Knocking on Wood

In the last week, an opportunity presented itself to take down some trees and get them cut into lumber. As I’ve said before, I enjoy woodworking, but I don’t really have a huge stash of wood supply aside from the leftover floor planks from our house construction, which were all oak (mostly red). As it happens, the trees were of two types: white oak and black walnut. If you didn’t know, black walnut is generally the most prized North American hardwood and consistently demands the highest price for both its beauty, stability, and workability. White Oak, when quartersawn at the mill, can produce a striking grain pattern that is also very stable. Had the trees been regular red oaks or some other species, I probably wouldn’t have bothered, but I couldn’t pass this up. I contacted a local sawmill and we worked out a deal where he would get a portion of the wood and wouldn’t charge me to cut and dry the lumber, and I would keep the remainder.

Last Saturday, I spent most of the day helping the tree service cut, clear brush, and haul the logs. Cutting down trees for lumber is sort of a crap shoot. You never really know what you will get when you cut into the logs. You are, pun intended, knocking on wood. In the end, we ended up with about 8 8′ walnut logs and 11 8′ oak logs! Talk about a haul! Thankfully, what we saw when they were cut excited both of us and we are hoping they turn out as beautiful as they seem to be. The sawyer told me he’d coat the ends to resist cracking (the ends dry out too quickly if they’re not properly sealed before cutting) and start sawing in a few days.

A few days later I met him at his sawmill and we began sawing the walnut logs. Sawing lumber is a fascinating experience and I can’t wait to go back. The saw is very impressive. We managed to get through 4 of them (the biggest ones) and wound up with boards averaging 10″ in width, quite a few of which were 14″!! One of the logs has a ‘crotch’ in it (the nook between a branch and the main trunk), so we’re hoping to get some nice looking slabs out of that, but the rest will just be cut a little over 1″ thick. We’ll likely wait a little bit on the white oak.

In the meantime, check out these pics of some boards fresh off the sawmill!