Quarter Sawing - Process

Process

Any time that boards are cut from a log they are cut along the length (axis) of the log. This can be done in three ways: flat- or plain-sawing (most common), quarter-sawing (less common), or rift sawing (very rare.)

In flat sawing the log is passed through the blade cutting off plank after plank without changing the orientation of the blade or log. The resulting planks have different annual ring orientations when viewed from the end. The relative angle that form the rings and the surface go from almost zero degrees in the external planks to almost ninety degrees at log core.

Quarter-sawing gets its name from the fact that the log is first quartered lengthwise, resulting in wedges with a right angle ending at approximately the center of the original log. Each quarter is then cut separately by tipping it up on its point and sawing boards successively along the axis. That results in boards with the annual rings mostly perpendicular to the faces. Quarter sawing yields boards with straight striped grain lines, greater stability than flatsawn wood, and a distinctive ray and fleck figure. It also yields narrower boards, because the log is first quartered, and is more wasteful.

Quartersawn boards can also be produced by cutting a board from one flat face of the quarter, flipping the wedge onto the other flat face to cut the next board, and so on.

Quarter sawing is sometimes confused with the much less common "rift sawing." In quartersawn wood, only the center board of the quarter-log is cut with the growth rings truly perpendicular to the surface of the board. The smaller boards cut from either side have grain increasingly skewed. Riftsawn wood has every board cut along a radius of the original log, so each board has a perpendicular grain, with the growth rings oriented at right angles to the surface of the board. However, since this produces a great deal of waste (in the form of wedge-shaped scraps from between the boards) rift-sawing is very seldom used. Quartersawn wood is thus seen as an acceptable compromise between economical but less-stable flatsawn wood (which, especially in oak, will often display the distinct "cathedral window" grain) and the expensively-wasteful riftsawn wood, which has the straightest grain and thus the greatest stability.