The morer I cut, the worser I got!

Well, the log didn't kill me. I thought I was doin' it to meself, though. This was by far the hardest slabbing project I've ever tried. It took a total of five days (2-3 hours per day is all I could handle) to slab this bad boy. Won't ever try that again, that's for sure! From now on, I stay with stuff I can handle more easier cuz the more I cut, the worser I got. You'll see when you look at the photos.

This photo shows how the cuts from both sides using my 32" bar didn't quite meet in the middle. Seemed like no matter how hard I tried to get a flush cut, the chainsaw had a mind of its own.

Another faux pas - Can't really see it in this photo, but the cut is really very badly curved, so am not sure how much of this piece will remain intact as a table top because the curve, when planed down to level, will make the slab too thin.

Here's the next slab. Again, the cuts didn't line up, and I was getting even more frustrated.

This was the last, and by far, the most exasperating cut. Thought it would be the easiest, but turned out I was running out of poop and vinegar, and so I tried to break apart the two slabs toward the end of the cut instead of beating myself up any more. Turns out, the cut was a lot less deep than I thought and part of the bottom of the log just totally split off leaving some very uneven voids. Durn burnit!

Well, good news is I got six slabs to work with.

Not as good news is the heart of this log turned out to be a log of its own. When I cut the third slab, the heart literally fell out of the log. You can see one edge of the slab on top of the other on the ground, and the heart is standing up but ready to fall over.

Lessons learned, I guess. Smaller just might be better from now on.