Light Poles from a baseball park

[peterduncan]

I was asked the other day if I could saw up about 50 light poles which are about 16" in diameter and 20 feet long. They are all douglas fir and are about 60 years old. Very few knots, but a number of checks. A bit of creosote at the bottoms. Anybody have any words of wisdom on this subject?

[stumpy]

Often the creosote is only in the lower end that goes in the ground.  I would not saw that end.  The creosote is nasty stuff to breath.  Not to mention it is a bear to clean off the mill.  And the smell 

[ely]

i promise the creasote is in all the pole. it just appears to be clean on the top. when you saw into it you will learn a new aspect of sawmilling, like tramp metal, wavy cuts, lots of noise and more than a little stink.
then you get into the unhealthy parts of the deal.

do a search on this. lots of info to read.

[Chuck White]

peterduncan;
Maybe send   petefrombearswamp   a PM on this issue!  He may see the post and chime in!   ;)

He used to saw a lot of utility poles and rr ties on the mill that I now have!  

Stumpy is correct!  Not to mention it is a bear to clean off the mill.  And the smell.  In fact when I open my manual to look up something on my mill, I can still smell the creosote.
  smiley_airfreshener

[Woodwalker]

In the utility industry, I have worked with and around the stuff for over thirty years, sometimes the poles were so "green" creosote would run or bleed out while you are drilling or stapling on the poles. Summer time in Texas and "green" creosote poles will separate the guys that want to work from the ones wanting a paycheck.
Don't know about words of wisdom, but yeah now and again I saw creosote utility poles for my own use. I've got a 1,000 1,500 ft sawed now that I'm using as bands and plates on a pole type hay barn I'm building.
When cutting creosote, I wear long sleeves, gloves, a powered respirator and old clothes that I have to strip off before I am allowed into the house.
Creosote will burn/blister your skin (some people worse than others). There is a mess to clean up. It is dirty. It smells. It's dulls blades at an advanced rate. There is almost always some sort of tramp metal in any given pole.
End result is some very nice treated lumber you are not able to buy at a box store and a lot cheaper than the stuff you can buy. Not counting my time, I've got $60.00 to $75.00 in gas and bands invested in cutting the last batch of poles.
My advice is, take precautions to protect yourself, cut one pole, make you own decision as to continue sawing, or not.

[MikeH]

 Cut the bottoms and you will be fine, if not your blades will dull super super fast. Been there ;)

[Chico]

If the poles aren't real old you could have a copper/ arsenic mix also which is nasty stuff also so be careful about breathing it
Chico

[petefrom bearswamp]

I agree with everything said above.
I have sawed a lot of poles over the past 8 yrs.
Regarding metal, if the customer cleans the poles I charge $25 for every blade destroyed by metal.
I generally scan them myself and have hit very little hardware, only small stuff.
Got a bunch from the city of Cortland NY a number of years ago. they were a beast to clean because of small staples (by the hundreds) used to put up handbills. These set off the metal detector, but didn't harm the blade if I missed some.
As far as treatment, I have sawed very few creosote poles which I agree are nasty, mostly SYP Penta treated.
After getting a severe headache the first time I now wear a respirator and have no problem.
Western Red Cedar is nice, but very dry to saw requiring a constant drip to keep the blades somewhat cool.