There is a high demand for quartersawn lumber today, and most commercial mills won't take the time to saw with this pattern.  Part of the strong demand is    copying the old styles from hundreds of years ago and part of it is just because quartersawn wood is really beautiful.    In the past quartersawn wood was used because it was more stable as it dried in place (before they had good dry kilns).  Today, with proper kiln drying, any grain pattern is stable - so it really comes down to the different appearance of this grain pattern.  Due to the extra time to produce and the greater demand - quartersawn wood sells for about 20% more that plain sawn lumber.  So, lets see....  it "costs" me 5 cents a board foot more to produce and I gain 50 cents a board foot when I sell it!   That is a sound  business decision. This is another market advantage for us here at Timbergreen!

Most lumber today is flat sawn or plain sawn - with the saw passing tangentially to the growth rings.  This is sawing the log from the outside - inward, rotating the log as you progress.

Quartersawn lumber is produce with the saw blade passing radially to the growth rings.  This is sawing the log from the inside - outward!  
Handling the log as you progress can be quite tricky.

Here is a quick and easy method for quartersawing logs on a band sawmill that works pretty good for us at Timbergreen Farm.

This is a 16 inch diameter red oak log ten feet long, with a major flare right at the butt.  The logs scales 100 bf Scribner.  It has a straight split that I oriented straight up and down.  My first cut takes off a one inch slab parallel with the longest straight line on the side of the log.  The root flare is removed with this cut.

The log is rotated a half turn and another one inch thick slab is removed from the other side, again parallel to the longest straight line on the side of the log.  Most of the taper is left in the log.  We don't want to waste any of the good clear wood right under the bark, so we take a thin slab - saving some edging later.

Now the log is rotated a quarter turn and another slab removed from the top.  Another  half turn and the final slab comes off, leaving a four sided tapered cant. Then we cut the log right down the center of the pith.  I measure up from the bed at each end of the log to make this cut very accurate.  I followed the split on this log.                              next page