We picked out an oak at the sawmill yesterday

It needed to be dead balls straight – no propeller wind – because we’ll be splitting it, not sawing it. You can get a truer read of the grain if you look at the run of it beneath the bark

This log was rejected because the pith wasn’t centered and the space between the annual growth rings show wicked fast growth which makes the oak harder to work with hand tools

Peter Follansbee needs this oak for parts of a ridiculously sexy commissioned cupboard project https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2021/02/19/the-start-of-something-big/

The finished cupboard will look like this 17th-century north-of-Boston example...

We sawed it to length and got busy splittin the red oak into parts for stiles and rails. Even the best logs don’t always split true. Sometimes it’s technique, sometimes it’s ye will of ye gods

It’s a funny thing to hear the big saw cutting in the background while we methodically split the oak into sections, each piece halfed and halfed again. I’d like to think the veteran sawyers at Gurney’s Sawmill in East Freetown, Mass are amused by our antiquated methods

Gurney’s is a bona fide throwback and local treasure

The longer wedge is a good starting wedge for the split. The oak is so green and full of tannins that it immediately reacts with the iron of the wedge, leaving a characteristic wedge stain on the grain. Cypress Hill wrote a song about this very thing, I believe

There are always a few strings in the heart which hold on...

The half is split into quarters which will be further split into 8ths. Peter needs sections which will yield about a 5” width, once the pith and sapwood are taken off. This’ll do

The wooden wedge – made from dogwood – is called a glut. Iron wedges start the split, but gluts finish. Peter got this glut from his friend the late Jenny Alexander, who wrote the book on making chairs from green wood. Tools absolutely bind us – https://www.google.com/books/edition/Make_a_Chair_from_a_Tree/wn6oQAAACAAJ?hl=en

The oak which Peter throws into his Toyota also serves as a really heavy air freshener

Sections of oak previously split, labeled, and drying back in the loft at Peter’s shop. Note how tight those growth rings are – much easier to plane smooth

More parts of Peter’s bespoke cupboard. Remember, this is all done by hand from the log https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2021/03/03/small-panel-molded-decoration-pt-2/

I guess his shop is pretty cool. You’ll never hear a power saw or router here unless it’s the neighbor’s. This isn’t a judgment, just an observation that some people can make a living doing what they love.