Quarter sawing

Quarter sawing is a type of cut in the rip-sawing of logs into lumber. The resulting lumber is called quartersawn (quarter-sawn), quartered, and radially-sawn. There is widespread confusion between the terms quartersawn and riftsawn with both words defined with opposite meanings and as synonyms.

Quarter-sawn boards have greater stability of form and size with less cupping, shrinkage across the width, shake and splitting, and other good qualities. In some woods, such as oak, the grain produces a decorative effect which shows a prominent ray fleck and sapele is likely to produce a ribbon figure.

Process

When boards are cut from a log they are usually rip cut along the length (axis) of the log. This can be done in three ways: plain-sawing (most common, also known as flat-sawn, bastard-sawn, through and through, and tangent-sawn), quarter-sawing (less common), or rift sawing (rare).

In flat-sawing the log is passed through the blade cutting off plank after plank without changing the orientation of the blade or log. The resulting planks have different annual ring orientations when viewed from the end. The relative angle that form the rings and the surface go from almost zero degrees in the external planks to almost ninety degrees at the core of the log.