I just got done felling and bucking up some yellow poplar in to various lengths and noticed some end splits in the end of every log. I'm hoping these are just caused by some stress being relieved by the chainsaw and not to deep. Not caused by the tree hitting the ground causing pretty much tree length splits. Am I being paranoid or did I ruin some nice yellow poplar by cutting it at the wrong time of year? It has been hovering around freezing here in upstate NY. I have seen/heard of ring shake in hemlock but these are not separations between the growth rings. I cut three trees down and they all did the same thing. The biggest extended pretty much radially from the pith, were 3-4" long and maybe a 1/16" wide max. Thanks in advance for any reply's

Yellow poplar does indeed have substantial growth stress in the tree, which results in some end splitting in the butt log of 16 to 20” diameter trees. The lumber also has end splits and side bend warp immediately when sawing and more after drying.

thanks for the response Gene. One tree I got 5 -10' logs out of and every log had some degree of splitting on each end. Do you think these splits run the length of the logs? A friend suggested radial sawing would be a good way to mill these logs. Less volume but better quality lumber. I'm figuring a combination of both flat sawn and radial sawn to best work around these splits. I'm going to cut a fair amount of 2x in various widths for building an outdoor pavilion. Do you think cutting these at a different time of year would make a difference? I have a few left that we held off on until I did a little research.

thanks , John

When I run into end splits (seems to happen a lot with walnut), I cut parallel to the biggest split and try to get as much defect as possible into a few boards. Stress in yellow poplar also tends to make it bow and bend a lot while you mill it, so keep an eye on it.

For 2x lumber, dry before edging. This will allow some warp and yet you can get straight pieces. The best sawing pattern in this case is live sawing and the cuts should be parallel to the biggest split. Indeed, splits can go way up the lumber at times with wide pieces.

good idea on drying before edging. Thanks for reply's. Gene can you direct me to a diagram or description of live sawing technique?

John

Live sawing is when you start sawing a log and saw about halfway through, then rotate 180 degrees and continue sawing until done. OK?

Click the link below to download the file included with this post.

1_s2.0_S0262885601000877_gr17.jpg.pdf

A friend suggested radial sawing would be a good way to mill these logs. Less volume but better quality lumber.

Radial sawing is the same as sawing parallel to the split. As the split follows the grain, you would be sawing parallel to the grain. This has been practiced for centuries.