Whatcha Sawin' 2019 ???

[Southside]

Actually, Denim Pine will bring a premium these days. 

[Magicman]

Just smelling SYP sap is a good enough reason to click your heels together.  8)

[WDH]

Got some nice blue in it. 

[LeeB]

Raining today. No sawing but it was a good day to burn slabs.

[Peter Drouin]

Del some lumber, I don't del but he was a mile away.


  

[Florida boy]

Truck envy!

[WV Sawmiller]

  A neighbor came by yesterday and just about wiped out my slab pile cutting it into 8-10 inch lengths. You can put a lot of wood on a pick up truck that way. He has a small wood and coal stove that uses the short lengths. He wanted another load and I joked with him I was going to have to cut some more wood so he'd have enough slabs for another load. Less than an hour latter a guy I met at a local flea market trip a few weeks back stopped and placed an order and left a deposit for 250 10'X 3" X 4/4 battens and several dozen 5/4 X 10' X 8" boards. All poplar and he knows it will be fresh cut. I got up this morning and cut down about a 28X30 inch poplar tree and started cutting 10' logs from the top to the bottom and pulled 5 down with my ATV. By the end of the day I had 101  of his battens and some rejects for projects or 8' battens for other customers. I may start keeping a stock pile of them as it looks to be a potential market. Just like I save my 1X4's and periodically someone will come buy them all to put under a metal barn roof. I cut the tree, hung a saw during bucking and returned with another saw a few minutes later to free it. In the 5-10 minutes I was gone an old doe and near grown fawn had already found downed tree and were munching on fresh leaves. During sawing, without even having an audience to blame it on. I forgot and still sawed into a side support. I don't remember ever doing that without someone watching. When I finished for the day I went back up and bucked the rest of the tree to log length. The old doe was back with 2 near grown fawns and they were very reluctant to leave. They evidently don't know archery season has been open 2 weeks around here. I will need the tractor to get the butt logs and that is still going to be a stretch. I also finished cutting the excess length off the legs of 2 LE white oak Mortise and Tenon benches I had been working on.


 First 3-10' tops. Not a lot of yield but okay for 1X3 battens

 Two more off another fork  

End of the day -101 battens on my order. (Okay go ahead and call the sticker police. I figured inadequate temporary stickering was better than flat stacking and possible mildew.)  

 Rejects and project wood to use around my place. I'll get a few 8'X1"X6's to add to my stock for future sale/use and probably some 3-4 ft long battens or 1X3s for other use.

 Getting ready to cut the legs to 17" height on a couple of white oak benches. One pass and same height and angle for all - works great.

 Two benches ready for sanding and tung oil finish. One is 3' long other is about 30" and shortest one I ever built. There may be a better market for these smaller ones.

Total lumber yield for the day about 309 bf, at a whopping 110 bf/hr. Okay for small trashy logs and making battens and working by myself doing all the sawing, bucking and logging tasks alone. Yield will pick up tomorrow as I get to the bigger logs and start cutting some 5/4 X 8" X 10' stuff.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Went up and dragged down two more of the bigger poplar logs. I moved one big crotch piece about 3' long and it started rolling then started flipping end over end and finally stopped in a holler above my house. I was afraid it would keep rolling and punch a hole in the fence and end in a yard. I still have the 12' butt log up there to get down. It is real hairy getting a tractor up there and trying not to let it get away on the steep slopes.

  I cut the first two logs into more 3" battens and cut the last one into 5/4 X 8" X 10'. I got 21 out of the log and only need 38 so the remaining log will finish the order. I also have 187 of 250 battens. Looks like the one tree will do the whole order. Today was 412 bf out of the 3 logs and bf/hr up to about 150 per hour vs 110/hr yesterday so the bigger logs and 5/4 lumber speeded things up.


 First 2 were battens. Had to trim around the splits. Back log was mostly 5/4 lumber

 Over half the board and 2/3's of the battens complete. The one remaining should finish the order if it doesn't finish me getting it down. There is actually a nice 9' log hovering over the brink that is too short but will be good for stock.

EDIT/Add-on: I got up and a heavy mist and sprinkling rain so I decided I better rush up and get my last butt log before the ground got too wet to get baby John (JD750) up the slope. I started to cut the log to 10' and even cut a couple of small stumps out of the way killing my freshly sharpened chain in the process. Finally decided to leave it full length (13') and hooked a long 1/4" cable to it, pulled a while till it got hung on a stump then hooked up a snatch block to re-position it. Got it near in place then the 1/4" chain holding the snatch block to the tree broke. I found my snatch block 50 yards down hill so the cable was plenty tight when the chain broke. I was barely able to get the tractor in place to hook a short cable on the log and finally headed down hill to the mill. A time or two I had to try to roll the log over to free it and due to its size and sweep I am seriously considering adding a 78" megahook LogRite to my tool list. Sure would have been nice today. 


 Even with the sweep there should be over 300 bf of lumber here and probably enough to finish the order. 

[Magicman]

Did you leave any dirt on the hill??  :D

[WV Sawmiller]

   Doesn't look like it does it? Did I ever mention "I love my debarker". :D

[terrifictimbersllc]

What happened to that peavey?   Or are you trying to distract the sticker police? :D

[thecfarm]

If someone can bend a peavey like that,I ain't about to call the police on him. :D

[WV Sawmiller]

CFarm,

  Put yours in the path of a 1600+ bf poplar and see if it doesn't bend too. :D Fortunately the bend is in line with the direction of use and I have not noticed any degraded performance.

  I got out this afternoon and cut up my muddy log managing to get hung up twice due to excess width not removed in advance. That did not speed up my completion. I did complete the 5/4 X 8" boards and got a few more 3" battens. The order was for 10' but I left these 12' and if the customer is not happy with that I'll trim off the excess with a handy chainsaw. I still need to cut about 50 more battens to finish the order. I may have almost that in a stock log near the mill. Worst case I'll go cut another small poplar tree. I have one picked out to come down next in the path cleared by removing this big poplar.

EDIT/Add-on: When I tried cutting this log with the same blade I used yesterday I encountered some serious compression issues with a big hump from blade rising within the first foot. I put on a new/re-sharp 4 degree DH and that immediately fixed the problem.


 5/4 in foreground is complete. Battens in rear are 80% complete.

 Sampson checking out my slab pile which needs to be removed. Actually this pile is already sold. I need to either move the lumber or the mill to get a truck to it. Maybe I can prevent double handling it this time.

[WDH]

 Put yours in the path of a 1600+ bf poplar and see if it doesn't bend too. :D

If I had done that, my Daddy would have told me that I could tear up an anvil ;D. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Danny,

  We never had an anvil but my dad used to say I could break a crowbar. :D

[Old Greenhorn]

I believe your Dad was correct.

[btulloh]

Dad's usually are but it can take 30 years to figure that out. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Dad's usually are but it can take 30 years to figure that out.

iI am pretty sure we don`t have to wait 30 years, we can probably call this one now,

[Southside]

How many times has that wheeler rolled over?  Yea - I think it's a safe call.   :D

[Water Dogs]

This is some crazy look grain in this burnt stump .

[doc henderson]

looks like mulberry or hedge.

[WV Sawmiller]

How many times has that wheeler rolled over?  Yea - I think it's a safe call.   :D

Flipped end over end twice, rolled more times than I can remember. (For a fat old man I am pretty good about kicking free but last time it did roll over me - that smarted more than a little!) In every case I righted it, cranked it back up and rode it home. That is the second complete plastic body on it. it is a workhorse! Kawasaki 650 Prairie model.


 Cut 2 small, sweepy 10' logs off a stock poplar top and got 30 more 1"X3"X10' battens. I think I need 16 more. A repeat customer called and came and bought an assortment of lumber for his son and sidetracked me. Just before dark I got out and cut another poplar about 16"-18" at the stump. Of course it was leaning opposite where  wanted to fall and I could wedge it enough to re-direct it so I got a snatch block and my 200'X 1/4" cable (Best $20 flea market find I even made!) and hooked the snatch block  to a 10" maple, grabbed baby John, hooked up, took the slack out, one more nudge and it shifted and landed perfectly. I bucked a couple of upper 10' logs and used my beat up ATV to drag one to the mill so I am ready to finish the customer's order in the morning.

[Water Dogs]

It's Chittum wood sorry if spelling is off . It grows in limestone rocks on the foot of the mountain around here North Alabama .This was a stump that was burnt hate to see thing go to waste . 

[WDH]

Chittum wood.  More commonly known as bumelia.  Not a very common small tree.  There is one in my backyard that @caveman immediately identified when he came by for a visit.  Of course we had to do a walkabout and look at trees.  He is the only person (among many that have seen it) that knew what it was.  That impressed me, but then again, he is an impressive dude ;D. 

[Hoopty5.0]

Working my way through my stack of walnut. My only regret is that I couldn't get there in time to beat the excavators to it. The result is a lot of logs that look like this:



 

Still better than none at all!