224 PRINCIPLES OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 



the four sides, then a cant A B is removed by cutting 

 to within two or three inches of the heart. This cant is 

 thrown back on the deck. Then the mill goes on sawing 

 right through the heart C, taking off four to six boards, 

 as the case may be, which are run through the edger and 

 have the heart cut out. This leaves two cants of the same 

 thickness. The one on the deck A B is put back on top 

 of the one D E on the carriage and both are cut up to- 

 gether. Practically all of the stock thus made, except 

 the boards taken off in slabbing, is edged grained, and if 

 oak about half of it would show a fair figure. 



If Quarter-Sawing is Done for the Purpose of Bring- 

 ing Out the Silver Grain of the wood, as is necessary in 

 the case of White Oak for best effects, then the saw cut 

 should always be made towards the heart and on the line 

 of the silver rays. This is a much more wasteful process 

 than the former method, and requires very different 

 management. The more nearly perfect the quarter-sawing 

 is done the more waste there is, and so it is the object of 

 practical men to avoid the extremes of perfect quarter-saw- 

 ing (at great expense in labor and material) and through- 

 and-through sawing (w^hich is cheapest and most econom- 

 ical of material). In ordinary quarter-sawing of this 

 kind, there is a waste of tw^enty to thirty per cent, in ma- 

 terial as compared with through-and-through sawing. 

 This waste is found in the feather-edged pieces and bevelled 

 edges which have to be cut off, and in the very narrow 

 strips of no value. Small logs waste much more than large 

 logs in quarter-sawing. Most sawyers place the mini- 

 mum-sized log that should be used for quarter-sawing at 

 twenty-six inches in diameter. It is Yery important to 

 have quarter-sawed lumber wide, as naiTow stock is of 

 comparatively little value. In ordinary sawing, there 

 are always a few cuts made parallel to the silver rays 

 which have the desired quarter-sawed figure. 



