What to do with 1st and last cuts?

[JacobE]

I wanna call them caps and bellies or something, but I mean the pieces that are round on one side, your first cut off piece and the last one left on the mill. I used one each to cap my stacks but is there something to do with the rest besides firewood? My kids thought they’d make good benches and they’re right I just don’t know how I’d stack them to dry flat. Seem destined to topple over no matter what you do.

 

[BobL]

If you have a bandsaw you can cut one sided curved stickers but depending on the timber and how many you cut most of mine end up on the fire wood pile or in the chipper.

 

[JacobE]

I do have a bandsaw… but matching all the curves and getting the thicknesses right seems difficult… maybe just a pair of stickers and hope for the best?

 

[Stonesforbrains]

I use mine for siding on the wood shed. Plenty of gaps in between for air flow. Taken a while to side up two sides and still have plenty of room for future first cuts.

 

[Mad Professor]

I wanna call them caps and bellies or something, but I mean the pieces that are round on one side, your first cut off piece and the last one left on the mill. I used one each to cap my stacks but is there something to do with the rest besides firewood? My kids thought they’d make good benches and they’re right I just don’t know how I’d stack them to dry flat. Seem destined to topple over no matter what you do.

View attachment 992104

I edge all my boards so they don;t look like that

 

[BobL]

I do have a bandsaw… but matching all the curves and getting the thicknesses right seems difficult… maybe just a pair of stickers and hope for the best?

You can get the stickers at each end right by holding the wannabe stickers up against the slab end and scribing with a pencil. These stop the slab from rocking and then I just put regular stickers in teh middle. Its not like you will get a premium piece of wood out of it.

 

[GrizG]

Can you lay the flat side on the mill bed and take a slice off the rounded side to get flats on it? I basically do that with my Alaskan mill... run the mill over the flat side and take some off the "bottom."

 

[motolife313]

I would use it to cook with. Sorry not much help

 

[HumBurner]

Make raised beds with them!

I also use them in the woods, often near where the tree was cut and processed, to stabilize slopes or fill holes where trees uprooted. Erosion control.


You could probably sticker two end pieces and bind them together, like a log, to keep them from warping too bad. Then use them for tables/benches.

 

[lone wolf]

Chip them. I have enough boards to deal with.

 

[BobL]

It depends what the wood is and what products you are into but I've salvaged lots of useful wood from those pieces of timber.

Aussie Sheoak sauce spoons and Tea Tree salad servers.
. The most common things I make are tool handles and kitchen implements like salad servers, spatulas, and wooded spoons. The smaller the log is the more of this wood is generated in those offcuts so am loath to just throw them away even though 9 out 10 do end up as fire wood or are chipped.

Olive wood spoons - the big one is about 18" long.

Apricot tree wood handles - the gizmos are called "plane makers floats" for making wooden hand planes.
Steel blades are O1 , nilled, harden and tempered to HRC 56

 

[GrizG]

As seen at Art Omi.