Building my inventory of logs

[Todd Burch]

I picked up a couple shorter water oak logs (red oak family) over the weekend. I'm collecting logs, so when I get a mill, I'll be ready.

These two logs are ~36" diameter (one 36 @ small end, one at the big end). They are 6.5' - 7' long. Log was too heavy to even move when a full 13.5' long. After they sat cut for a couple weeks, I could lift them with a skid steer.

If you are familiar with water oaks, you will recognize the tell tale signs of heart rot alive and well in this section. It's worse at the lowest area of the butt section, but still plenty of good wood.

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This piece shown in the picture was the top half of the trunk section.

[Danny Hamsley]

That is a fine oak log, very little sapwood. Also, that is a nice red cedar log, too!

[Todd Burch]

Yes, I have 5 cedar logs, the largest being about 20" dia.

And then there's the pecan. 36" @ both ends and 14' long. It's a moose. Storm collateral. When unloading it out of the 16' trailer, I had to use 2 hands.

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I just missed getting these two white oaks. A day late to get things coordinated in order to get them.

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You can't get 'em all, I suppose.

[Scott T Smith]

Nice score Todd! The growth rings look pretty tight too. That oak looks like a good candidate for quartersawing....

[Danny Hamsley]

I will be cutting a big pecan log today. One of the more difficult species to saw. Pecan is a hickory.

[Todd Burch]

No pictures this time, but scored another red oak (12', about 20" diameter), two 12' cypress logs about 20"-24" and about a 6' hunk of walnut and 22" dia. The walnut is pretty old, with no bark and a lot of the sap wood pretty punky. Not sure what condition the heartwood is in. Might be a candidate for slabbing though.

I have a lot of standing dead cedar elm (an elm tree with little tiny leaves, pretty drought and heat tolerant) in my woods that I'll be gathering later this fall when it cools off. We had a pretty severe drought in this area in 2011-12 and there is still fallout happening from it.

[John TenEyck]

Nice score. Here is the largest red oak I've ever gotten, though I could have gotten many larger if my mill could handle them. The butt log was nearly 36" dia. at the base.

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We parbuckled it onto my mill:

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Oooh, there was a lot of great wood in that log:

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John

[Todd Burch]

John, what brand of chain saw mill do you have? What's your powerhead? Capacity?

[Cody Colston]

Pecan is a hickory.

I thought Pecan was a DevilWood. LOL

Todd, you are getting together a good stash of logs. I would QS that big Water Oak, too. In the Red Oak family, Water Oak is not high on my preferred list but QS, you should get some good lumber from it.

A friend of mine with a trophy deer farm just outside of Brenham gave me a bunch of Cedars off his place a few years ago when he was clearing part of it. They weren't huge but they were the tallest, straightest, most limb-free Cedars I've ever seen.

Where did you score the cypress?

[Todd Burch]

There's a tree service in Brenham that would rather give me the logs than pay to get rid of them at the local city waste disposal. Works for me! He's got a skid steer and a big prentice log loader, and I just take my trailer to where he's working, or to his shop for logs where he has saved logs over the years, as they were too good to get rid of, but, at 72, he's probably not going to be doing too much with them at this point.

This last load came from his shop. Lucky for me, the new owner of the tree service wants it all cleaned up.

There are tons of cedars around here. Many of the bigs ones are still dying from the drought. A buddy of mine has 3 or more trailer loads of logs to take to a mill. Many are 20"+

Todd

[John TenEyck]

Todd, I have a John TenEyck chainsaw mill! Built it myself. Building a chainsaw seemed a little daunting though, so I bought a Husqvarna 385XP (85 cc). I use a 42" Oregon bar and full comp. ripping chain on it. I've been millng with this saw for about 10 years now, some where over 4000 BF with it and it still runs strong.


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I have SketchUp plans for the basic frame of the mill if anyone is interested. The capacity between the frame is about 34".

John

[Cody Colston]

I have SketchUp plans for the basic frame of the mill if anyone is interested. The capacity between the frame is about 34". John

I am interested. I have the original frame that came with my LM1 mill and it would be perfect to use with a CSM. I might have to tweak the width of your frame to match the rails but that's no big deal.

[Gary Price]

That's a really huge pile of logs! I have a lot of wood myself, but already sawn. I prefer to buy my Lumber from a Sawyer because the quality is not guaranteed. I'm waiting for about 2000 bord ft of maple, 1000 bord ft of cherry and a few bord ft of walnut to dry. Most likely I live too far away, but I am always looking to buy more wood. I tend to buy faster than I use it! It seems to be my hoby.

[Todd Burch]

Got my first pine tree the other day. 3 sections at 12.5' each. Sap was oozing ALL OVER my trailer. Never seen one ooze so much.

Also got an nice butt section of American Elm at the same length, about 20" in diameter, and a couple large branches. Not sure how they will work out - but might make good beams or shorter braces for a timber frame.

[Danny Hamsley]

Good luck with the SPIRAL GRAIN elm branch wood .