couple pics... post what your currently cutting

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah the stuff oozes from the buds. Stinky stuff. Although after a rain it seems to smell kinda nice. I have a little grove behind the house. Might be 30 there. I've spaced them out.

[cutterboy]

Very interesting about the balm. Thanks guys for all the info. I don't think we have any around here. At least I've never noticed any.

[cutterboy]

I was able to get into the woods today with the tractor. I went after this hickory with a hard lean. There is too much stress in that tree for saw logs so it's all going for firewood.

You can see that the tree was partially uprooted sometime in the past.

So down she went.

My biggest concern while cutting it was a barber chair but I was able to avoid that but the cut was not pretty.


I cut a 9' log off the butt and cut the rest of the stem into rounds, however the butt log will get cut into firewood back at the barn.



Keep on cutting.....Cutter

[Old Greenhorn]

That hickory makes great firewood, and pretty wood too. Just don't fill the stove with it, mix that stuff up. It burns hot and enthusiastically.
 I just did 3 hickory's exactly like that a couple of days ago. I put the front notch in, then bore cut just behind the notch and then cut out the back. No chance of chairing that way. When you cut that back strap out they go pretty dang quick. 

[mudfarmer]

Well, it can still chair if you leave the hinge too thick, not that I've ever done that before (as far as anyone can prove) just something I heard about  

[cutterboy]

Another big tree that will not make a good saw log, this time a black birch. Lots of firewood in this tree and that is what I am after right now.




The tree was 23" on the stump. I don't know yet what I'll do with the butt, about 10' Maybe live edge, maybe cut it in half and saw short boards? For now the log will lie on the ground till the ground dries out.

     Cutter

[Firewoodjoe]

On really bad learners I was worried on splitting I would face cut, bore cut as much as that tree seemed safe. Then come in from the back and cut in, but step up about 6" above the bore cut. Then it has a backboard so to speak of wood to hit if it tries to barber chair. Works on those scary junky trees. Wouldn't do it on a value tree. 

Looking good cutter. 

[thecfarm]

I was almost ready to start cutting too!!!!
Then about 20 inches of snow slowed down that great idea. 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

20 inchs Ray? Holy smokes if I got up and saw that tomorrow I'd cry.  Take forever to melt then dry out.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

You were right about stress in that hickory Cutter. The butt log was full of shake. Ill bet that runs quite a ways up.

[Hogdaddy]

Where's all the loggers?! I know some mills looking for hand cutters so it can't be all bad out there. I don't post a lot because it's always the same to me. Maybe someone will enjoy it. Buncher piles and old trusty timbco. Hard maple and basswood. I'll try and get some forwarder pics. Even had to hand buck a few big ones. Ugh hard to go back to that. Time and money just don't add up. I'd rather cut 12-18" wood and make more money.

Flat as a pool table... I'm severely jealous 

[thecfarm]

No   either!!!!! 

[Firewoodjoe]

It's actually a bit odd for me too. As this is north and we as loggers think hills when going north. I'm not complaining. And the rocks is very true also. Like even small rocks in the soil. Haven't seen or hit one.  I cut about 30 acres before I turned the teeth in the feller buncher. Normally you'd hit a small rock or something and have to turn them. I do hit dirt alot as I get a bit rowdy in that thing. And there is cradle holes. I hate cradle holes/knolls whatever you call them. Some as big as a tire. Never fails almost to a tree to zip it off and the one tire drops. In the dirt the saw goes. As I drink my coffee I hear the rain pounding on the roof🤦�♂️. May have to stay in the harvester today. 

[SwampDonkey]

I like flat ground. All 400 acres of our woods was flat, the hardwood was on raised ground, but pretty flat. That's what made for all the potato fields around here, flat maple ground.

[cutterboy]

You were right about stress in that hickory Cutter. The butt log was full of shake. Ill bet that runs quite a ways up.

It does, all the way up through the log. I cut the log into 18" rounds yesterday. The first round was a mess. All the rounds were a challenge on the wood splitter because the split would follow the shake instead of going where I wanted. But, all done now. So now I'll start splitting that black birch I just cut and that wood does not behave well on the splitter.

[SwampDonkey]

I remember yellow birch was always twisty stuff to split, so probably similar to black birch. We had a hydraulic splitter for the hardwood here, one on the tractor and later one on wheels.  White birch was like one whack with a maul and your all the way through. I like 'one whack wood'. New term. 

[PJS]

Slowly but surely I'm making headway. 3 out of 5 go down exactly where I want... the other two have minds of their own! Took me a tank of gas to limb the two big spruce trees. Well guess my pictures are too big this morning, could only get that one down to size.

[SwampDonkey]

I think one of your photos was missing *.jpg extension on the file @PJS .

[Machinebuilder]

2 weeks ago I got a call to meet a friend about 1 mi (by road) from my house.
a friend of his just bought some property and is clearing a spot for a house.
I was offered as many trees as i want to put on the sawmill, and as much firewood as i want.

I don't want the firewood. I have cut 8 trees so far and have 23 logs hauled home.
If it rains i can't get in because there is a wet weather spring and I really don't want to get stuck

[g_man]

2 weeks ago I got a call to meet a friend about 1 mi (by road) from my house.
a friend of his just bought some property and is clearing a spot for a house.
I was offered as many trees as i want to put on the sawmill, and as much firewood as i want.

I don't want the firewood. I have cut 8 trees so far and have 23 logs hauled home.
If it rains i can't get in because there is a wet weather spring and I really don't want to get stuck

Great pictures MB. Nice equipment set-up and looks like your doing fine to me. Making me jealous too - still waiting for things to dry up a little here and getting itchy to be in the woods.

gg

[beenthere]

gman
No need to use the quote when responding to the most recent post. 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

G_man I'm in the same boat. It rained all night, again. Next three days is forecast rain. I cant even get in the wood yard with my tractors. Water everywhere.   Losing my mind.

[Machinebuilder]

Thanks G_man

the tractor is working out great for this, the trailer is borrowed. I will be cutting new decking for it out of some of these logs.

It's supposed to rain again tommorow, but it's also supposed to cool off I'll get a few more fell this week.
The landowner is falling behind on the brush cleanup, in between rains the weather isn't allowing brush pile burns.

[PoginyHill]

Cutting some pasture spruce (white spruce). Can't sell commercially so I plan to have them sawn for 3X7 floor joists for a cabin I'm building. I'm sure I'll need to cull some due to large knots, but I'll get what I need. Looking for 4mbf - combination of 16ft and 10ft.

It is no easy task limbing these guys. All of them on my property are 40-60 years old. This was pasture land until the early 70s.







Most are 12-14" DBH. I've been getting one 16ft and one 10ft log on most. Need to keep a minimum top diameter of 8" to get the dimension lumber I need. Most grew rather rapidly in their mid-life, as seen in the last pic. Some had growth rings more than 1/2" wide. The last 10-15 years growth slowed to a crawl with growth rings about 1/16".

[SwampDonkey]

I bet you'll get a few decent boards or planks from them. They look nice and sound. 

Yeah, white spruce is a bugger to manage for. It's almost best to start out thick so the limbs stay small and self prune then thin out at pole stage. Otherwise limbs and interwhorl limbs galore and big knots. I have some examples of real limby white spruce along a road, then there are a couple that fir grew in close and kept the limb wood to a minimal and killed off the low limbs, also road side, but more clear but log potential. Some of them the dead limbs are pencil sized or smaller. Some real bad ones are like big old tumble weeds with big bushy crowns and huge knots/limbs. A lot of work to get rid of them, limby and such, to get laying flat on the ground. A great big old porcupine tree.