which generally start taking blind cuts in the widest and most valuable part of the logs.  Sometimes I was close to getting the fleck I wanted but I didn't know how to zero in.  So one day I decided I was going to do some exploratory surgery, and chucked up an old red oak log, halved it and started taking thin quarter sawn boards.  If the board surface wasn't excellent, meaning I had not "split the ribbon" adequately I would start playing with the angles, by maybe raising or dropping one end of the log, or putting a little rotation on the piece  and taking a skim cut to see what the result was.  Before long I was able to recognize how the log needed to be adjusted to get best figure.  Once I was on target, I'd take a board.  Then I'd take another until the figure started to drop off, then I'd make some more adjustments, prospecting or chasing the ribbon like ray, and when I found it, take another board.  I pretty much butchered.the heck out that log, but I learned a tremendous amount and it gave me a feel for the log (each behaves differently) and how much off angle I could be and still be splitting the rays.


YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

sealark37

I mixed red and white oak flooring.  As noted above, there is a wide variation in color.  The old guy who sanded the floor said it was the most beautiful floor he had finished.      Regards, Clark

tacks Y

Thanks guys for the comments. I got into another log and it came out much better. I could see the rays on the end well, not so with the first one. Hope to get back to the mill to do some more sawing. Thanks again, Tom

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