Chainsaw Milling Gabon Ebony STIHL MS 660 or MS 880?

[Wenge Man]

Can8ian Timber,

The chess board is excellent! I cannot see the other two photos on the message though.

Most of the trees were felled, and the sapwood removed with pick axes, before I arrived on location. When we return to the foret we will cut square planks. The ones with sapwood I will use for furniture. I will give the good price when the big quantity will arrive in February or March (USA). A very good price.

Ebony is expensive yes, but my partners in USA and I plan to sell at price that will lees than market so that talented woodworkers like yourself can use it for more projects.

That slab looks awesome too. I plan to make some live edge desks and tables with the ebony. I am complete novice though but my eyes are good to determine scale, consistency, and lines. I can draw objects from sight pretty well and I will be apprentice to some highly skilled craftsmen/artisan.

I want to lok at more of your projects. Excellent work!

The logs containing sapwood are for a 7'-8' wide desk and 10' dining table that will showcase the contrast.

I'm trying to load more pics before morning

 

[mtngun]

On advice of a STIHL guy who has milled ebony with chainsaw we have been using 45 degree filing on the cutters. Cuts fast but a lot of skip patterns on the boards as a result.

I am wondering if I file them to 20 or 25 degrees will I get a better cut? Will this make the cutters dull faster?

Most of us use 10 degrees on the top plate angle, but then, we don't cut ebony. All I can suggest is that you experiment and see what works best for you.

Thank you for the excellent pictures. I hope your business venture is successful.

 

[BobL]

On advice of a STIHL guy who has milled ebony with chainsaw we have been using 45 degree filing on the cutters. Cuts fast but a lot of skip patterns on the boards as a result.

Do you mean like this?

If so this is called a "washboard effect" and is a result of a resonance between the size of the chain wave and the size of the log. A 45º cutter top plate angle will just exacerbate this effect. BTW the above was done with a 10º top plate angle so you can see the smaller angle does not eliminate this problem.

I tried to minimize this by significantly changing the chain speed when cutting smaller logs by going to a bigger sprocket but it did not seem to make any difference.

I am wondering if I file them to 20 or 25 degrees will I get a better cut? Will this make the cutters dull faster?

All you can do it try filing it and do some timed cuts