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Welcome to The 2025 Forestry Forum!

Do you have trees to grow? Logs to saw? A forest to manage? Chainsaws to fix? A sawmill to purchase or maintain? Timber related business to run? Lumber to dry? Trees or plants to identify? A cabin to build? Are you hungry and like FOOD?

Or would you just like to pull up a stump and visit with a friend?
If any of these and a multitude of other topics apply, then The Forestry Forum is the place for you.

What Will you Find on the Forestry Forum?

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Second Guessing

Posted in Sawmills and Milling
Today at 01:57:49 PM
Written by Rhodemont
Views: 162
I have been busy sawing the timbers I will need for the next round of my post and beam build. A ways back I decided two things: First- 18 to 20 inch oak trees are my optimum, bigger are too tough to cut, skid and handle, likely have ants and rot, and I can saw two or three 20 inchers with better results in the time it takes to do a big one; Second- When sawing beams the beam is the primary goal, getting nice clear boxed pith big beams is not easy and it is not worth trying to squeeze out a couple jacket boards time and handling wise. Read More

1 Comment

Spindle Cleaner Comparison

Posted in Sawmills and Milling
Today at 12:44:39 PM
Written by Ews
Views: 145
Just in case it saves anyone some time or grief. Short story: all spindle cleaners are not the same. I recommend looking for one based on ethoxylated alcohols - they are almost four times the cost of the others, but require much less and are definitely worth it.

I've spent years wondering about blade lubricants. We cut almost exclusively longleaf pine, which is dense, pitchy material. When I came on, we were using diesel mixed with water - I don't think they even added an emulsifier - with the lubemizer set to pulse on 6. It was smelly and only worked OK, plus the combination of diesel and water seemed hard on the paint on the frame. Soon after, looking for an alternative I came across posts here and elsewhere recommending cotton picker spindle cleaner, which seemed like a more user-friendly alternative. So I went to the local ag store and bought what they had - AgSmart/PickSmart Cotton Picker Spindle Cleaner. We used for a couple years with OK results- we had to use a fair amount, and set the lubmizer to pulse at 6. We were using a five gallon bucket (mixed ~1:9 with water) every couple days to a week. This volume of liquid made sawdust clump and stick to boards, didn't seem great for the roller bearings and other parts that weren't cleaned off every evening as they should have been, and it still didn't do the trick for really pitchy logs. So then we tried straight diesel at the lowest setting, or just bumped before each cut (was going to install a drip system if we decided to stick with it, and that probably would have helped). It used much less liquid and was great at cutting pitch, but again smelly and also seemed to be resulting in belt wear and thrown blades. So I cast about again, and found that different brands of spindle cleaner have fundamentally different formulations. Read More

2 Comments

Carbide bands, my experience

Posted in Sawmills and Milling
Today at 06:07:26 AM
Written by JoshNZ
Views: 254
I wanted to ask the group here their thoughts on whether carbide bands are worth their cost when used exclusively, assuming no metal strikes. Based on my experience alone I'm seeing maybe 2-3 days of reasonable use where their performance diminishes from say 100% sharp, to 70% sharp, then snap. As compared to a carbon steel band that does 100% sharp to 20% sharp in perhaps 1-2 hours of use (at which point you might do another log or two, if they're small and free of knots, or might swap it out), then can be sharpened 10-20 times. My theory is the carbide bands would go a lot longer if the gullets were polished every couple of hours like the carbon steel bands are, but there doesn't seem to be any carbide sharpening solution that addresses this? The vendor supplied a diamond sharpening wheel to fit to our sharpener but it only touches the TCT, none of the bands have made it to needing this yet anyway.Read More

3 Comments

Which cam to use?

Posted in Sawmills and Milling
Yesterday at 09:40:26 PM
Written by Carpenter
Views: 238
So, I'm pretty new to sharpening band blades, but of course I want to do the best job possible. I am sharpening for myself and as a side business.

I started off with a TimberKing sharpener and setter, which has an adjustable cam. I got it pretty well dialed in for my Woodmizer double hard 10* blades, and it worked pretty well. Then a customer brought me some Timberking 10* blades, and I put them on that machine, and the profile seemed to be the same. Now with the one adjustable cam I don't think it's possible to get it dialed in perfectly, and in the Timberking sharpener manual, it states that there is no perfect gullet profile, but they appeared to be exactly the same. So, I sharpened them both on the Timberking sharpener and they were sharp. Read More

3 Comments

Moisture meter

Posted in Sawmills and Milling
Yesterday at 05:06:00 PM
Written by Valleya
Views: 330
We just purchased a new Norwood mill and are in the process of milling our first logs, would anyone have a suggestion for a good moisture meter for us to buy
Thanks

6 Comments
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