What should I cut from this monster white oak? video clip added

[GAmillworker]

http://youtu.be/3YFl7d6ShNg



this is Patrick Not me he is 6' tall I'm a little shorter





This is me

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

How about cut a new house.  :D

This is a WHOOPER!

[nk14zp]

Stickers.

[WDH]

Quartersaw it   ;D.  You don't ever know when you will need some thin sliced quartersawn white oak to make a some engineered flooring  :D.

[mesquite buckeye]

That crotch is pretty big and if it is good, it could be really cool. If the butt of the log is solid, super cool lumber. How much hardware inside, though? We must be cautious. Also, that root ball is a killer. Don't let it get you. ;D 8) 8) 8)

[GAmillworker]

We will be bracing the root ball before we cut the butt.

[drobertson]

Bonified head scratcher for sure, I would cut some clear 1" off a few of the face cuts and see what is there.  Then make a decision on the rest, Happy for your in the sense it is already down and has to be dealt with, but not for the decisions from there,  20"'s and up quarter saw it,  should would be some nice ray and fleck, you might go grade till the tight knots show up then quarter saw,  should be around 12-14" , this will still give you a good 6" q-sawn board,  head scratcher for sure,    what a tree!  david

[qbilder]

Holy smokes somebody lost their yard in that root ball  Quarter saw as much as you can. That butt log is nice!!!

[Peter Drouin]

A yard tree will have iron in it .And hart rot maybe. I would cut the hole thing into fire wood. And watch out for the root ball

[Magicman]

We will be bracing the root ball before we cut the butt.

Cut the root ball off before bucking the trunk.  You may can brace it, but there is no way to safely support those roots.

[rmack]

If you can arrange it, might be a good idea to take a fire hose to the root wad before cutting it loose from the tree, may make it easier to separate the dirt from the roots than after it flops back down.

[Al_Smith]

I don't think you'll need to worry about where that root ball will go .Gravity will put it right back from wence it came .Lawdy that thing has 5 tons of Georgia clay stuck to it .

You can probabley salvage some lumber but it really isn't a prime log  never the less it has some potential .

[isawlogs]

 White oak , quarter saw it, man that might have some of the nicess looking wood being that big, even if it does have center rot... does not matter center is not very usefull anyways.  ;)

  PLEASE.. WATCH OUT FOR ROOT BALL"  No bracing will hold that up, it will go back into its hole. While cutting log off of said root ball, be dam carefull, that thing is big and heavy. 

[terrifictimbersllc]

Should be enough wood for a composter or two in there, no matter what.

[customsawyer]

I did a job one time with a root ball that was smaller than that one. It had to be moved with a crane that had scales on it. There were bets as to how much it would weigh. It ended up weighing over 26,000 lbs. The point of this story is that you will not be able to brace that kind of weight, she will go back in her hole. You be careful they can be killers.

[ddcuning]

I would quartersaw all I could. I agree with everyone else, that root ball is a widow maker! When you cut it make sure everyone is clear because it is going back in its hole and nothing is going to stop it. Years ago after a hurricane here in NC there was a story on the news where trees had gone over and a homeowner cut the trunk off and wasn't expecting the movement of the rootball. He wasn't aware that one of his kids was playing in the hole at the time and he lost a family member in the process of trying to clean up a tree.

Dave C

[RayMO]

I cut hundreds of blow downs after a tornado a few years ago and the snakes just loved those big root/dirt balls  ;D Would be no sign of them until the saw was part way through and then they would come alive ! After most of 800 acres of damaged and or blow downs I decided If I never cut another it would be soon enough and then a friend had several nice black walnuts blow down and I said sure I will harvest them lol.
As for the tree in question you should have a better idea of what to saw or not saw after bucking. Some of the best looking trees can be rather poor on the inside and some rather rough lookers saw out beautifully.

[5quarter]

Peter... That's a load of hooey! you would not be able get that log on the mill fast enough... :D :D :D :D

[Magicman]

I have seen many stand back up with a butt log still attached.  The log then had to be felled.   :-\

That is a dangerous situation.

[mesquite buckeye]

I've had them go over to the log side. Also have had them roll and flip sideways.

[scsmith42]

I would definitely quartersaw those logs.

Keep in mind that QS shrinks more in thickness than FS; I would recommend that you mill any boards wider than 8" at 1-7/16" green; they will shrink down to 5/4 after drying.

Wide boards often move a bit more during drying than narrow boards, and the extra thickness will help ensure that you can always make a 3/4" thick finished board, if not a 7/8" or 1".

Boards less than 8" wide can be milled at 1-1/8" or 1-3/16" in order to produce a 1" dry board.

[two-legged-sawmill]

Hello, Too bad to lose such a nice tree, but that is life! If you
have plenty of water and a hose that will reach that far I
would start by washing a little at a time the dirt off the stump and root ball to fill up the hole before cutting up the main trunk! You will be amazed how the root ball will look minus the dirt. Also the stump can then be cut up one root at a time. God Bless and work safe!

[GAmillworker]

I left log 17' 6" to get it cut & loaded safely. Once we got it back to shop it was more than the fork lift wanted to handle.  Cut crotch at 6' 6" which left butt cut 11'.  I've decided to quarter saw the 11' butt and slab the crotch.

[isawlogs]

 Nicde job, I see it sat back in its hole. 

[Magicman]

I am glad to see that you handled it safely.   

[GAmillworker]

here is a clip

http://youtu.be/3YFl7d6ShNg

[beenthere]

THAT is a great video clip. Make a believer out of anyone thinking about cutting loose a tree tipped over with a root ball standing up.

[Ianab]

Even with a good plan, that worked perfectly, everyone still jumped when it came loose  :D

[Jemclimber]

That looks like a nice piece of wood.

[Seaman]

Nice job!

[Magicman]

Thanks for adding that video clip.  It will be good for "show and tell".   

[newcomtd]

That was amazing

[NCDiesel]

I have seen many stand back up with a butt log still attached.  The log then had to be felled.   :-\

That is a dangerous situation.

I watched a small pine stand up after just a few pieces from the top were cut.   It went up slow, so everyone was able to get out of the way.   I have also seen tree companies back the dump trunk up against the root ball to prevent a stand-up situation.   In this case, you may need to lay rails and back a locomotive up to it. (-:

[drobertson]

Happy for you, love it when a plan comes together, looks like it's free of metal, no bluing in the butt cut,  heck of a log,  david

[thecfarm]

Magicman reminded me of 2 white pine that grew next to the road by the pond. They kinda grew out of one stump. There was only one root ball.They fell across the road and they cut the tops off and now there are two logs about 20-30 feet tall sticking up in the air.

[WDH]

Now that is one fine butt log.  I am  scheming on how to get it  trying to figure out how to get one like that  :D.

[customsawyer]

Danny if you figure out how to get it I'll cut it. ;) :D

[Piston]

Oh my god, I wouldn't have touched that log  :D

Way to go!

[drobertson]

We had 150 plus blow downs from an 09' nader, a good friend has a big john deer skidder, he would grab the trunk, a few close to that size, and the balls would lay real nice back in the hole, a few hairs would raise, but all said and done all went well, including the sweat!  david

[GDinMaine]

It was crazy on so many levels, but I'm glad it turned out well.  I'm curious what is the length of the bar on your chainsaw.  That will tell us the diameter of the tree, as it seems you just barely missed some fibers in the center.