Shopsmith Forums

The biggest problem using a chain saw to lumber wood is, usually the initial cuts by nature are in the prime wood and the chain saw turns so much of it into sawdust.

This is not a problem in the production shops where hundreds and hundreds of board feet are processed. But in the home shop usually we lumber our own wood in small batches and try to get as much wood as we can from our effort.

Depending on the length of the log and whether the wood is straight grain or not, splitting is an excellent way to bring wood down to size without a lot of waste. A 10 inch log split in half instantly becomes a 5 inch slab that can then be easily sawn.

But better yet is to split off the sap wood, leaving the prime wood for lumbering.

From 'over there'.

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Ed in Tampa wrote:The biggest problem using a chain saw to lumber wood is, usually the initial cuts by nature are in the prime wood and the chain saw turns so much of it into sawdust.

This is not a problem in the production shops where hundreds and hundreds of board feet are processed. But in the home shop usually we lumber our own wood in small batches and try to get as much wood as we can from our effort.

Depending on the length of the log and whether the wood is straight grain or not, splitting is an excellent way to bring wood down to size without a lot of waste. A 10 inch log split in half instantly becomes a 5 inch slab that can then be easily sawn.

But better yet is to split off the sap wood, leaving the prime wood for lumbering.

I was thinking about this thread and that very thing last night Ed. Very good thinking! There will be a little loss "squaring" up the split, but probably not as much as a CS kerf.

Dick