Making a plank from a flitch - the wrong tool?

[Kent]

I know nothing IRL about carpentry, so this is less of a suggestion and more of a question.

It seems to me, it would be a plane and not a saw to process a plank from a flitch.

Anyone with any real life experience able to comment?

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[Rias]

At this point, carpentry may well be scrapped and rebult from the ground up.

[xavier]

a planer is used mostly to shave wood so you achieve a flush, level plane on a side. If you were to try and use a planer to make a flitch or a plank you accomplish two things.

1. have an extraordinarily smooth plank and probably three times as much weight in shavings.

2. Waste a whole lot of time as a hand planer usually only takes off about 1 to 2 mm per swipe. Mechanical planers can take off quite a bit more but obviously we don't have those.

[criticalfault]

Remember too that if your cutting something with a multiple blade bypass (Such as in a saw mill) it can achievement this near smooth finish in "one" cut. You can shove a tree into it and get a few boards out the other side. The joy of 48 inches of whirling steel in sets of three to five! WHEE!

[Rias]

I think that's what flitches are, and planks are just cutting them into smaller pieces - hence, saw. But yeah, I know next to nothing about carpentry, both in and out of game.

I do share Critical's enthusiasm about sawmills. Wheeeeeeeee!!

[Elystole]

I do share Critical's enthusiasm about sawmills. Wheeeeeeeee!!

I just wish they'd be less enthusiastic about lopping off our hands. We're getting (what would normally be) career-ending injuries with surprising regularity. Does logging skill reduce the chance for injury?

I'd say the same for trees falling on us, but I actually dodged a tree the other day. Woosh!