This Spring a guy contacted me to ask if I was interested in some black cherry trees he was having taken down. Yes, of course. As we talked he told me he needed cribbing for bases to jack up his camp. We ended up striking a deal where I get the cherry logs and in return make him 75 pieces of cribbing from lesser value logs. Summer came and went and we're now into early Fall. I finally got down to his site last week to start milling the cherry. His camp is 55 miles from my house so it's not short commute. I was concerned about getting my mill and trailer into his rough dirt road site, too, but it turned out to be manageable.
Here's a photo of the first load I brought home. 12 - 18" wide, the longest being 9-1/2'. Some of the logs were 12 to 14' long, so rather then cut them down to fit my 10' mill limit, I cut them in half to maximize the BF I get out of them.
It's not all as clear as this stuff, but there isn't much common grade. This rack has about 650 bf on it:
There is at least another 1000 bf yet to sticker. I have 25 pieces of cribbing made now, too, mostly 6 x 6's, but also some 4 x 8's and 6 x 8's. Two more days should get me close to the 75 pieces he needs. I'd call it a win.
Those white stickers you see are PVC. I found a local guy who makes tapered porch columns. He cuts me the stickers from his scrap for $0.50 each. The ash 4 x 4's for the base are from a job I did earlier this Summer. I'm happy I made them because I had to buy some PT 4 x 4's the other day. Holy cow, $19 for an 8 footer.
I think I have enough cherry for a good long while now.
John