Timber Framers Guild Forums General General Forum Questions centercut verus no heartwood in timbers

wow. thanks so much for the informed responses. now that i understand a little better how the wood may move and why, the situation is even more perplexing. a couple of ignorant chainsaw cuts would have made life a lot easier, or faster anyways.

i wonder, what to do with this big white pine timber then? it's going into a perogala, along with an already cut, curved overhead beam, so one curved piece could work out lucky. i had wanted to get at least 2 8*10's or preferably 8*12s out of the 16*20 piece. any suggestions?

many thanks again for the collective wisdom here.

thanks for all the info. I have several large white oaks about 33" diameter I would say 120 years old. They are the biggest trees around this wooded area (in southern indiana). I think I will try and cut several timbers from each and let you all know how it goes. I will tell you all the info available on this subject is very limited cause people jsut don't cut trees likethis nor do they cut 8x8.

In addition to milling and bookmatching great numbers of natural curves, where we typically try to saw out the pith, as much an ascetic decision, as one of balance - I have on a number of occasions, helped mill multiple FOHC sticks from a single sawlog. The most notable occasion rendering six 6X8X48 pcs from a single log, all turning out as strait as one might expect of any ordered timber. Logs of such size are rare on the East Coast, in this case, we had the pick of any of the standing timber on a sizable acreage, a Scouting Camp, which had not been logged off in the sixty years it had belonged to the camp, and in all likelihood, for many decades before it was donated to the BSA.

I think it worth noting that the Center in FOHC is as important as the Free of Heart part, that to leave any unbalanced sapwood is a recipe for bow in most species.

Try to post some pictures when you finish milling your stems.