Lazy elm staves question

[Jlinson]

I have 2 14"+ elm logs with perfectly straight grain. I would like to get them busted down to staves this week. I have to mill some lumber this week on the bandsaw. With the holidays it will be hard pressed to find time to hand split them till next year any advice on how to saw them?

[Kirkll]

Very carefully….

[dbeaver]

whats the horse power on that bandsaw you got

[Jlinson]

12hp until I get a weekend to put the 18 diesel  on it..

[dbeaver]

id say get it at least quartered and then you can carefully split it some more after air drying a bit, with a circular saw cut a line and split from there. Im under the impression a lot of elm doesnt want to let go

[Jlinson]

That's why I'm splitting with mill, because I have wrestled half a day before on one log lol

[Pat B]

Elm has interlocking grain so it is difficult to split. Cutting a kerf with a circular saw like dbeaver suggested will help you split it. Sawing it would give you more usable wood then splitting it because splitting will leave ragged sides that will have to be removed to get to the usable wood.
Are you wanting the wood for lams or selfbows?

[Jlinson]

At least 1 I was wanting to make staves.

[Pat B]

If it is straight grain elm with no twist in the trunk you should be able to saw out staves and not split them out. Look at the bark as it goes up the trunk to see if there is any twist in the grain. Just because the log is straight doesn't necessarily mean it's not twisted.
 With the interlocking grain you should be able to saw out staves even with a little twist. I wouldn't do it with other woods though.

[Jlinson]

Bark patern looks laser straight, like sweet gum  it can lie to ya.

[Pat B]

Sweet gum also has interlocking grain and is also difficult to split.

[Jlinson]

Yep and only perfect grain makes good lumber, I have sawed alot of logs I "thought" were straight looking at the bark

[Bowjunkie]

I've split big elm logs. The last one, I saw kerfed and had 15 wedges buried in it and it still stood it's ground. Had to use a chainsaw to get it apart. Sawing them into staves on a band mill if you have access to one isn't lazy, it's smart. Work smarter, not harder.

[Jlinson]

My poor saw, got one sawed before dark. Splitting the 15 inch almost smoked a new blade lol
As I suspected under the bark I found some issue, but still ended up with 8 good staves.
May not get to see if I can reduce, heat treat
 and fire harden one for a few weeks since I broke my foot shortly after finishing uggh

[Kirkll]

I don’t know what type of blade or size you are running on that bandsaw, but I always had best luck on logs with 3/4” -1” 3-4 TPI blades with some decent set to them so they clear the saw dust better with green lumber.   I’ve never ripped logs bigger than 12” myself with my 17” bandsaw. Bigger stuff I have cut with a portable saw mill.

[Jlinson]

Lol that's with a 26 frontier, I'm not looking forward to reducing on my 12" craftsman

[Kirkll]

When i worked at Christensen Motor yacht we had a shop to die for up there, and everything was milled from rough cut lumber. We had a bad ass 36" band saw that was awesome, but it took 2-3 men to run 16" black Walnut logs through that baby. Those were heavy! 

I cut them into 7' lengths and the logs ran from 12-16" in diameter. I brought them to work and a few guys helped me mill the stuff one evening. I may have had one that was 18" on one end.  Getting that first split straight is critical.... After that its all down hill.  LOL

I air dried a bunch of  that 10/4 - S4S material inside the house too. I filled up a closet under the stairs and let it set there for 10 years before using it... I was amazed how well it came out with very few checks. I did paint the ends before storing it, and used 1/4" stickers each layer.

Kirk