lining up - the sawmill to the log

Written By Robin Wade

We don't mess with these big logs any more than we have to.  We generally try to get the log centered under the blade of the sawmill.  From there, we adjust the sawmill to the log.  
measure and align the sawmill to the center of each side of the log.  Well, not really the center the way we might think of the center.  But the center of each side of the log, as in near where the tree's life began (the center of the grain).

(I swear I didn't know I was this bald!)

Robin Wade
Robin Wade Furniture is a celebration of nature—a melding of a forward thinking commitment to the environment and a quiet, harmonious design aesthetic. From his "slow studio" in North Alabama, award-winning wood artist Robin Wade designs and crafts one-of-a-kind handmade furniture. Years before a piece is ready to enter a client's home or a gallery, the process begins—naturally—with the tree. Sustainably harvested, each specimen of hardwood is flitch sawn into natural-edge wood slabs, debarked by hand with a draw knife, and stacked to dry, usually for years, before the final cure in the kiln. From here, Wade and his team use both hand and power tools to bring Wade's vision to life, and then finish each piece with a hand-rubbed oil blend. Each organic furniture creation by Robin Wade Furniture balances the raw, natural beauty of environmentally, locally sourced hardwoods with minimally invasive, clean lines—a juxtaposition Wade calls both rustic and modern. “I haven’t yet found a better artist than nature,” he says.
robinwadefurniture.com
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second cut
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removing the bark