Juniperus Virginiana a.k.a "Tree Where Nails Grow"

[DR Buck]

 It was either a "tree Where nails Grow" or my new box of blades has the ability to attract nails.   The jury is still out on which it was.    Anyway, today I milled the largest Eastern Red Ceder I've ever seen.  Wish I had a camera with me. The butt log was almost 30" diameter!    I got the customer a pile of 18" wide 4/4 boards.   This tree was truly amazing.    The only bad thing about the whole job was the customer had $100 in blade damage, $75 of it in the first log. :(     I found the first two nails just after putting on a new blade.    Then I found three more on the opposite side of the log.   The final blade on this log was lost to a bent over 20 penny nail embedded 8 inches into the log.

The last damaged blade was attracted to a galvanized fence staple.  This took about 8 teeth off of the blade.  The odd thing about this one was the staple was 4 inches into the log in what was 26 feet up the tree.

[dredgeslavedave]

I'm sure they had a fence stapled to the tree years ago and as the tree grew up the staple went with it. I would have thought you would have been safe at 26ft up.

[Daren]

Wait a minute, I thought  Juglans nigra was where they grew. We have all sawed walnuts "that couldn't have any nails in it", and did. This one really baffled me. It came from the middle of a HUGE cemetary. Why would anyone carry a hammer and nails all the way to the middle of a cemetary? Don't know but they did. That was my nailiest (is that a new word?) tree ever.

[Jeff]

I'm sure they had a fence stapled to the tree years ago and as the tree grew up the staple went with it. I would have thought you would have been safe at 26ft up.

Um, Dave, just in case yer not joshin us, iron grows in, but it dont grow up.  ;)

[DanG]

Get yourself a metal detector.  I try to scan all butt logs, and the saw has never found metal in a log I scanned.  I got in a hurry the other day and didn't scan, so I hit a 20 penny nail in a pine log. :-\

I had a pile of those 30" cedar logs a while back.  Didn't find the first piece of metal in them, even though they were yard trees.  Also didn't find a decent board in them. >:(

[highpockets]

Dang, I like your remark

I had a pile of those 30" cedar logs a while back.  Didn't find the first piece of metal in them, even though they were yard trees.  Also didn't find a decent board in them.

I have about come to the conclusion that some trees just do not have decent boards.  Several months ago I started sawing again after some years.  Nothing seemed to work perfect.  Of course I had cut some very knotty field pine.  Last week I cut some red oak and every board looked really nice.   

[Cedarman]

Tree for tree I believe walnuts attract more metal.  Another rule of thumb, the bigger the cedar the more likely the wood is junk.  We make more out of them by pressure washing and selling as character wood.  One guy has porch posts made using 25" logs and bigger.  They look good with his cabin.

[jkj]

I may have found the tree with the most nails.  The chainsaw revealed the 4-6" dia hollow center of a red maple.  Inside many DOZENS of nails were visible all the way up the hollow center of two logs.  The tree looked like an inverted porcupine!   The head of each nail was embedded firmlly in the outer wood, the nails pointing into the hollow space from all the way around the tree.   

Finallly the guy told me it had been a treehouse tree back in the woods behind his house, and a string of brothers each must have replaced scores of ladder boards over the years.  I suspect the iron pincushon contributed to rotting the center, which was hollow for at least 20 ft from the ground.

Fortunately, the nails were glaringly obvious before introducing the logs to the Woodmizer.  I did cut through several nails with the chainsaw.  I still have one of the logs - I should go take a picture.

JKJ

[Tony]

              I cut about 4000bdft of ERC last summer. Was bragging to my
offbearer (Dad) about not finding any nails, then ZING a marble in
the middle of a 12" log

                                      Tony 8) 8)

[Part_Timer]

I had a neighbor call and wanted me to cut the but end of a ERC that blew down over the winter.  I took the metal detector and went down to look at it.  8 blips in a row on a 6' long section.

They swear that they don't know how that wire got in there after all they have lived there for 3 years. :D :D

[Ironwood]

I don't mind nails, I did hit a porcelin fence insulator WOW No cutting thru that puppy. It was deep inside a really nice Walnut log so we teed up several blades to get thru it, IT WON. We finally came from the other end to find out what hte @#$%% was in there (I had to find out after using so much change to get htru it to no avail.


                 Reid

[pigman]

Reid, you need to get some better blades. A good band blade will cut through a porcelin insulator every time. : The trick is to hit the center so the set is not taken out of one side of the blade. ;) ;D

[Ironwood]

Pigman,

We were using Monks. It was a VERY oblique hit. Deflected everytime.

                          Reid

[footer]

I have found that your odds of hitting metal are the highest as soon as you put on a new blade, and go down as the blade dulls, and gos down more with resharpened blades. 9 times out of 10, I will hit metal on the 1st or 2nd pass on a new blade :

[VA-Sawyer]

I have to agree with footer about the "tramp metal attractive force"  ( Trampism? ) being much stronger in new blades.  I have used OLD blades making opening cuts in logs where I suspected lots of metal, results, 'Negative Contact'. Put on a better blade.....ZING ! 
How about this for a theory... Older and Wiser blades have aquired the skill to avoid metal.  New blades out of the box don't understand metal is so fatal. After a few of their brothers die from metal contact, the rest of the batch gets smarter. ;)

Pigman - I assume that you have that chunk of wood framed and hanging on the wall.

Reid -  There are times when being 'strong willed' isn't such a good thing.  I have that problem too, sometimes.

VA-Sawyer

[rebocardo]

I have found a backyard tree in Atlanta that grew electrical wire and 1/4" steel cable in the middle. Luckily I knew the tree would likely have some metal, nails, so I used a "bad" chain to chop it in 1/2. I just never expected to hit steel cable deep under the bark.

[Cedarman]

VA, you made my morning about the wise old blades.  Do you think Woodmizer News would print that?  I am still laughing.

[VA-Sawyer]

Cedarman,
I was sawing small ERC from a county park for a guy Wed. I expected it to be 'nail city' so put on one of my old 'sharpened to the point of almost too narrow' blades and started sawing. That blade dodged every bit of metal. 
I believe I'll start a new policy of only using 'experienced' blades on metal heavy woods like Cedar and Walnut.

Might also try doing some research on a device to remove "trampism" from new blades. I think the inventor of such a device could make some real money.  On second thought...Is it possible that the blade manufactures are actually adding 'trampism' to new blades as a way of improving their sales ?  :
VA-Sawyer

[treecyclers]

My own personal favorite for a tree "landmine" was in an urban Chinese Pistachio that I milled about a year ago.
There was a burn hole from where the FD had torched a bees nest near the top of the 9' log.
After I dropped it, and started squaring the ends with the chainsaw, I saw sparks FLY!
Turns out that someone, in their infinite wisdom, had tossed in some bricks, concrete block, a few glass bottles, and a syringe or two.
YUCK!
Lessons learned -
Chainsaws don't cut glass bottles very well
Never underestimate the things that someone will put into the hollow of a tree
It IS possible to trash a new chain in less than 30 seconds
No more sawing in the ghetto

SD