Eastern Red Cedar - down a while.

[Saki]

Had the good fortune to have a farmer near where I grew up give me a tree that is down for the cutting. Looked it over and found it was an eastern red cedar that had uprooted in a storm probably 15 or 20 years ago ( judging by lack of small limbs on it, and how much the adjoining hardwood trees had grown into its " old " spot. Tree has been elevated from ground by a few remaining large limbs and appears to be very dry. Tree is approx 18 to 20 inches DBH and will have 3 very nice 8 foot logs and a so-so 4th log. All in all a large size cedar for this part of the country ( west-central Indiana )Anybody had any experience milling something like this? I have some of the dry/frozen/hard blades for my LT40 and figured to start by trying one of them. Any special safety precautions? When I told a friend in the logging business about it he thought it would sure slice up nice. I hope he'e right, will probably try to get it out tomorrow.

[ronwood]

Saki,

I would mill it. It should still have some good wood left in it. Should not be to hard to mill either.
Ron

[pigman]

ERC will saw just find with a regular blade, even when dry. The sap wood will be a little darker if it has not rotted off by now.

[Phorester]

It's been found that large concentrations of red cedar sawdust is highly allergenic for some people, causing skin rashes and respritory problems.  Same with black walnut.   You might want to consider having everybody involved with the sawing wear gloves and a dust mask. The same when further processing the wood where large amounts of sawdust are created.

[Saki]

Thanks for the thoughts fellas. Yep, dust protection a definite. Didn't mention it on my first post, but the tree is very sound. Looks like most of the sapwood has long since gone away, but breaking away a limb about axe handle size revealed some very purplish and sound wood. Hope its all that good.

[Phorester]

I'd be surprised if it wasn't as sound as iron, and just as hard to saw.     Red cedar is a very durable wood, especially when not in constant contact with moisture or the ground as this one.

Forgot to mention -  for extra dust protection,  long pants, long sleeves and hats, too, if you saw that puppy in the summer when short sleeves and short pants are the norm.

[Tony]

     Just finished sawing a bunch of ERC logs that have been cut over 2yrs.
I didn,t have any trouble 'cept for that marble 

           Good luck, Tony

[Saki]

Marble? Have a present embedded in that thing did ya? My grandad found a very well-preserved horseshoe in a log one time. Said it didn't slice up worth a hoot.

[ARKANSAWYER]

  It will saw just fine.  I spent the first three days this week sawing ERC that had been down 5 years.  Sapwood was mush but the hearts were dry and fine.   Dust will be worst then normal.

[Saki]

We got em out of the woods yesterday. Had some heart rot in the bottom sections, but will still get some usable dimension lumber from it. Also slice the slab  wood multiple times taking about 3/8 or 1/2 inch off at a time to give me some unusual grain patterns for ornaments I make. Looked like they were worth the effort. Me and my dad took about 2 hours to cut and flip them end over end out to the road and over the guardrail to load into the truck. Got em home and ready to go on the mill.

[Cedarman]

Saki, now you know why I like cedar. Looks pretty, smells great. Never have had any trouble with reactions to cedar.  I think one person in the last 20 years reacted to cedar and we have had numerous employees.  I know that western red cedar can cause problems. 

There is a patch of cedar, about 350 trees not too far from Crawfordsville that the owner wanted to get rid of.  This was several years ago. So if you've got the cedar bug, I could get you in touch with him.