QUARTER SAWING. 169 
Quarter-sawed lumber presents a more durable surface and 
warps and shrinks less than that tangentially sawed. If these 
points alone are the chief considerations, any wood is considered 
quarter-sawed that presents the edge of its annual rings to its 
surface at an angle of not less than forty-five degrees. This is 
done in various ways. 
Figure 44 illustrates one method of quarter sawing such 
woods as Yellow Pine, which are so sawed solely to increase 
their strength and wearing qualities. Slabs are taken off 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 
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Figure 44. Common method of Figure 45 Showing method of 
quarter sawing Yellow Pine for floor- quarter sawing to bring out the figure 
ing. of the wood to best advantage. ‘The 
log is first quartered, 1,2, 3 and 4, and 
each quarter is sawed as indicated by 
lines in 4, 
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 together. 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 
