Cutting
Both shakes and shingles must be edge grain cut, to prevent warping and splitting as the wood dries. When splitting blocks and manufacturing shakes or shingles particular care must be taken to consider the orientation of the grain in the wood. Like-wise when bucking, care must be taken to ensure cuts are precisely perpendicular to the grain, to minimize waste and maintain product quality. When bucking, the log must be cleared off well, so the grain can be seen clearly, allowing straight cuts perpendicular to the grain. When splitting, the ringers are typically split from the bark to the heart, perpendicular to the grain. The heart wood is removed by splitting parallel to the grain, and the bark and sap-wood is removed, as well as any imperfections such as rot or bug holes. The initial split is always made on a knot, burl, check or other imperfection, to allow the blocks to made as large as possible while disposing of any waste. The blocks should never be split where there is clear wood, or imperfections will be left in the block; or the block will have to be split too small in the process of removing flaws.
When cutting large logs or severely twisted pieces, it is often necessary to "cant", or split the entire log into "slabs". To split a log a ringer is removed at each end of the tree, exposing the interior. Wedges are driven into the face to split off a slab, usually on a natural check or imperfection which runs the entire length of the log. After the face begins to separate, wedges are driven into the resultant opening, starting very near the face and progressively working toward the other end of the log in small steps.
Read more about this topic: Shake (shingle)
Famous quotes containing the word cutting:
“This man was very clever and quick to learn anything in his line. Our tent was of a kind new to him; but when he had once seen it pitched, it was surprising how quickly he would find and prepare the pole and forked stakes to pitch it with, cutting and placing them right the first time, though I am sure that the majority of white men would have blundered several times.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I feel no more like a man now than I did in long skirts, unless it be that enjoying more freedom and cutting off the fetters is to be like a man. I suppose in that respect we are more mannish, for we know that in dress, as in all things else, we have been and are slaves, while man in dress and all things else is free.”
—Amelia Bloomer (1818–1894)
“Nowadays almost all man’s improvements, so called, as the building of houses and the cutting down of the forest and of all large trees, simply deform the landscape, and make it more and more tame and cheap.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)