First off, let me be the first to say "you suck". Congratulations.

I would leave the edges as-is if space it not a major concern. You never
know if you will want to just a few short in-line-with grain boards from an
S-shaped stick. Or you may *want* that sapwood for an intentional color
contrast.

Also the rough edges will help you reassemble the puzzle of the tree if you
want adjacent boards for optimal matching. Keep things in "flitch order" if
possible.

Basically, you save space but loose options when you cut off the edges.

-Steve


"jtpr" wrote in message
...
Now I've done it. We recently had to take down a very big black
cherry tree on our property for fear limbs would fall off and hit the
house or a car. Anyway, I asked the guy if there was any chance I
could get a little bit milled as I thought it would be nice to make a
box or something small from a tree that came from our land, all .14
acres of it. He said "Sure, I have a friend with a mill".

Well, today I came home and pulled in the driveway and in the back, at
the far end of the driveway there is a pile of cherry in 12' lengths,
about 10 foot wide, and about 2' hight. Each one is ~4/4 or 5/4. I
stood there thinking what the hell am I going to do with all of this?
It is milled to thickness, but the edges need to be cut to width, so
there is a reasonable amount of waste.

I went and got my next door neighbor who also does some woodworking.
He said he has a spot on his land that we can use to stack it. I
found a good document on stacking so I think I'm good there. But
should I cut the wood to width before I stack it or just leave it in
it's "uneven" state and wait for it to dry? It will be outside for
the most part.

-Jim