I wonder if you are reading a trunkated definition of rift sawn. Here is what I am used to.

Quarter sawn is roughly 90 degrees to the growth rings, that is, cut along the radius of the log.

Slab cut or flat cut is roughly parallel to the growth rings.

Rift cut is in between these two. One definition I read for rift is 45 to 75 degrees off perpendicular. In reading this definiton, it was poorly written, in that it started off by stating rift was cut perpindicular to the growth rings, but then appended "45 to 75 degrees".

I have seen many nonsensical ebay adds for BRW stating that it was quarter sawn, but showing a picture of a pretty much slab cut piece.

Kerfing?! How do you make nothing?

Filippo

I have shop full of kerfing....

However... I did find this article (mentioned above) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-quartersawn-wood.htm very interesting.

But still, this just adds to the confusion. When "we" think of quarter sawn tops, etc., we are looking for grain lines that are almost vertical (viewed at end). In the above link (wisegeek) it is apparent that what they call quarter sawn can yield wood with all grain angles! It does apear to be an issue of semantics. In fact, the riftsawn "method" seems to be the only method that yeilds mostly the type of wood most of us are interested in.

Very good post!

Thanks

Mike

As a sawyer (part time) and hobbyist woodworker, the definitions that I've always used (but left a bit elastic) are this:

Quarter-sawn : grain as close as possible to 90 degrees, and not less than 75 degrees.

Rift sawn : grain from 45 to 75 degrees.

Flat sawn : grain less than 45 degrees.

Where the elasticity occurs is when a board has a blend of grains, then I use some judgement about which type of grain is predominant.

that's my usage of the terms....

John

Again, I think the issue is using the same words to describe both grain orientation in lumber and the process steps of milling that lumber from a log.

When I suggest that a student buy a nicely quartered set of B/S wood for a project, I'm not demanding he find a log and have it quartersawn. On the other hand, when a sawyer tells me he has quartersawn a log, I don't expect that every piece of lumber milled will show a dead quartered face. Context matters, and in the context of most luthiery discussions, the definitions of quartered, rift, and flatsawn refer strictly to grain orientation in relation to the face, and do not imply a particular methodology on the part of the sawyer.

That sums it up nicely. Well stated.
L.

+2.

I hear a lot of people calling flat sawn, slab sawn. They are not the same thing.
If you slab saw a log you will end up with all the cuts.

At least at the sawmills I have been to, the 'slabs' are the waste pieces from the outside of the log that have wane and bark on them. Most of them are flat sawn.