Unassuming Junk Logs Have the Best Figure

Welcome back to another sawmill adventure!

Today I am going to cut into this log, which is conveniently sitting at the front of the log pile. I had picked this log up for workbench kits, but it’s a little too small in diameter and it has a triple crotch. So I’m just going to cut it into slabs. The log has all of these lumps on the surface, which is an indicator of quilt figure, so I’m excited to see what it has going on inside! 

Here’s a quick look after the first cut. It’s definitely been sitting for long enough, because there is a lot of nice color. It has some nice spalting on the outside of the log, and you can see the diagonal growth of the tree in the twist in the grain. 

After making that first cut, I could tell that it’s time for my yearly blade change. I use carbide blades that have a tiny piece of carbide braised onto the tooth, and as I’m looking through the teeth on this blade, a lot of them are almost missing that carbide. That’s what I’ve found with these blades – they don’t get dull, but you end up knocking all of the teeth off. So I’m going to put a new blade on here. I’m going to put on a bi-metal blade because I have one sitting in my barn that needs to get used. It won’t last as long as the carbide blades, but it’s better used on the saw than gathering dust. 

After making the first cuts with this new blade, I remembered how much faster the bi-metal blades cut. That blade was flying through! But anyway, the first little off-cuts have some quilt figure in there! 

Here’s a look at the butt of the log. It has a lot of compression figure, and a little burl. 

The other end has this bark inclusion, with lots of quilt figure and curl. Very cool!

People will sometimes wonder about the moisture content of logs that have been sitting out in the log pile. This one has been sitting outside for two years now, and when I look at it with my moisture meter, it is still maxing at 32%. So these slabs are nowhere near dry enough to be ready to work. I will also have people wonder if I’m warping the boards by throwing water on them, but… this is so wet even after sitting for two years that a bucketful of water isn’t going to do anything because that log is so full of moisture already. 

This one has a lot of cool colors in it, with again a lot of quilt figure. 

After planing a section of it, there’s more clarity to the figure now. Just getting the saw marks out of the way makes a difference. 

Looking at the dimensions, at the butt it’s measuring at 26 inches and the other end is 48 inches. As for length, it’s about 11 feet. And I’m only five slabs in right now. 

This next slab has a beautiful bark inclusion. 

This one is interesting because half of the slab has little splashes of figure, but the other half is just straight grain with some shifting colors. It almost looks like a slab within a slab. 

We are through most of the crazy figure, but there is still some crotch figure and awesome colors. 

Another question I get asked is how much a slab weighs. This slab comes in at 386 pounds. Someday when it’s dry, I’ll have to re-weigh it, because I’ll get a different number with all that water weight taken out. 

This next one is cut right along the pith, pretty lucky cut. This slab is very cool, though, there is a distressed area around the bark inclusion, with some crotch figure, burls, pruning cuts, and spalting. Very very cool. 

Now this one is really wild. I don’t know what’s going on there, but that’s why I love wood. It’s crazy, I love it. 

This log just keeps giving me more surprises. There’s part of the tree within a burl formation. 

More crazy figure at the top of the next one. Lots of burls, some staining, some bullseyes, and lots of amazing figure. 

I almost forgot how quilted this was, but the quilt figure is back in the remainder slab. The center area is all quilts. 

So, another log all sliced up. This one was super freaking weird, I can’t even describe what was going on with some of it. As always, if you’re actually interested in one of the slabs yourself, you can reserve them. They’ll be ready at some point in the figure, and they’ll be probably around $12 a board foot

And some of you probably noticed some of the sweet shirts I’ve been wearing. If you’re interested, the first one I’m releasing is the SLABmaster shirts, which is a limited edition release. 

Thank you as always for watching, I greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions or comments on the sawmill, please feel free to leave me a comment. As always, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. And until next time, happy woodworking!