Cutting up a £500 Log (Ultra Rare)

[@sheep1ewe]

Awesome! My father tried to grow those trees, but it is only like one out of 50 that has this, and only in small pieces, and it takeas many decades for it to reach this thickness since they grow much, much slower than ordinary birchtrees. Those are popular as traditional knfe handles in Scandinavia because it keep the fingers warm instead of draining the heat like a an antler handle in the winter. Linen seed oil finish is the traditional, but doing it right takes many day and about 3 weeks to fully set, my father still used to make them the traditional way, but most younger people don't seem to hawe the patience to make a durable oil finish anymore, properly done it should look like old British gunstacks and repel water but feel good to toch and letting the full beauty wood shine trou.

[@mikerichardson8127]

Try a wedge in the kerf to keep it from closing as you cut.

[@fredfred4086]

Great video! When I clicked on it and saw you had a piece of Masur/Karelian Birch, my first thought was that you could make replacement handles for E.A. Berg woodworking chisels. E.A. Berg chisels were made in Eskilstuna, Sweden. They have a shark logo, and are one of the best chisels you can buy.👍

[@cluelesscleric]

Dude! That's a beautiful reveal. I could sit and watch these sorts of things all day.

[@boriss.861]

How about 1/4 sawing as you know with Oak it shows the Medullary Rays to their maximum.

[@jewishmafia9801]

Because there's no flat surfaces remaining. Once it's turned, you'll inevitably have two faces that "appear" quarter sawn anyway due to the eventual radius

[@Andi.Mitchell.Designs]

You’re freaking me out running shorts through the jointer… just watched a video from Kingfisher Woodworks where he had a short tip down and suck his hand into the jointer….

[@MattEstlea2]

Gets me on edge too. I’m always super vigilant when doing so and always have my grip and pressure in a way that would deflect my fingers away from the cutters should something catch. Plus a super light cut

[@GeraldTheMaker]

hmmm.....not sure cuz im new to woodworking,but some operations are kinda sketchy to me..... the jointer, the way he use bandsaw even.....

[@_B_K_]

I tried to cut birch by hand once... big mistake... what a tough wood.

[@djmdog8754]

Why didnt you build a simple flat bottom jig with a side or pair of ends to hold the log so you could get a much straighter flatter cut?

[@nagranoth_]

He literally answered that question in the first 40 seconds of the video...

[@kz.irudimen]

​@@nagranoth_ not really though. And then his cut turned out twisted.

[@MattEstlea2]

​@@kz.irudimen Defo could have benefitted from a sled. But most of the twisting came from tension released when the log was cut. The instant pinching on the blade is evidence of this

[@PikkaBird]

@@MattEstlea2 I was wondering though- when you split the log initially and saw the "propellaring", why not cut it lengthwise again perpendicular to the first cut? That way the twist is on a smaller area instead of the entire width of the log and you'd not need to plane so much material off to get rid of it?

[@daveyshmavey]

Should have done some that are quarter sawn. I understand you wouldn’t want to waste material, but the part that isn’t “premium” would become premium+

[@TheClosetFloor]

Hey mate, have you ever done a video on how to cut up a log like that? I have some beautiful black walnut logs that I want to cut up, but I haven't yet. Mainly, because I am too nervous to do so. Everyone has a different way. Just a thought.

[@Erik_The_Viking]

Lovely grain! I've been enjoying my new canarywood marking knife - just made a box for it out of alder, redwood and red oak. It deserved a proper home.

[@nipperdog7777]

Nice piece of wood. I was shocked you cut it down. And not quarter sawn.

[@WoodworkingTop535]

Wishing you good health and creating many beautiful works

[@MartinPaulsen87]

Such awesome wood, my favourite so far. I've turned several chisel handles and such in high grade masur birch. Good job on the marking knives!

[@robohippy]

There are all sorts of sled designs for crosscuting and ripping short log sections up on You Tube. Might have saved you some extra work. With a full log,, even as short as yours is/was, Have wedges ready for when the blade pinches. You have to be careful, people might start thinking of you as more of a turner.... Not a bad thing as far as I am concerned....

[@richardgoebel226]

What was the yield on that 500 quid log?

[@norm1124]

Do you have southpaw editions too?

[@captainawasome8985]

How can a bit of simple birch be that expensive? For me birch has always been good for burning in a woodstove that you would pay 500 EUR for a couple of cubic metre dried.

[@001CHRISBLACK]

Next try using a metal for the handle - aluminium for light weight, stainless steel for durability, brass or bronze for looking tasty !

[@1deerndingo]

How do they source such a log for felling? Is it only very old growth or is it identified as carrying some virus or ???

[@apinakapinastorba]

It’s a specific mutation of usually betula pendula, not a decease. People grow it for sale. You can detect a karelian birch from it’s outlook (not all saplings grow to be karelian birch, but the normal variety).

[@jflemingsandiego]

Turn an end grain vessel with the pith in the center and the grain is spectacular with Masur birch

[@Handcarvedbyrandy]

To avoid pinching you can drive a cheap chisel or screwdriver, or a wedge made from a railroad spike like I use, and keep the cut spread.

[@weibullguy]

Wooden wedges work too and you can bang 'em out on the band saw pretty quick if you've got some scraps. I always use wooden wedges whether I'm re-sawing little twigs like the one in this video or a one ton log on the sawmill. I've even used wooden wedges to split a log in half length-wise because it was a bit too large in diameter for the sawmill.

[@Handcarvedbyrandy]

@@weibullguy I've used wooden wedges too. I figured that everybody has a cheap chisel or screwdriver though.

[@a.v.auditsl8517]

I didn’t know mickey the poker player had a twin brother woodworker

[@AndreasSchlitzkus]

The way you are working (not only) on the bandsaw disqualificates you as a woodworker. Can you even imagine what happens when somebody copies this catastrophic style an it goes wrong? It is not possible to prevent this from going wrong, by being careful. This is pure luck. All for the clicks...

[@jeffhildreth9244]

Frightening.

[@claylevine]

We want to see a skateboarding clip from you!

[@Mrwiseguyisthebest]

Gotta love woodworking video comments sections 😂 everyone in the comments is an expert

[@jimrosson6702]

Great video and absolutely amazing beautiful wood can’t wait to see it turned into knife handles.

[@kennethnielsen3864]

Thanks for sharing.

[@selo4583]

Looks like celery root

[@taylo256]

Nice video lots of lovely knives to come.

[@avipinsky]

5:00 Math with Matt!!!! Where's the graphic?!?!?!

[@markduggan3451]

Really nice looking grain.

[@Gary002]

Painful story .. 20-25 years ago I worked for a well to do kitchen company and as the workshop manager I would "collect/acquire" this type of wood and put it in my shed for projects...fast forward one summer day and my wife (now ex!) cleared the shed and binned about 500 lengths in the local tip when she had a strop! Her lawnmower fit in well afterwards though apparently...

[@SeorkMaxx]

😂😂😂

[@fredfred4086]

No wonder she's now the ex. OMG!

[@dpmeyer4867]

cool

[@cloudchaser5535]

chur bro im from new zealand im a wood carver with a masters degree in maori arts, would you be interested in some native new zealand peices i have some some very nice stuff of all nz native wood i can cut it into small blocks and ship to you if you were interested bro ??

[@paco_vazquez]

Ultra fun!!!

[@jacobdean1454]

Ummmm. That’s a jointer 😅

[@beanstable]

No Americano here my friend 😂

[@Andi.Mitchell.Designs]

Planers and jointers are named opposite outside the USA. Cause… we’re weird.

[@jaymylotto8134]

Did your barber die 2 years ago?

[@wearemany73]

I need to sell this dude some logs 🪵😳

[@AndreasSchlitzkus]

He will probably have lost his hands, before having handed the cash over.

[@steven7169]

Just split it into quarters, if yhe grain is strait it will be fine.

[@samtownley9019]

Nice, but £500... Oof

[@matthewtaylor6584]

How do you come up with the price of £130 or slight less .... per knife I know time effort etc but really £130 come on

[@MattEstlea]

Supply and demand + being a highly sought after material that we’re unlikely to find again.

[@vokusa]

Based on people paying extra for the right to buy them, by signing up to his patreon, the price seems fair. Not in my price range, but clearly within some other people's.

[@polo141088]

This is what Matt tried to explain by fixing the Amazon plane. Quality takes time. You reward people doing their job well.

[@DTC_woodwork]

It’s the difference between a product produced by a large manufacturer who can employ economies of scale in their purchasing of materials and production quantities and something created by an independent crafts person. If you’ve seen Matt’s videos on how these knives are made you know the amount of development that has gone into them and how much labour goes into each knife. Put on top of that costs of materials, tools, workshop overheads, staff costs, consumables etc and I would be surprised if Matt is even paying himself minimum wage for each knife at that price. If he paid himself a representative amount for his level of training, skill and experience these knives would cost a whole lot more. You can buy a marking knife for £20 from a major manufacturer and it will do the job but it won’t be made or finished to anywhere near the standard of Matt’s knives. It also won’t give you the pleasure that something of this quality does every time you look at it, or pick it up or use it. I would argue that given the quality, beauty and pleasure that Matt’s knives provide they are ‘worth’, to me at least, substantially more than he charges. But that is just my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own.

[@grahambaker9377]

Not made in china

[@Spiegelradtransformation]

Hey man, this is too much Video.