This Log Made me Nervous - Rare Walnut on the Sawmill

somebody brought me a trailer load of logs this   morning to saw for them and look  at that log in the middle there that's black walnut now I know that there are lots  and lots and lots of videos on YouTube but folks   saw in black walnut but none of them are mine  because I have never saw a black walnut before   so here's what the customer wants to have done  with this black walnut log he wants to make a   couple of mantel pieces out of this section and  we we decided when he was here to slab up that   crotch at the top of it so here's what we're going  to do I'm going to try to draw on it I hope that   y'all can see this okay but uh it's it's I think  this is the base section where it was cut so it's   kind of jagged here but we'll try anyway so it's  kind of a unique mantle that he wants to make he   want oh that work shows up pretty good he wants  to tank it and quarter it so in other words we're   going to split it right directly down the middle  right here and then we're just going to do this   so essentially what we'll have is two flat sides  at a 90 degree angle right there and this right   here will be the mantle and this piece right here  would sit on the wall or be attached to the wall   and this piece right here would be the top of  it or the flat top of it and then the rest of it   would be curved with a live Edge on it like that  now it's going to be a challenge because he also   wants an eight inch square metal or rectangular  mantle out of the rest of it that's going to be   kind of a challenge because this right here is the  is the biggest part of this log and we're looking   at only about 16 inches I'm probably gonna have  to call him and uh we'll work out something else   because I don't think there's enough log here to  get what he wants and my log stretcher is still   in the shop so what we're going to do is get it  cut and put it on the mill and probably have to   call him and see what else he wants to have done  with it because I don't think we're going to get   two eight inch pieces out of a 16 inch lock  looks like you could right but you just can't   because you got to cut some off to make to make  a good rectangle log or rectangle mantle foreign well thank you buddy he also wants these giant  Pine logs sawed up into some one buys and some   two buys and I don't know if I'll get to that  in this video or not but you're looking at about   22 inches on that end another one's about 21 so  let's go ahead and get I guess let's get this log   actually let's get this log off first because  I think it'll be the easiest one to get off right now I'm waiting to get some extra  information from the customer and I'm going   to take this opportunity to get the mill ready to  solve this Walnut the first thing that I want to   do is put a brand new blade on the mill I don't  actually have hardwood blades because I mostly   just saw Pine these are 10 degree blades that I  have so the least that I can do is put a brand   new sharp properly set blade on it to make sure we  don't get any wavy cuts through the Walnut foreign no mommy didn't teach me how to use the sawmill  I taught Myself by watching YouTube videos I also want to switch the lubricant from diesel  fuel to water diesel fuel works great with pine   to avoid buildup of pitch on the blade but  I don't want to stain this Walnut all right   guys so I've got some pretty tragic news I'm  glad that I checked with the customer here   because I thought that he wanted 42 inch long  mantel pieces but he actually wants one which   will be 74 which brings us to about right  here and the other one is going to be 64 I   believe which actually brings us to right here  so that means I'm going to have to do my best   to whittle the quarter quarter round piece out  of that one and the rectangular piece out of   this one and that destroys any opportunity  that we had of slabbing this crotch and oh   my goodness I was so excited about this because  there's one crotch here there's one crotch here   it's much smaller one and that would have been  a gorgeous piece of wood and I hate that it's   got to be that way but it does because there's  just not enough log there to get everything that   he wants so it's this is the way it's got  to be so let's go ahead and get it cut up again what I want to do here is quarter this  log so these marks from earlier give you an   idea I just want a flat side here flat side  here in this quarter so the blog is not even   it's kind of flared just a little bit it's got a  this this is the bell end I guess you could say   so what I want to do is I want to make sure  my saw blade is running directly parallel to   the pith to the dead heart of this log so what  I want to do is I'm going to take the saw head   and level it with the center right here make  a note of where it is on the depth gauge on   The Sawmill and then I'm going to take it to the  other side and I'm going to put it on that same   level on The Sawmill head and then I'm going  to raise that end of the log up to match it it's telling me just about seven and a half that's at the same level on the depth gauge  and you can see it's actually pretty well even   as it is the only thing left to do at this  point is to make this first cut and I don't   mind letting you know that I'm pretty nervous  about it because uh I can't make a mistake on   this because this is not a replaceable log  black walnut is pretty scarce in my area   and I can't just go like a pine log if I mess  up a pine log I can go cut down another tree   it's not a big deal but I just can't go cut  down another black walnut tree so no mistakes   allowed on this I think I've done all that I can  do to prepare for it so let's make the first cut I don't think that could have gone  much better the mill got hung up   right here but it wasn't a big deal  we went directly through the heart   on this on this side and on this  end so let's see what it looks like is positioned on the mill to go ahead and  quarter this out and I'm not as concerned   at this point with getting a dead centered pith  or heart or whatever you want to call it here   what I'm kind of concerned about is making sure  that this log or this corner of this log rather   is going to be even with the wall once it gets  put up so I really don't want a mantle that is   stuck up there on the wall and one end of it  is going to be five inches and the other end   of it's going to be nine inches and you have  this weird looking wedge on the wall that's   not what I want so I've got it positioned  so that it's only about a half of an inch   of difference between this end and that end  so we're not going to have that weird and   I may actually I may actually raise this up a  little bit more even to eliminate that I just   don't want to have a Cricket or a wedge looking  mantle on the wall so the center is going to be   a little off but that's going to be on the  top side of course I think my best bet is to   try to get this as dead even as I can so that  we've got a decent even mantle for the wall so I think that actually turned out pretty  good and to give you all an idea of how it's   going to go on the wall just imagine that the  bunks on this Sawmill right here is the wall   and that's how it'll go so this right here will  be the top of the mantel you can put stuff up   there and this will be the wall portion of it  it's not a huge wedge it's about seven inches a   little more than seven inches and I think it's  seven inches on the other side as well roughly   seven inches not huge but it's it's a quarter  of the log and that's what I could get out of   it so it is what it is so that turned out great  um I did not make any mistakes that I'm aware of   um but yeah that worked out good so he wants some  one by material out of the rest of this stuff so   let's go ahead and take this half in this other  quarter we'll make one buys out of it and then   we'll see if we can get another mantle out of  the rest of it before we move on to getting those   Boards out of the rest of this stuff I'm going  to go ahead and anchor seal this end right here   just so he doesn't get any  check in or anything like that those are pretty nice but they're very  small let's get the other half of this   log on there and make some much wider boards with the material that was left over after the  mantle came out of that log he wanted me to get   some one by boards and some two by Boards out  of whatever was left over so we wouldn't let   anything go to waste so what I'm going to do is  I'm actually going to leave that slab that we   were just looking at exactly like it is because  he sounded like he was kind of interested in   some slabs as well even though that slab is about  two and a half two and three quarter it's pretty   thick but I do think he'd be interested in having  a slab or two out of this tree these one buys I'm   going to go ahead and put a straight edge on them  and then we're going to get that gnarly log onto   the mill and see if we can get a good rectangular  mantel piece out of it so I'm going to go ahead   and do all this and then we're going to get to  that gnarly log and see if we can get something   usable out of it so here's our really gnarly log  that I was so so excited about getting this crotch   actually it probably would have been kind of  a double crotch right here but unfortunately   customer wants something that is going to probably  eliminate that being an option entirely he wants   one mantelpiece rectangular 8 by 12 by 68 inches  long that last one was about 74 inches long   this one needs to be 68. and 68 Falls right  directly here in the middle of the crotch so   tragically I don't think there's any saving this  crotch wood right here in fact I'm probably going   to cut it just a little bit long so that there'll  be a little bit of wiggle room a little bit of   leeway for him to work with and that's a shame  I don't think we're going to be able to save   that crotch so anyway let's go ahead and cut this  down and see if we can get a rectangle out of it probably see here this log is pretty crooked  it's got knots on it where really big limbs   were so my task here is to get a nice rectangle  out of this log so I don't think that's going to   be particularly easy so what I'm going to  do first is position it so that I can cut   the horns off of it so the log is curved very  slightly so I'm just going to turn it so that   there's a dip down in the middle and the horns  are sticking up on both ends if I can there we go so we'll try to flatten off this portion of  it first and then we'll deal with the rest   of it most of the large large Mills have  toe boards on them levelers that you can   use to level the log if you need to well  this is a manual Mill of course so I have   to resort to one buys or pieces of bark or  whatever really if I need to level the log too much was too much let's take a closer look at this log before  we start hacking at it so customer wants one   mantel piece eight by twelve so the problem  here is there's not enough material here in   the first place to get eight by twelve and  I talked to him earlier this morning and he   understands that and he told me just to get  what I could out of it so if I wanted to get   an 8 by 12 I would need a much larger log  this log is 12 in this direction and it's   I'm gonna call it 18 because this little jut  right here this thing that juts out I don't even   count because it's going to have to be lopped  off before I even start sawing so really what   I've got here is 18 by what did I say 12 and the  biggest issue here is that the middle of this log   shrinks down to between 12 and 14. it's crooked  on top of that there's just not enough material   here to get a straight perfect 8 by 12 rectangle  so I'm going to attempt to get just as much as I   possibly can out of it with as little waste as  possible it may take a few Cuts little sliver   Cuts but I'm going to save as much as I can and  get the biggest rectangle that I can possibly get to give you all an idea of exactly how crooked  this log is look over here hope you all can see   this ow see how thin this is right here I  mean just brutally thin this in the middle   I mean you can see how thick that is  and then it thins down again on that   other end it's very very crooked  there's a square in here somewhere so at this point we finally got a  square out of that really gnarly   log but you can see it's still got  lots and lots of problems there's a   lot of Wayne right here what I need is a  nice clean mantle a nice clean rectangle   we wanted it eight by 12 of course but  what we've got here is nine and a half   we found a square spot to measure it nine and a  half by by nine and three quarters so obviously   I'm not going to get eight by twelve so I'm just  gonna Whittle it some and get what I can out of it   that's really all I can do to try to get the best  rectangle I can out of this log I'm going to kind   of use this as a guide This Heart Wood right here  it's all ready in an oval shape so I just need to   cut it down to the best rectangle that I can get  but I think that's the best pattern to follow that slab that I just threw off is usable I'll  put it on the trailer and he can certainly take   that as well but at this point we're at  seven by nine and you still we still see   that we've still got some issues here you  see we've got some Wayne right here still a   lot of sap wood there's no way I'm going to  be able to get rid of all this sap wood but   I'd really like to get rid of the weighing  if nothing else so I'm going to make a few   more Cuts I hate to do it but there's um  there's just really nothing else to do I think it's time to stop messing with this one  so you can kind of tell what I've done here is   I've gotten most of the sap wood off of this  there's some there and there's some there it   ended up being about five by nine which really is  still a pretty substantial chunk of wood it's not   it's a far cry from eight by twelve but it's a  pretty substantial chunk of wood especially for   a mantelpiece and look at that right there look  at that wavy that wavy grain right there that   is really pretty stuff so my thought if it was my  mantle it's not my mantel but if it was my mantle   what I would do is I would have this as the front  because you've got the most hardwood in there and   very little sap wood in fact the sap wood kind of  kind of accents it I think I think it looks pretty   cool like that maybe I'm just trying to hedge a  little bit so I would have that as the front and I   would have this as maybe the top and I would have  this as the back because you can see there's a lot   of sap wood still left in the back but I'm just  not willing to make another cut on this I'm tired   of whittling it down a little bit of weighing  right there as well or bark rather so uh yeah   I'm gonna be done with it five by nine five and a  quarter by nine something like that which is still   a pretty substantial chunk of wood and again he  was understanding that I couldn't you know I just   couldn't get eight by twelve out of it so got what  I could get well guys that's gonna have to do it   for this video I really appreciate you watching  we will try to get to those two giant Pine logs   on the next video those two logs those those logs  are huge one of them is like 21 the other one's   22 something like that they're really big but  all he wants out of those is some one buys and   some two buys and they're pretty straight so it's  going to be pretty easy Milling I think but I just   texted the guy a picture of this mantel piece and  he was totally fine with it so I think it's going   to work perfectly fine um I told you all that was  a square log in that crooked thing somewhere we   just had to get it out but I appreciate you all  watching and I will see y'all on the next one

Channel: Fall Line Ridge

Views: 1,473,210

Keywords: Fall line ridge, walnut, Black Walnut, sawmill, saw, mill, wood, Wood Mizer, woodmizer, mantles, amazing, incredible, rare

Id: 48TuvJeVo6I

Length: 25min 50sec (1550 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 13 2022