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Milling a log by hand

N

NickM

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Our local farmer very kindly gave me a 16' ash log last year. Last year I cut it in half and milled one of the half logs with an alaskan chain saw mill. It was very noisy and the chainsaw (an old one my father in-law gave me) wasn't really up to the task (even with a ripping chain). However, I have got what I hope will be some useable boards out of it.

Recently I tried to tackle the other half and the chainsaw gave up on me. I don't really want to spend a load of cash on a better chainsaw (even second hand I'm looking at a pretty big outlay) so I was thinking I'd just chop up the rest into firewood (I have a nice chainsaw which I can use for that).

However, before I do that, I'm just wondering whether I could have a go at ripping it into boards by hand...

I appreciate it will be very hard work, and is entirely a romantic folly on my part, but I think I'd like to give it a go. I don't need to do it all at once and I can make quite thick boards which I can re-saw in the future thereby reducing the number of cuts I need to make. If it turns out to be doable, I might just try getting hold of the odd log from time to time.

So I'm wondering about getting my hands on a large rip saw and have a few questions:

1. I could look for a 2-man rip saw. We should probably assume that I can't get this particular log into a vertical position or very high off the ground. The only way I can therefore see a two-man saw working, would be to make horizontal cuts whilst kneeling on the ground. Is that possible? Alternatively, is there such a thing as a rip bucksaw which could have a vertical frame with a horizontal blade?

2. If not a 2-man saw, could I do it with a very large hand saw? I might be able to lift the log off the ground enough to saw vertically with a one hand saw. What sort of tooth configuration would I be looking out for?

3. Any other options I should consider?
 
riving it in to boards.
only needs a few wedges and a big hammer.
ash can be pretty straight grained so you stand a chance of getting some good boards out of it.
 
novocaine":3vgpm6tk said:
riving it in to boards.
only needs a few wedges and a big hammer.
ash can be pretty straight grained so you stand a chance of getting some good boards out of it.
Click to expand...

That's an idea. I've got a couple of wedges and a sledge hammer so could give that a whirl. I'll have a look online to get a better idea of how to go about it.
 
It's a two man job, ripping something that size. Dave has your only sensible answer, but I'd suggest cutting in half first, to 8 feet, so that the wastage isn't horrendous if it starts heading off in unwanted directions. Do your riving, then true up with an axe or an adze, or both. Then a scrub plane.

It's worth the effort in my view, because ash is a nice wood to work with, and looks good, too.
 
NickM":3tpy8i5q said:
novocaine":3tpy8i5q said:
riving it in to boards.
only needs a few wedges and a big hammer.
ash can be pretty straight grained so you stand a chance of getting some good boards out of it.
Click to expand...

That's an idea. I've got a couple of wedges and a sledge hammer so could give that a whirl. I'll have a look online to get a better idea of how to go about it.
Click to expand...
That's the way I'd go as well. If it's pretty straight grained you ought to be able to get out a few decent boards. I've used mw cold chisels, a 2" brick bolster and an old axe head before now as wedges and if you can lay hands on a proper froe, that works really well too - Rob

Edit - Malc, my daughter bought me that for a Christmas present a couple of years ago; his book about his bespoke velocipede also prompted me to get a leather Brooks saddle for mine.
 
Mike G":ghsuyeoi said:
It's worth the effort in my view, because ash is a nice wood to work with, and looks good, too.
Click to expand...
It is if it's good, air dried stock. My recent experience with kilned American Ash, where all the life has been sucked out of it proved otherwise; bloody horrible :evil: - Rob
 
Proper pit saws, with rip teeth, are much less common than crosscut saws. There might be a reason for that ?

If you are feeling flush:

https://www.flinn-garlick-saws.co.uk/ac ... g-594.html

You can manage without a pit, a sturdy scaffold will also work.

Riving is great, it is easy to turn wood in the round into a set of segments (halves, quarters, eighths) for turning. Flat boards, now that is not quite so easy.
 
Mike G":3fki94c8 said:
It's a two man job, ripping something that size. Dave has your only sensible answer, but I'd suggest cutting in half first, to 8 feet, so that the wastage isn't horrendous if it starts heading off in unwanted directions. Do your riving, then true up with an axe or an adze, or both. Then a scrub plane.

It's worth the effort in my view, because ash is a nice wood to work with, and looks good, too.
Click to expand...

It's already a 6' piece. My first experiment was to cut off a 4' chunk to see if I could handle it on a bandsaw having halved it first. I couldn't. The other 6'ish of the log was planked with the chainsaw mill last year which got me this lot.

IMG_8197.jpeg

I left it outside so it looks a bit of a mess, but I actually think there will be some sound wood in there.

The idea of making something from a tree which once stood in sight of our house really appeals to me. That and the fact that it was free...

Riving the rest might be good because I could do with some thicker pieces for making legs and the like.
 
Andyp":24bwb33u said:
Far be it fo me to dissuade you from hand sawing but have you considered getting it cut?
A local sawmill here ripped my logs for a very reasonable fee.

See here https://thewoodhaven2.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... ill#p69824

IIRC the charged me for 1 hrs work.
Click to expand...

I should have looked into that when I first got the log. It's too small now to make it worth while. I'd need someone with a mobile unit to come to me. Bringing it to my house in the grab of a telehandler was fun, but I don't think other road users would appreciate us driving further afield like that!

I've half considered buying a portable bandsaw mill but I can't really justify it.
 
NickM":1jhmd59e said:
The idea of making something from a tree which once stood in sight of our house really appeals to me. That and the fact that it was free...
Click to expand...

The chap in the book Rob and I mentioned above chose his tree in his woodland and then had all sorts of stuff made from it.

If you're a woody, and you must be to be on this forum, and you've got a log from sight of your house, and you want to make stuff from it, then that book is a must read. :)
 
Malc2098":28mprgtv said:
If you're a woody, and you must be to be on this forum, and you've got a log from sight of your house, and you want to make stuff from it, then that book is a must read. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll have a look at that.
 
NickM":2iy1n5xq said:
Malc2098":2iy1n5xq said:
If you're a woody, and you must be to be on this forum, and you've got a log from sight of your house, and you want to make stuff from it, then that book is a must read. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll have a look at that.
Click to expand...
I'd agree with Malc; it's a good read with lots of interesting stuff about Ash - Rob
 
I finally had a bash at riving this log into a few pieces.

I think it's now ready for my smoothing plane with very close set cap iron and a tight mouth...

IMG_8313.jpeg

IMG_8314.jpeg
 
The nice thing about riving timber rather than sawing it is that it does create a far more stable material to work with as you've followed the grain direction of the timber rather than cutting straight through it so it's less liable to do funny business when leaving it to settle.

The downside is that its bloody hard work and with not very straight trees it can be a wasteful process if trying to obtain straight lengths.
 
You might enjoy the latest series of videos from Peter Follansbee, which are on this very subject:

[youtube]uqEoymNl9Dk[/youtube]

[youtube]Qe2MNNsfkWo[/youtube]
 
Thanks for those Mike, fascinating look back at the way things were done, an incredible amount of hard work just to get to what we consider a rough board, and then he has to leave it for a month to dry a bit and then start again, no quick fixes. Makes you realise why individual piece of furniture were mentioned in wills, they must have been so expensive as so time-consuming to make.
He has real skill with that hewing axe, and pretty good with the scrub plane too.Ian
 
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