Thread: Radial cutting sawmill on Landline

They have gone back in history with this type of wood, chair makers have been using riven (radially sawn) wood for centuries. this video gives an idea of how they produce useable quarter sawn wood from timber wedges.
The main difference here is that an old school manual system has been mechanised.

This method of green wood preparation is the reason Windsor chairs in particular are so long lasting and stable. The billets are stress free quarter sawn and very stable as a result.

Also if you are aware of the legal battle over the illegal copying of Australia's Lucas Sawmills machinery by an overseas company you would probably realise why this Australian company is keeping their methods and machinery close to their chest. Patents and copyrights don't seem to matter in some other countries.

Hope this helps,
cheers, Ian

There are a couple of you-tube videos of radial sawing for weatherboards where the log is turned on a lathe-like machine so that it is truly cylindrical and all logs are the same diameter. The log is then cut into weatherboards of consistent size. It certainly looked like there were a lot of shavings around the machine and shavings mean waste. The lathe was driven by a flat belt which means the technology is probably not all that new, at least in the USA where the videos were made.