Georgia Sawing Project 2018
Good evening OTW community. I have had a lot on my plate the last few days and spent the last week after returning from Georgia taking care of some matters than needed attention here at the sawmill. I wanted to share some photos from the sawing event in Georgia that I attended last weekend that did not make it to the YouTube video. If you haven't seen the video yet I encourage you to take a look if you have time.
This event is a yearly gathering of Forestry Forum members that get together and share knowledge and saw logs. Although it may seem like a big gathering of men playing with big boy toys this is meant to be an educational experience. I myself learned a lot in the two days I was there and will pass that on to my viewers in future videos and on this blog.
Jake Dean, whom hosted the event at his sawmill business headquarters had a very professional well thought out set up. He had a workshop that was dedicated to sharpening blades and his chainsaws. Here are a few stacks of blades ready to be sharpened. These stacks were around 5 feet tall.
Here is Danny Hamsley (WDH) explaining the process of quarter sawing and it's benefits. Danny operates a Wood-Mizer LT40 and a Nyle Kiln (same model I run) in South Georgia. He is a retired forester and a wealth of knowledge. We have become great friends in the past few years. I think a lot of this man, he has a passion for timber that I hope to achieve one day.
This is Jake's bread and butter, the LT70. He actually has two of these mills. This one stays at the business and the other one is placed about a hour away at a larger sawmill that contacts him for sawing. On the loading arms is the Sycamore that was quarter sawed.
The first cut on the Sycamore revealed some spalting This log had been in Jake's yard for about 2 years.
Here is the result of quarter sawing the Sycamore. These boards were cut at
5/4 thickness.
Some of the boards had both quarter sawn characteristics and spalting.
Jake used a method called reverse roll quarter sawing for this log. I hope to master that method and show it in a future video.
One of the many things I was impressed with was Jake's work flow. He had plenty of dry storage for lumber.
This is 1mbf of quarter sawn white oak brought by a customer for drying. Jake also had a large kiln that is capable of drying up to 4 thousand board feet.
This is Robert Milton demonstrating the 20in Jointer on some oak. This machine was made in Italy and had a spiral cutter head. It retails for about 10k.
This is the view from the sawmill looking towards Jake's home. He gets to live right in the middle of this wonderful set up. He is truly living the dream.
Jake and Robert using the 24in planer for the first time. This unit like the Jointer is also manufactured in Italy with a similar price tag.
A few things here in closing. I am going to be sawing tomorrow (April 23) and will be filming the days work. Also I am going to begin this week to get more blog post out there to you all.
Link to the video that accompanies this post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1CwEzvdOps
Thanks for reading this evenings blog.
Nathan,
