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Cutting Monster Slab Lumber

November 4th, 2009 in blogs     
patrick_mccombe Patrick McCombe, contributor
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Burls and huge pieces of redwood are among the many interesting wood products at Berkshire Products in Sheffield, Mass.
I was especially taken by the wide pine. This piece was about 20 inches wide and 16 feet long.
This enormous chainsaw with two powerheads is how they process the raw logs into wide slabs. This rig can cut lumber more than 6-feet wide.
This improvised rack made from an extension ladder guides the chainsaw for more-accurate cuts. Notice the sawdust surrounding this walnut log.
Burls and huge pieces of redwood are among the many interesting wood products at Berkshire Products in Sheffield, Mass.

Burls and huge pieces of redwood are among the many interesting wood products at Berkshire Products in Sheffield, Mass.

Photo: patrick mccombe
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Associate Editor Matt Kenney and I recently took a field trip to Berkshire Products in Sheffield, Mass. This company specializes in boules, burls and slab lumber. In addition to the jaw-dropping wood found throughout several buildings, something else caught my eye. I've often wondered how sawyers get these monster logs onto a saw carriage for processing. The short answer is they don't. They move the saw, not the log.

If you're in the area and looking for something to do, I highly recommend a visit. I think you'll find it worth the trip. 

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Comments (3)

1oldsarge writes: Later this year I'm going to take out a couple of fruit trees in the back yard. They will sort of turn into mini-monster slabs. Fortunately, I'll have a couple of years air drying to figure out what to do with them. Posted: 9:14 pm on November 20th
patrick_mccombe writes: It's a good question, Chris. Besides a slab table, our only thought is you'd have to saw up these big hunks into something more manageable. Of course, the obvious advantage is that you'll have great color ad grain match with all your lumber coming from the same big board. Although I think it would be tough both physicaly and mentally sawing such a nice, big piece of material into something more-ordinary. Posted: 11:35 am on November 10th
Madbeaver writes: Not the same old chain saw to cut this right:) Now I would like to know what do you used a slab for other then said a table? I have a small version of "slab" I thought it could be use a very large wall clock.

Chris Posted: 11:46 pm on November 9th
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