Cypress Crotch

[Tom]

Here are pictures of the ornamental grain I found in a rare, 16 foot long, twin stem cypress log last Saturday.  It produced 20 inch boards.  

It took a little chainsaw and axe work to get the mill to pass over it for the first cut.  I stood it up on it's edge with the crotch leveled and whittled a little from the top stem.  Then took a few boards until it stood about 26 inches tall.  Then I turned it over onto the flat I had just created and cut the other stem down to 20 inches, taking a few boards as I went.  Lastly I turned in onto its side like a pair of pants and cut 1 3/16 boards till I reached almost half-way.  I then turned it over
and cut boards from the other side until a 2 5/8 x 20" board was left boxing the hearts and the customer asked me to leave it like that.   Here is Money on the hoof.

The board on the stack to the left came from the center of the crotch.  Those boards next to it, on the right, were produced as I entered the crotch.

The following pictures are what I found inside.


Showing a little "peck" on the bottom edge


A little more "peck" on a 20", all heart board




 I wish I could have gotten a picture of the center 2" board but it, and most of the other pretty boards,  had already been loaded in the kiln.

[Bibbyman]

Did you get a picture of the log before you started whittlin' on it?

[Tom]

No, Dagnabit !!.        ........I mean DanGit !!

I didn't have the camera.  I took these Yesterday morning when finished up.  I would kick my bo-hunkus if I could reach it.   Didn't even know it was in the log pile until the forklift brought it over.  :-[ :-/

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Tom,

Thats really nice grain!!  I love seeing the inside patterns like that, it changes the whole board.  Nice. ;D ;D
Cheers
Charlie.

[Don P]

Purty stuff. Are they doing anything to the kiln schedule to try to keep degrade down?

[Frank_Pender]

DanG, that is a "purty" board.  Thatis one of the things I like most about sawing, what the next board will look like.   8)

[Tom]

Like going on an Easter egg hunt, eh Frank? ;D

I don't know that they are changing any kiln schedules.  I think it was just being put in with the rest of the their production.  Most of what they do is 1x so it probably stands a pretty good chance of making it, Don. 'Course, I don't know much about kiln work either. :-/

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Tom,

Couldnt think of the word I wanted, when I posted before.
Grain like that gives DEPTH [/color] to the wood!! ;D
Cheers,
Charlie.

[Jeff]

You remembered the word when you started thinking about yer swim to Corley5's wedding didntcha?

[Fla._Deadheader]

Nice wood! We gave a log to the guy that we are working out of his fishcamp. It had (2) 9 foot logs on the top end, as a fork, and the log itself, top of the tree, had 9 foot of trunk that was over 48 inches, AFTER the worms had eaten the sap wood away. It was in the river for 100 years or so. It had crotch grain over 4 feet long and was GORGEOUS. The mill (circle) just wore the logs down, with NO regard for pretty wood. Some guys are Sawyers and then there are "STICK PULLERS !!!  That's why my decision to build a "mizer" type saw that will CUT 40 inch boards, if need be. Then I can edge off the vertical grain and get top dollar, while selling quarter grain and flat grain as combined or seperate pieces.

   Neat part is, this old growth doesn't twist or curl after being sawn. Maybe a little, but, none of this log did, even where the top 2 cuts were taken off the main trunk.

   Can't imagine the size of the butt cut???

   Heard about one log in the lake "out of bounds" that has 5000 bdf in it. Someday, I want to see that sucker !! 8)

   Also, anyone know where I might sell some Old Growth Cypress "Stump Slabs", that would make great tables? I cross cut a stump with my "ole" 041 Stihl. Got some of the tightest grain you'll ever see. Here's a pic, MAYBE.
  Well, all my pic files are too big. Will edit some and post tonight. Fla._Deadheader

  

[Tom]

There is/was a fellow south of Waldo, Fl. who sells slabs.  He set up business years ago in an old fruit stand and moves most of his stuff overseas.  He goes to the N.West and finds large burls which he ships back to FL on railroad cars and slices them up with Large Chainsaws. He has two woodmizers as well.  Perhaps he would be someone you would like to meet for your marketing effort.   I don't remember a name on the business but he goes by "Tom's Cypress" and is located on the east side of US 301.

John Laidlaw built sawmills in New Zealand until his death a couple of years ago
 
His family has continued his company by selling his plans for saws rather than manufacturering them. Perhaps this would be a place to look for a large saw.  He had one model that was designed to cut Large slabs.

http://www.standard.net.au/~bushmill/index1.html

http://mail.standard.net.au/~sawmillers/

[Fla._Deadheader]

   Thanks Tom. I already talked to Tom in Waldo. I saw his 10 FOOT long chainsaw bar. I don't want to get as big an operation as he has. I'm too DanG old.
   He is VERY tight with info and I asked if he would consider working a deal with his people that he USED to sell to. NO WAY, I DON'T DEAL !!!
    He did show me the whole operation and told me how to get raw material, but, no marketing advice. That's cool. Just thought he would open up a little, seeing that he does NOT import from Cal. anymore, and complained about the govt. shutting him WAY down on production.
   He has VERY bad shoulders from the humongous chainsaws he used.

[JoeyLowe]

Hey Tom:

Nice pics.   ;D  How have you been?  Haven't posted here in a couple of weeks.  My sawmill business is doing pretty well, but now two of us are sick. The pollen this time of the year down here has kicked out butts.  I can't walk outside for more than 10 minutes without wheezing and gasping for air.  Kind of sucks too, since I have work backing up and no one to saw right now.

Again, that grain is just plain wunferful.

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Jeff,

You got it, I got to about 100 metres offshore and....
1.  Realised my Speedos werent going to keep me nearly warm enough,
2.  I got a wicked cramp in my calf, from the drum of shark repellant tied to my left foot,
3.  Realised its pretty DEEP[/color]out here,
4.  My packed lunch kept falling off my head,
5.  Thought I'd miss my Mummy too much.
....so gave up on the whole idea, gnawed loose the repellant, and doggy-paddled back to shore.
Ah well, the thought was there.
Cheers
Charlie.

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Fla_D,

Not what I wanted to read -
He has VERY bad shoulders from the humongous chainsaws he used.
Is this what Ive got to look forward to, along with a wrecked back from lifting all them DanG heavy slabs on my own!!?? ;D
At least I will be doing something I love!  **groan** :
Cheers
Charlie.

[Fla._Deadheader]

G'day Charlie. I saw some table slabs that the guy had ready to ship, that were OVER 10 feet across. Trick was, they were light. Don't know how he ships. Trucks are not 10 feet high or 10 feet wide. Maybe a local market???
  Here's my piddly slabs.

[Tom]

I've talked with him several times in the past but not recently.  Back then he described his business as bringing bulk in on railroad cars, slabbing and filling shipping containers that were shipped overseas.  I guess you could get a 10' slab in a container if it went in there Catywhumpus.  Some little stuff was being sold locally and some was put on a train and sent back west or north.  Most everything went overseas though.

He must have a pretty good market over there because he doesn't even try to sell stuff here.

Hey Joey, don't be a stranger. :D

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Fla_D,
Were those 10' slabs ripped, ie cut down the length of the tree, or the same as the ones in your photos?
GB do a 96" double-ender bar for ripping, but thats 'only' 8' !!    Even hi-cube containers are only a bit over 9' high, from memory, so that means they go in, on the diagonal!!
Oh, Tom, whats "Catywhumpus" ??? ???
Cheers
Charlie.  :P

[Don P]

Whoppyjaw : :D

[Fla._Deadheader]

Charlie. The slabs were crosscut, NOT ripped. They make gorgeous tables. The wood he was getting was nearly, almost WHITE, not tan or natural, as far as wood goes. Then there was charcoal colored streaks throughout. The sides were "bumpy".??  He sanded them smooth and they were also sand-blasted all over. Wish I took some pics ???

  "Catywumpus" = diagonal or askew or hap-hazard or ??????

[Tom]

Good description for catywhumpus, Deadheader.

We always considered it askew in placement or diagonal in direction, Charlie.   If someone lived catywhumpus across the street, it meant that they didn't live directly across but rather 1 or 2..........or 3............or maybe 4 houses down.  Not exactly an exact direction.  Makes you wonder how words like that get started, doesn't it? :P

(Spelling makes a difference in Random House unabridged Dictionary.)

Of Midland and Southern origin. Means: 1) askew, awry 2) positioned diagonally 3) obliquely, as in "we made a shortcut catawampus through the cotton fields"Derivation: 1830-40's for earlier sense "utterly" cata = diagonally, as in cater cornered, from obsolete cater for four (4), probably from quarter wampus = perhaps akin to wampish, of Scottish origin 1810-20, to wave about or flop to and fro, apparently of expressive origin.

[Jeff]

catywhumpus is just the southern way of saying the correct term: Kittywumpus and dont be pullin out that dictionary Tom. its wrong!

Jeez another thread gone askew :D

Better this way then what I first thought when I seen this thread name. I thought, yow, thats gotta be uncomfortable.

[Tom]

I've heard Kittywhumpus before but only from those Northern type foreigners.  Must be a misspelled colloquialism.  To expatiate ones conjecture in the vernacular requires a cognizant understanding of  sectoral bailiwicks and regional phonations. :P

I am good at neither.  :-/ ;D

[Bro. Noble]

Tom,

Around here that's called talkin like a SXXX salesman with a mouthful of samples.

Noble

[Jeff]

I just want everybody to know that I watched Tom start that reply at 4:00 and its now pushing 5:30 :D

[Jeff]

Tom if you was to do something about that cypress crotch you could sit still long enough to make a post in a timely fashion.

[Tom]

Didn't take quite that long but I'm unaccustomed to talking like that and figured that I would try to communicate for once. YaknowwhatImean?

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Tom,

I guessed it meant something along those lines, or 'higgledy-piggledy', so to speak.
Jeff, maybe you could add an auto unscrambler/translator/discombobulator for words like that, for us foriegn types, so that the next time I dont have to ask, and lead yet another thread askew!!  ;) ;D
I dont do it on purpose, I really dont. ;) :D  I thought the title was some local disease - of the tree of course.
Cheers
Charlie.

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Fla_D,

I am surprised to hear the slabs were crosscut.  Ive not much heard of that style though.  How is the strength of your slabs?  Or is it the thickness that gives the strength.  As you know, a very thin piece of crosscut wood is easy to break, with the grain direction.
Cheers
Charlie.

[Fla._Deadheader]

G'day Charlie. Here in Fla. the "Modern" cut of cypress is a light weight wood, when dried. A slab that measures approx. 36" each way, by 2 inches thick, would weigh approx. 12-15 pounds or so. What the guy does we were talking about is, he sells smaller blanks for clock making, and the larger in dia. they get, the thicker, up to about 2--2 1/2 inches thick.

  The wood I get is Old Growth, Virgin Heart Cypress. Some of this is HEAVY when dried. That's why it sank when it hit the water. It is VERY dense. The annular rings are sometimes the width of 2-3 hairs. I cut mine about 2--2 1/2 inches thick. Need to buy a looonng bar for my saw, and cut the slabs more uniform, though.

   I will try to post a pic of this tight grain. I seem to lose definition when I reduce pic byte size.







   The old timers that cut the timber would "girdle" it, and then return a year or so later to fell it. That would kill it and give it time to dry, on the stump. Still, they lost approx. 15% of everything they floated.

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Fla_D,

Thats real interesting, and makes me want to have a play around with that style.  They look like great slabs.  Very light coloured wood.  Thanks for taking the time to post those pics, I really appreciate that.
I might head on over to the behind the forum and talk with Jeff on the posting pic sizes. ;)
Cheers
Charlie.

[CHARLIE]

That's some pretty cypress Fla_D!  I find log salvage from rivers intriguing.  There is a company up around Superior, Wisconsin that has been pulling logs out of Lake Superior for several years now. Stuff that was felled in the late 1800's. Very tight growth rings and they are pulling up figured maple, birch, oak and pine. The cold water and lack of oxygent has kept the wood in pretty good shape but they say the wood stinks until a finish is put on it. They are getting big bucks per board foot. Someday I want to go up there and see their operation.

Tom, it's Cattywhumpus and Kitty Cornered. I ain't never heard of Kittywhumpus. Leave it up to a Yank to mess up good English language. Sheesh, can't they ever get it right!  ;D

[Fla._Deadheader]

I have some that is also a reddish hue. I saw some Heart Cypress that looked like Red Cedar after it had a finish applied. Seems that there are several variations in color. There isn't that much of a smell, after it dries a little. Most of the smell comes from silt where the logs have been covered.

  I heard that the operation you are referring to, has filed for Bankruptcy??

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Charlie,

Ok, you got me, whats Kitty Cornered, or is it the same as Cattywhumpus? ???
I can see Im gonna have to throw some good Kiwi lingo in here soon, to get my own back!!  ;) :D
Cheers
Charlie.

[Haytrader]

Here we say "katty corner" which means, for example, dioginally across an intersection.

One of my Dads, and I assume it was handed down from Grandpa, favorite sayings is "Look at that coyote run. He is faster than a striped assed ape."
Have any of you guys ever seen a striped assed ape?

Fast, huh?   :D :D

[CHARLIE]

Kiwi Charlie, Catywhumpus and Kitty Corner is esentially the same thing. Catywhumpus means it is Kitty Cornered. :

[DanG]

Charlie, that is a concise and thorough explanation of the situation, if I ever heard one.  It places them precisely in perspective with one another as surely as if you had related them to their close kinship with the term "whankiejawed."

Haytrader, I have never had any difficulty relating to the supposed speed of the proverbial "striped-assed ape.  I have but to harken back to the stripes placed upon my own posterier, in the days of my misspent youth, to appreciate the cause of his swiftness.

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day DanG
Thanks for that, I dont even want to get into what "whankiejawed." means.    Or is that the same too!  Sounds like it could be.  Seems you have a lot of words for the same meaning.  Guess that happens when you have so many people/states/distance there.  Here, we are so small, one term seems to spread through the whole place!
Makes it a bit easier.  We too have a term for really fast, but this is a family forum, so I wont go further....
Cheers
Charlie.