Is this Hemlock worth the work to mill?

[OH Boy]

I have a Hemlock tree laying downward towards my stream. For me it would be a large tree, and a lot of milling so a lot of wood. Its average 20 in dia, and more like 26 at the butt, which I', not sure I could even handle. It has been laying like this, with root wad attached and top of tree downward for 4-5 years. some fungi growing on it so possible spalting.
the part towards the creek has been wet a lot, but not all the time as its up on the bank a bit. gets wet when the creek rises. The rest of the log between the root wad and top has been off the ground. The whole thing is on a steep bank and I may have to clear a little for it to roll.

  

 

Getting a winch attached to the "top" of the tree, the end in the creek bank, would be easy as I can pull down, so my vehicle would be about where I took the photo. I'm thinking of just parking there and pulling the top towards me, so the butt and root wad would roll down into the stream and the way its laying is such that the root wad would roll away from me, and I'd also be out of the danger zone. I'm extremely safety conscious and have looked at this every which way. I feel I can get it down safely.

I'd have to cut into 8 ft logs in the creek and winch them out. I'd get easily 4 logs for my mill-( 8 footers.) then I'd have to drag/ winch the root wad out of the creek, which should be accessible enough at my creek crossing. but big and heavy, especially wet.

the real question is - is it worth it for the work to get a lot of board feet of Hemlock?

is the wood nice? I've never milled it and not sure if I;ve seen it.
I'm going to be building a house and could use a large (to me) amount of single species wood, maybe storage facing or something that would be visible. I expect it to look like pine or fir, but not sure.
anyone ever milled old lay-down Hemlock?

Thanks

[beenthere]

Might be worth it to you just to be able to say that you did it.   ;D

Beyond that, "worth it" is about impossible for someone other than you to measure.

How about cutting off the rootball first and not dragging it down to the creek?

[CCC4]

I think I would cut a pie wedge out of where you are going to buck it off and see if it is even sound. 4 or 5 years on the ground...but I no nothing about Hemlock and how well it would hold up.

[thecfarm]

I don't think I would bother with it for lumber. Firewood I would be sawing and a splitting.Hemlock does last kinda good,but not 4-5 years good. Splatting with hemlock? I don't know about that. I have cut hemlock alot on my land. Dead ones too. From some real nice stuff to some that was real old,with black knots 4-5-6 inches across and more than 3 feet across. Some I have cut right in the bog and some on high ground. Some had a little shake,alot had none and a few had a black,brown mark all the way to what I wanted for saw logs.Those make some some firewood for the OWB.

[celliott]

Could be full of ring shake also, as well as possibly not being sound.

[BargeMonkey]

 Before I invested much time go wack off a few feet from the butt end, if it looks soft or full of black rings which is "shake" its probably not worth your time. Hemlock turns after 2-3 years, and it isnt worth loading on the mill. There isnt anyone local to you cutting any ?, its worth 250-300 a thousand delivered. Hemlock can be funny, ive cut a few jobs where it was very brown but sawed fine, and I had one job we marked 150k ft and it was all pulp, alot depends on soil and growing conditions. 

[Ianab]

Like the others say, get your chainsaw and investigate. Cutting a chunk out near the root ball, which you will want to cut off anyway before you drag the log out, will tell you more about what's inside. 

5 mins there, and you will know whether to walk away, or go fetch the winch.

Ian

[Firewoodjoe]

We sawed a lot of it. Good lumber but dangerous because of the shack. And almost every log had some. We had a very large one fall apart slip out of the dogs and bound the saw up! I was sure it was broke. But just bent. It was a 52" circular

[OH Boy]

Thanks Guys, all good to know so I'll check it before doing all the work. I have a 15 inch Red Oak in the same situation up the creek that I know has been laying only 2 years, because I cut the top out of the creek when it fell. our creek bank is so steep this is pretty common situation. Might be a better cleanup milling project.

I am not really sure what "shake " is and what it does to the wood. is it black in the growth rings indicating rot between layers? went to look it up here on the woodopedia and - oops, shake isn't in there. :P

[beenthere]

is it black in the growth rings indicating rot between layers

That is a pretty good indication of shake. It is the separation of wood along the annual ring.

It contrasts with splits or checks, in that they are separation across the ring structure of the wood.

[thecfarm]

The wood will separate where the rings are. I've had some older stuff that I could pull the heart out after I split it. Older as in 70-90 years old.I was splitting yesterday and found a couple like that. that's why I was burning it.



 

The straight mark is a chainsaw mark. It had to be spilt for pulp,bigger than 28 inches. This is an extreme cause of shake due to age and growing in the bog. I've had some that would separate only after I opened the log up. Sometimes alot,but most times just a little off the end of the board.

Now that red oak will still have some hard wood. The sap wood might be gone. I have picked some up in the woods to burn.

[CCC4]

I am not really sure what "shake " is and what it does to the wood. is it black in the growth rings indicating rot between layers? went to look it up here on the woodopedia and - oops, shake isn't in there. :P

Shake in red oak is what I usually see on a regular basis. On a red oak, you can smell it right as you're putting in your face...kind of a soured smell produced by Tanic acid (sp). What shake does to lumber is seperate the growth rings, the board may look fine to someone who doesn't know what they are looking at...stick that board out in the sun and the grain will stand up, there by making the lumber junk pretty much...well at least the shakey part. Usually shake is near the butt of the log and you can actually recognize what trees are going to be shakey but identifing "wind shake" seams in the tree.

[Ed_K]

 Smells like pig manure as soon as you stick your saw in.

[OH Boy]

Okay, good picture cfarm, I;ve been cutting firewood for years and seen that in logs, just didn't know what it was called or that there was a specific term.

so I wonder since it's mostly found in the butt log area of older trees, is it a physical structural issue caused by wind sway over time, or you said tannic acid smell so maybe a chemical or biological issue?   

[thecfarm]

I have no idea what causes it,that was someone elses guess. I THINK that age has something to do with it. Or on my land it does. But saying that I built a horse run in about 5-6-7 years ago. I went back to the same area to cut some hemlock that I left and it had alot of shake in the trees. I was in the same area,some was 40 feet away and the horse run in,I only found just a little bit of shake in all the trees I cut. This time I only found a little bit of good lumber. I finally gave up in that area and went into the woods more. Wonderful logs was found.

[BargeMonkey]

"Shake" is normally caused by poor soil or high mineral levels, yes wind may play into it but poor swampy, rocky soil is where you will find most of it. Depending on the size and skid we will either cut an 8'6" pulp log or just butt them back in the woods. Hemlock is funny, ive cut some real dark brown stuff that sawed great, and ive sawed some with mild shake. It will literally "shake" apart on the mill, or fall apart once dry. We usually let hemlock sit 1-2 weeks sometimes to let it "open up" to determine if it is good. I shipped 4 loads of choice hemlock for use shoring up the tunnel projects in NYC recently, they came to the header and hand picked the logs, was worse than a veneer buyer.