Every thing but the “squeal”

[Banjo picker]

I was sadly disappointed when I cut this one down.  This was the butt cut.

Hollow all the way through.  I still got 35 1.5x6.5 x8 ft. Boards out of it....

Here is the skeleton:

 
I did have to do some chainsaw work on the far end to get the rollers to clear.  Got about the same amount out of the second log....it was only holler for about 3 feet.  Can't fuss too much about the other 4 logs above them though.  I ended up with 99 boards out of the two hollow logs and the one just above them.  Banjo

[redbeard]

Nice stack of boards you milled there Tim, I bet there were a few spiders that are looking for a new place too live.

[longtime lurker]

80% of the volume of a log is in the outer third of it's diameter.

I run a business on logs like that.

[moodnacreek]

It's  nice to be able to do that. Problem I have is handling all the waste. 'Everything but the squeal' means, to me, that I sold the lumber, the slabs and the sawdust. That never happens anymore. Is that sycamore?

[Weekend_Sawyer]

That skeleton would make a nice mantle!

I also would like to know what type of wood that is.

[WV Sawmiller]

BP,


   Are you advertising the lumber as "Free of heart?" :D

[Banjo picker]

The tree was what we call tulip poplar here in Mississippi.  For some reason, maybe the type soil I have, when a poplar gets that big ,you can just about bet it has a hollow in the bottom.  There was no outward sign of it being hollow.  
      While it's true that most of the best wood is in the outside of the log, it makes for a lot more work as I would normally cut it to a big cant and then saw it.  I had to cut slabs an then get the boards I needed from them.....lots of handling.
       I have take those hollow cores an put them back in the woods for a critter house, and I still might do that, but right now they are on the burn pile.  If we can get at least 2 or 3 inches of snow I will set them ablaze, and it will be quite the fire,as I haven't burned the pile in several years.  I would like to see a mantle made out of something that hollow.  Before I bury that one I took the picture of I may get it back out and look at the possibility of a mantle....thanks for the idea.  I was so bent on getting that order out that all I was seeing was boards.  
     The lumber was free of heart for sure.
     Maybe I should of called this topic:  All but the "core".  There were very few what I call slabs... but there were a good bit of edging, since I was looking for a six and a half inch board.    

Banjo

[78NHTFY]

Wonder if that core was cut into 2'+ lengths and sold as bases for glass-topped coffee tables.....would a heartless owner of one look down inside when it was all finished up nice and squeal with pleasure at seeing a heartless core?  All the best, Rob.

[moodnacreek]

The largest tree in N.Y.S. is the tulip tree. [many will not agree]. Perhaps at one time it was the white pine. Tulip trees growing in a sweet cove will grow very tall and can, given enough years, be 60" d.b.h. +.

[WV Sawmiller]

BP,

   We have lots of them here and it is mostly what I cut off my place since my oaks, cherries, walnuts and hickories are usually worth more to me for wildlife trees. Most of mine are very solid but I have one in the edge of my pasture I was thinking about sawing till I shot a couple of fox squirrels out of it a couple years ago and one ran up in a hole at the base of the tree and, being a grand master expert squirrel twister that I am, I went to twist him out and had to run 12' of grapevine up there to reach him. I got him out but realized that tree must look a lot like the one you showed so decided not to cut and saw it.

[Ron Wenrich]

Some of the poplar I cut that looked like that often had a lot of ant tunnel remnants in them.  After the ants abandon them, the rot hollows out the tunnels.  

The hard part in cutting logs like that is to make sure you don't take so much off that the hollow collapses while your sawing them.  I would have to break the hollow part down so it would fit in the chipper throat.