# How to saw a curly maple log?



## mc269 (May 20, 2014)

I was at a friends house the other day and he has a pile of logs behind his house he cuts into fire wood. I was looking at a few of the maples he had and immediately saw the curl in one log. It's about 25" in diameter and appears to have curl throughout most of the log. I've never had the opportunity to get a log like this sawn and wondering what is the best way to have it sawn. I hear quatersawn shows off the curl more?? I'm just wondering if that is the way to go or flat sawn to yield more lumber. I'm thinking of having it cut to 5/4 thickness. That would give me options depending on what I use it for in the future. Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated. Thanks!


----------



## tomsteve (Jan 23, 2015)

opinion? its junk and should be donated to the TOM foundation- a non profit organization helping people named tom in my shop. 

if you want the figure, qs it.
if you want the quantity, flat saw.


----------



## mc269 (May 20, 2014)

Haha! I told my friend who had it that curly maple didn't burn worth a crap as far as firewood. 

I'm leaning towards qs. I think I want to get as much figure out of it as possible.


----------



## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

I just sawed some from a log about the same size. It had great curl. It was sawn for the best grade, rotating faces, so it was primarily flat sawn. I would saw it for the widest, best grade faces. Even then, you will get some rift and quarter as you saw down through the log. One good way to do it is to square up the cant, then saw down the best face until you get about 4" from the pith center. Turn the log 180 degrees, and saw that face down to 4" from the pith. Then turn the cant 90 degrees to the best remaining face. This will yield boards that are 8" wide. Then you saw down this face until a couple of boards from the pith, turn 180 degrees to the last face, and saw down to the bed. This method allows you to cut the clear boards from all four faces before you get to the defect in the core of the log.


----------



## tomsteve (Jan 23, 2015)

> Haha! I told my friend who had it that curly maple didn t burn worth a crap as far as firewood.
> 
> I m leaning towards qs. I think I want to get as much figure out of it as possible.
> 
> - mc269


if hes gettin firewood like that, i think ya might wanna ask him to inform ya when he gets more and inspect before he turns it into firewood.

yeah, i never like hard maple firewood. burned too good and put out too much nice heat.


----------

