If you are sawing it yourself you have to remember to coat any figured areas right away with some sort of sealer to prevent rapid moisture loss which will cause checking. i mean right away as in as soon as the figure is revealed. I used to use a barbecue grill and melt paraffin which I swabbed on with an old paintbrush. I still have some of those flitches and over 20 years later they are free of checks in the coated areas.By the way,bandsaw mill blades are much cheaper than those used on a circle mill and they can hit a nail or 2 or 3 and still function and don't cost too much if you hit a sad iron and have to replace the whole thing.Good luck as it is more fun than you can imagine when sawing and watching the figure reveal itself on a log that is all yours. Remember too that there is no such thing as a bad piece of figured walnut and even the smaller pieces can be used by the creative to make all sorts of nice things.That goes for pieces with worm holes,bark inclusions and other problems.
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