Saw - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A saw is a tool

Tool

A tool is a device that can be used to produce an item or achieve a task, but that is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose. Tools that are used in particular fields or activities may have different designations such...

that uses a hard blade

Blade

A blade is that portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with a cutting edge and/or a pointed tip that is designed to cut and/or puncture, stab, slash, chop, slice, thrust, or scrape animate or inanimate surfaces or materials...

or wire

Wire

A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads and to carry electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Standard sizes are determined by various...

with an abrasive

Abrasive

An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away...

edge to cut through softer materials. The cutting edge of a saw is either a serrated blade

Serrated blade

A serrated blade is a type of blade used on saws and on some knives or scissors. It is also known as a dentated, sawtooth, or toothed blade.A serrated blade has a cutting edge that has many small points of contact with the material being cut...

or an abrasive

Abrasive

An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away...

. A saw may be worked by hand

Hand tool

A hand tool is a device for performing work on a material or a physical system using only hands. The hand tools can be manually used employing force, or electrically powered, using electrical current...

, or powered

Power tool

A power tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and mechanism other than the solely manual labour used with hand tools. The most common types of power tools use electric motors. Internal combustion engines and compressed air are also commonly used...

by steam

Steam

Steam is the technical term for water vapor, the gaseous phase of water, which is formed when water boils. In common language it is often used to refer to the visible mist of water droplets formed as this water vapor condenses in the presence of cooler air...

, water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

, electricity

Electricity

Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

or other power

Power (physics)

In physics, power is the rate at which energy is transferred, used, or transformed. For example, the rate at which a light bulb transforms electrical energy into heat and light is measured in watts—the more wattage, the more power, or equivalently the more electrical energy is used per unit...

Terminology

Heel: The end closest to the handle.
Toe: The end farthest from the handle.
Front: The side with the teeth (the "bottom edge").
Back: Opposite the front ("top edge").
Teeth: Small sharp points along the cutting side of the saw.
Gullet: Valley between the points of the teeth
Fleam: The angle of the faces of the teeth relative to a line perpendicular to the face of the saw.
Rake: The angle
Rake angle
Rake angle is a parameter used in various cutting and machining processes, describing the angle of the cutting face relative to the work. There are three types of rake angles: positive, negative, and zero...

of the front face of the tooth relative to a line perpendicular to the length of the saw. Teeth designed to cut with the grain (ripping) are generally steeper than teeth designed to cut across the grain (crosscutting)
Points per inch
Inch
An inch is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot...

(25 mm
Millimetre
The millimetre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousandth of a metre, which is the SI base unit of length....

): The most common measurement of the frequency of teeth on a saw blade. This is measured by setting the tip, or point, of one tooth at the zero point on a ruler, and then counting how many points are contained within one inch (25 mm) of length, counting inclusively. There will always be one more point per inch than there are teeth per inch (e.g., a saw with 14 points per inch will have 13 teeth per inch, a saw with 10 points per inch will have 9 teeth per inch). Some saws do not have the same number of teeth per inch throughout their entire length, but the vast majority do.
Eleven Per inch : Another common measurement of the amount of teeth residing in any one inch length of a saw blade. Usually abbreviated as TPI, e.g. a blade consisting of 18TPI (Teeth Per Inch).
Kerf: Width of the saw cut. On most saws the kerf is wider than the saw blade because the teeth are flared out sideways (set). This allows the blade to move through the cut easily without getting stuck (binding). However, some saws are made so that the teeth have no set on one side. This is done so that the saw can lie flat on a surface and cut along the surface without scratching it. These are referred to as flush cutting saws. Although the term kerf is often used to refer to the width of the saw blade, it actually means the width of the cut, which is affected by the width of the blade, the amount of wobble created during cutting, and the amount of material pulled out of the sides of the cut. This distinction can be important because the use of a blade that is too thin can result in excessive wobble and a wider kerf.

In a modern serrated saw, each tooth is bent to a precise angle called its set. The set of the teeth is determined by the kind of cut the saw is intended to make. For example, a rip saw

Rip saw

In woodworking, a cut made parallel to the direction of the grain of the workpiece is known as a rip cut. If one were to cut a tree trunk in half from top to bottom, this would be a rip cut — but the term also applies to cutting free lumber....

has a tooth set that is similar to the angle used on a chisel

Chisel

A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal. The handle and blade of some types of chisel are made of metal or wood with a sharp edge in it.In use, the chisel is forced into the material...

. The idea is to have the teeth rip or tear the material apart. Some teeth are usually splayed slightly to each side of the blade so that the cut width (kerf) is wider than the blade itself and the blade does not bind in the cut. The kerf of the blade is adjusted with a tool called a saw tooth setter

Saw Tooth Setter

A saw tooth setter is a tool used to adjust the kerf of a saw blade. The tool bends individual teeth outward which causes the blade to cut an amount of material greater than the thickness of the blade itself, this allows the saw to operate without binding. The tool has a stationary anvil and a...

.

An abrasive saw

Abrasive saw

An abrasive saw, also known as a cut-off saw or metal chop saw, is a power tool which is typically used to cut hard materials, such as metals. The cutting action is performed by an abrasive disc, similar to a thin grinding wheel...

uses an abrasive disc or band for cutting, rather than a serrated blade.

History

In ancient Egypt, saws made of copper are documented as early as the Early Dynastic Period

Early Dynastic Period of Egypt

The Archaic or Early Dynastic Period of Egypt immediately follows the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt c. 3100 BC. It is generally taken to include the First and Second Dynasties, lasting from the Protodynastic Period of Egypt until about 2686 BC, or the beginning of the Old Kingdom...

, circa 3,000–2,800. Examples of saws and models of saws have been found in many contexts throughout Egyptian history. Particularly useful are tomb wall illustrations of carpenters at work that show sizes and the use of different types. Egyptian saws were set with the teeth projecting only on one side, rather than in the modern fashion with the more advantageous alternating set.

According to Chinese tradition, the saw was invented by Lu Ban

Lu Ban

Lu Ban was a Chinese carpenter, engineer, philosopher, inventor, military thinker, statesman and contemporary of Mozi, born in the State of Lu, and is the patron Saint of Chinese builders and contractors. He was born in a renowned family during the Spring and Autumn Period when China was...

. In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, as recounted by Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

, Talos

Talos (inventor)

Talos, is probably Perdix and nephew of Daedalus, invented the saw after seeing a fish's jawbone. Daedalus was so jealous of the invention that he tried to murder him, but Athena intervened and turned Talos/Peridix into a partridge to save his life...

, the nephew of Daedalus, invented the saw. In archeological reality, saws date back to prehistory and most probably evolved from Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

stone or bone tools. "[T]he identities of the ax, adz, chisel, and saw were clearly established more than 4,000 years ago."

Handmade manufacture

Until at least the mid-19th century, saws were made laboriously by hand. Teeth were filed out individually, then "set" by striking alternate teeth with a hammer against a "stake" or small anvil. Due to risk of breaking teeth, beginners were given saw set

Saw set

A saw set is a device used in the sharpening of hand saws. Once the teeth have been jointed and filed, the saw set is used to adjust the set of each tooth....

pliers which set even more slowly.

Saw pits

In early English North America, the pit saw was one of the principal industrial tools. It was a two-man saw

Two-man saw

A two-man saw is a saw designed for use by two sawyers. While some modern chainsaws are so large that they require two persons to control, two-man crosscut saws were primarily important when human power was used. Such a saw would typically be 4 to 12 feet long , and sometimes up to 16 feet , with...

, generally operated over a pit across which the logs to be cut into boards were mounted. The saw was "a strong steel cutting-plate, of great breadth, with large teeth, highly polished and thoroughly wrought, some eight or ten feet in length" with a handle on either end. The pit saw took at least two men to operate. The "pitman" stood in the pit— to raise the saw for the backstroke—and the "sawyer", standing above, guided the cut. Pit-saw workers were among the best paid in early colonial North America.

The pit saw is also known as a whipsaw

Whipsaw

Whipsaw as a noun refers to the type of saw used in a saw pit.As a transitive verb it means to beset or victimize in two opposite ways at once, by a two-phase operation, or by the collusive action of two opponents, e.g., wage earners were whipsawed by inflation and high taxes....

Hand saws

Hand saw uses the blades thickness to remain stiff. The pull stroke also reduces the amount of stiffness required. Some examples are:

Crosscut saw
Crosscut saw
A crosscut saw is a saw that is specially designed for making crosscuts. A crosscut is a cut made horizontally through the trunk of a standing tree, but the term also applies to cutting free lumber...

for making cuts perpendicular to the grain
Rip saw
Rip saw
In woodworking, a cut made parallel to the direction of the grain of the workpiece is known as a rip cut. If one were to cut a tree trunk in half from top to bottom, this would be a rip cut — but the term also applies to cutting free lumber....

for cutting along the grain
Two-man saw
Two-man saw
A two-man saw is a saw designed for use by two sawyers. While some modern chainsaws are so large that they require two persons to control, two-man crosscut saws were primarily important when human power was used. Such a saw would typically be 4 to 12 feet long , and sometimes up to 16 feet , with...

for cutting large logs or trees
Plywood saw
Plywood saw
A plywood saw is a saw that has a fine-toothed blade that minimizes tearing of the outer plies of a sheet of plywood. An extra set of teeth on the curved upper edge of the blade allows starting of a cut on the inside of a panel without having to drill a starting hole. The standard plywood saw...

fine-toothed blade to reduce tearing of plywood
Veneer saw
Veneer saw
The veneer saw is a small double-edged tool for cutting thin hardwood veneer. Its narrow curved blade facilitates precision work, and its elevated offset handle makes it possible to cut flush with a surface...

two edged saw with fine teeth used to cut veneer
Hacksaw
Hacksaw
A hacksaw is a fine-tooth saw with a blade under tension in a frame, used for cutting materials such as metal or plastics. Hand-held hacksaws consist of a metal arch with a handle, usually a pistol grip, with pins for attaching a narrow disposable blade. A screw or other mechanism is used to put...

fine-toothed tempered blade under tension for cutting metal, bone, and other hard materials.
Pad saw
Keyhole saw
A keyhole saw is a long, narrow saw used for cutting small, often awkward features in various building materials...

, keyhole saw, jab saw narrow bladed saw.
Fret saw
Fretsaw
The fretsaw is a saw used for intricate cutting work which often incorporates tight curves. Although the coping saw is often used for similar work, the fretsaw is capable of much tighter radii and more delicate work...

for cutting intricate wood patterns

Back saws

The second category of hand saws utilize a thinner blade by reinforcing it with a steel or brass back. Back saws are differentiated by the length of the blade. Some examples are:

Miter saw
Miter saw
A miter saw is a saw used to make accurate crosscuts and miters in a workpiece.-Manual miter saw:The basic miter saw is the manual miter saw. It is a saw suspended on rollers in a metal guide that works with a miter box that allows making accurate crosscuts and miter cuts...

used to make accurate crosscuts and miters in a workpiece
Tenon saw also called a Dovetail saw or sash saw is used in woodworking for precise work

Circular blade saws

Circular saw
Circular saw
The circular saw is a machine using a toothed metal cutting disc or blade. The term is also loosely used for the blade itself. The blade is a tool for cutting wood or other materials and may be hand-held or table-mounted. It can also be used to make narrow slots...

, used in industrial sawing of log and beams, typically found in sawmills – also name given to smaller hand-held saws
Table saw
Table saw
A table saw or sawbench is a woodworking tool consisting of a circular saw blade, mounted on an arbor, that is driven by an electric motor...

, circular blade rising through a slot in a table. A smaller direct-drive versions can be set on a workbench is called workbench saw. If set on steel legs it is called a Contractor's Saw. A heavier version, which is more precise and more powerful and driven by multiple belts with an enclosed base stand is called a Cabinet saw. A new version, called a hybrid saw, has the lighter weight mechanism of a Contractor saw but with an enclosed base like the Cabinet saw.
Radial arm saw
Radial arm saw
A radial arm saw is a cutting machine consisting of a circular saw mounted on a sliding horizontal arm. Invented by Raymond De Walt in 1922, the radial arm saw was the primary tool used for cutting long pieces of stock to length until the introduction of the miter saw in the 1970s.In addition to...

is a versatile machine used mainly for cross-cutting. The blade is pulled on a guide arm through a piece of wood held stationary on the saw's table
Rotary saw
Rotary saw
A rotary saw, spiral cut saw, or cut out tool is a type of mechanically powered saw used for making accurate cuts without the need for a pilot hole in wallboard, plywood, or another thin, solid material....

is used to make accurate cuts without the need for a pilot hole in wallboard, plywood, and other thin materials. It can be called a spiral cut saw or a "RotoZip".
Electric miter saw, (also called chop saw, cut-off saw or power miter box) is used for making accurate cross cuts and miter cuts. The basic model has its circular blade fixed at a 90° angle to the vertical, a compound miter saw's blade can be adjusted to other angles. A sliding compound miter saw has a blade which can be pulled through the work similar to the action of a radial arm saw, which gives a greater capacity for cutting wider workpieces.
Concrete saw
Concrete saw
A concrete saw is a power tool used for cutting concrete, masonry, brick, asphalt, tile, and other solid materials. It can be a small hand-held cut-off saw, a big walk-behind saw or other styles, and it may be powered by gasoline, hydraulic or pneumatic pressure, or electric motors...

, usually powered by an internal combustion engine and used with a Diamond Blade to cut concrete or asphalt pavement.
Abrasive saw
Abrasive saw
An abrasive saw, also known as a cut-off saw or metal chop saw, is a power tool which is typically used to cut hard materials, such as metals. The cutting action is performed by an abrasive disc, similar to a thin grinding wheel...

, which uses an abrasive disc for cutting rather than a toothed blade. Abrasive saws are used for cutting very hard materials, such as metal.

Reciprocating blade saws

Jigsaw
Jigsaw (power tool)
A jigsaw is a tool used for cutting arbitrary curves, such as stenciled designs or other custom shapes, into a piece of wood, metal, or other material. It can be used in a more artistic fashion than other saws, which typically cut in straight lines only. In this way, it is similar to the rasp and...

or saber saw (US) has a narrow blade for cutting irregular shapes. The term jigsaw was also commonly used for what is now called a scroll saw.
Reciprocating saw
Reciprocating saw
A reciprocating saw is a type of saw in which the cutting action is achieved through a push and pull reciprocating motion of the blade.The term reciprocating saw is commonly assigned to a type of saw used in construction and demolition work...

or sabre saw
Sabre Saw
The sabre saw is a powered or unpowered hand-held reciprocating saw. The sabre saw consists of a reciprocating cutting implement, usually a toothed blade, to chiefly cut through wood and other various materials. its primary use is to slice material handily, rather than using the traditional...

(UK and Australia) use an action similar to a jigsaw. They are larger, more powerful and use a longer stroke with the blade parallel to the barrel. It is useful for demolition work or for cutting pipe, and is sometimes powered by compressed air.
Scroll saw
Scroll saw
A scroll saw is a small electric or pedal-operated saw that is useful for cutting intricate curves in cases where a jigsaw or coping saw is not appropriate. It is capable of creating curves with edges...

is a saw for making intricate curved cuts (scrolls).
Dragsaw
Dragsaw
A dragsaw is an early reciprocating saw using a six foot steel crosscut saw to buck logs to length. Prior to the popularization of the chainsaw during the Second World War, the dragsaw was a manner of taking the hard work out of cutting wood....

is used for bucking logs before the advent of the chainsaw.
Sternal saw
Sternal saw
A sternal saw is a bone cutter used to perform median sternotomy, opening the patient's chest by splitting the breastbone, or sternum. It is a reciprocating blade saw that resembles a jigsaw in appearance.-External links:*...

is used in surgery to open a patient's sternum.

Continuous band

Band saw
Band saw
A bandsaw is a power tool which uses a blade consisting of a continuous band of metal with teeth along one edge to cut various workpieces. The band usually rides on two wheels rotating in the same plane, although some small bandsaws have three wheels. Bandsawing produces uniform cutting action as a...

, with motor
Motor
Motor is a device that creates motion. It usually refers to an engine of some kind. It may also specifically refer to:*Electric motor, a machine that converts electricity into a mechanical motion...

-driven continuous band
Chainsaw
Chainsaw
A chainsaw is a portable mechanical saw, powered by electricity, compressed air, hydraulic power, or most commonly a two-stroke engine...

, motor
Motor
Motor is a device that creates motion. It usually refers to an engine of some kind. It may also specifically refer to:*Electric motor, a machine that converts electricity into a mechanical motion...

-driven, for felling trees

Types of blades

Blade teeth are of two general types: Tool steel or carbide. Carbide is harder and holds a sharp edge much longer.
Band saw blade: A long band with teeth on one side welded into a circle. Less waste than circular saws due to blade being thinner. More heat disapation because there is more blade to do the cutting. Usually run at a slower speed than circular saw.
Crosscut: In woodworking

Woodworking

Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...

, a cut made at (or near) a right angle to the direction of the wood grain

Wood grain

In speaking of wood the term grain refers to the alternating regions of relatively darker and lighter wood resulting from the differing growth parameters occurring in different seasons . The term is used in several ways. Perhaps most important is that in woodworking techniques...

of the workpiece. A crosscut saw

Crosscut saw

A crosscut saw is a saw that is specially designed for making crosscuts. A crosscut is a cut made horizontally through the trunk of a standing tree, but the term also applies to cutting free lumber...

is used to make this type of cut.
Rip cut: In woodworking, a cut made parallel to the direction of the grain of the workpiece. A rip saw

Rip saw

is used to make this type of cut.
Plytooth: A circular saw blade with many small teeth designed for cutting plywood

Plywood

Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...

with minimal splintering.
Dado blade: A special type of circular saw blade used for making wide grooved cuts in wood so the edge of another piece of wood will fit into the groove to make a joint. Dado blades can make different width grooves by addition or removal of chipper blades of various widths between the outer dado blades. This first type is called a stacked dado blade. There is another type of dado blade capable of cutting variable width grooves. An adjustable dado utilizes a movable locking cam mechanism which causes the blade to wobble sideways more or less. This allows continuously variable groove width from the lower to upper design limits of the dado.
Strob Saw Blade

Strob Saw Blade

Strob Saw Blades are circular saw blades with the addition of two or more specialised raker/cutters and were invented by Keene S. Strobel of Everett and Peter E. Heiser of Issaquah...

: A circular saw blade with special rakers/cutters to easily saw through green or uncured wood which would otherwise jam the saw blade.

Materials used for saws

There are several materials used in saws, with each of its own specifications.
Brass

Brass

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...

: Mostly used in back saws because of its low price, its flow characteristics that make the material relatively easy to cast, and unlike other types of saw, the forces that take place in back saws are relatively low because of the pulling motion used.
Steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

: Used in almost every existing kind of saw. Because steel is cheap, easy to shape, and very strong, it has the right properties for most kind of saws.
Diamond

Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...

: Fixed onto the saw blade's base to form diamond saw blades

Diamond Blade

A diamond blade is a saw blade which has diamonds fixed on the blade's base to use the diamonds to cut hard or abrasive materials. There are many types of diamond blades, and they have been applied in many industries, for example, construction industry to cut stone, concrete, asphalt, bricks, coal...

. As diamond is a superhard material, diamond saw blades can be used to cut hard and brittle, or abrasive materials, for example, stone, concrete, asphalt, bricks, ceramics, glass, semiconductor and gem stone. There are many methods to fix the diamonds onto the blades' base and there are various diamond saw blades, which are used in a variety of fields.
High speed steel

High speed steel

High speed steelMost copyeditors today would tend to choose to style the unit adjective high-speed with a hyphen, rendering the full term as high-speed steel, and this styling is not uncommon . However, it is true that in the metalworking industries the styling high speed steel is long-established...

(HSS): The whole saw blade is made of High Speed Steel (HSS). HSS saw blades are mainly used to cut steel, copper, aluminum and other metal materials. If high-strength steels (e.g., stainless steel) are to be cut, the blades made of cobalt HSS (e.g. M35, M42) should be used.
Tungsten carbide

Tungsten carbide

Tungsten carbide is an inorganic chemical compound containing equal parts of tungsten and carbon atoms. Colloquially, tungsten carbide is often simply called carbide. In its most basic form, it is a fine gray powder, but it can be pressed and formed into shapes for use in industrial machinery,...

: Normally, there are two ways to use tungsten carbide to make saw blades:

Carbide tipped saw blades: The saw blade's teeth are tipped (via welding) with small pieces of sharp tungsten carbide block. This type of blade is also called TCT (Tungsten Carbide Tipped) saw blade. Carbide tipped saw blades are widely used to cut wood, plywood, laminated board, plastic, grass, aluminum and some other metals.

Solid carbide saw blades: The whole saw blade is made of tungsten carbide. Comparing with HSS saw blades, solid carbide saw blades have higher hardness under high temperatures, and are more durable, but they also have a lower toughness.

Uses

Saws are most commonly used for cutting hard materials. They are used extensively in forestry, construction, demolition, medicine, and hunting.
Musical saw
Musical saw
A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is the application of a hand saw as a musical instrument. The sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin...

s are used as instruments to make music.
Chainsaw carving
Chainsaw Carving
The art of chainsaw carving is a fast-growing form of art that combines the modern technology of the chainsaw with the ancient art of woodcarving.- The beginning of the art form :...

is a flourishing modern art form. Special saws have been developed for this purpose.
The production of Lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

, lengths of squared wood for use in construction, begins with the felling of trees and the transportation of the logs to a sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

.

Plainsawing: Lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

for structural uses is typically plainsawn (also called flatsawn), a method of dividing the log that produces the maximum yield of useful pieces and therefore the greatest economy.

Quarter sawing

Quarter Sawing

"History of Quarter Sawn Wood"Henry W. Maley is known as the Father of Quarter Sawed Oak. He was the owner of an Edinburgh, Indiana saw mill. In 1881, he accidentally discovered the method of sawing, while filling an order for a cabinet maker. He turned the large log, cutting it on the bias to get...

: This sawing method produce edge-grain or vertical gain lumber