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Some questions on delimbing red cedar

Started by Wes Lyon, April 06, 2011, 01:14:26 PM

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Wes Lyon

Hello everyone ..

I have a chance to do some harvesting in a thick red cedar stand.  There are a lot of mature/over mature cedar in this stand and of course there are alot of smaller pole/post size trees.  We are thinking of doing both shearing and hand felling based on the size and density of the trees.  My question is on the smaller ones is there any good automated (read fast and cost effective way) to delimb the smaller ones before maybe putting them through a scragg mill.  Have looked at pull type delimber, flail and stroke but maybe there is something better than those.  Is there something like a small scale ring debarker or ? that would work for these or am I way off base.

Many thanks

Wes

treefarmer87

what are you skidding with? you could get a gate delimber, everyone tells me to pick up the chainsaw :D, i have a similar problem with the VA pine around here. if you have a big enough loader you can use a pull-thru delimber.
1994 Ford L9000
2004 Tigercat 718
1998 Barko 225
1999 John Deere 748G
FEC 1550 slasher
CTR 314 Delimber
Sthil 461
Sthil 250

Cedarman

We use a chainsaw on most cedar to delimb.  There are techniques that work well.  I had Soren Erickson show me how to do it.  Hard to explain, but very efficient.  Especially on trees with smaller limbs.  Trees with big limbs is work.
We also use a Patu with 2 foot stroke delimber.  Works well on trees from 4" up to about 14".  Will take off big limbs just fine.  You will need a forwarder to pick up and move the logs.
We also buy tree length that have been pulled through a delimber by knuckleboom.  There are fine as long as they keep the knives sharp.  Dull knives leave lots of blankety blank  broken limbs with lots of splinters that love to kick the chain off a chainsaw when you have to trim them up.
We have also bought tree length that we cut and delimbed with a head that has the pointy spikes to pull the tree through.  Some times puts marks too deep and they show up on the outside boards.  Also, these logs cannot be used for architechtural cedar.  Not my favorite logs to have to deal with, but are manageable.

Some use  a saw like they cut pine with and bunch.  Then pull out to the delimber.  If you are in a clear cut these work fine.  In a stand with lots of hardwood , you can do a lot of damage to the residual stand.

When using a big bucking saw, there is a tendency to bust the ends of some trees as they splinter as the saw goes through the wood and with no support on the end log it busts.
When logging, I also use a MF 165 diesel tractor with heavy duty ROPS and a Farmi winch.  Love it, but not as speedy as a skidder, but does a lot less damage.

Since I have markets for poles down to 3/4" we take a lot of the very small pole like trees first so as not to destroy them by running over them.
Without the market for small poles, we take the tree up to the 2 1/2 to 3" mark as we have a good market for peeled poles.
For just saw logs we only take to the 4 1/2" mark.
What you log will depend on what your markets are.
We logged one job near Fulton Mo about 10 years ago that was a marked cedar sale.Used chainsaw on everything. Our tractor and winch worked great and we had fields nearby, so dragging was minimal.  We bucked and loaded tractor trailers for the trip to Indiana.  The hauler did this cheap as a backhaul from hauling walnut from Indiana to Kansas.  Most trees had 2 or 4   8' logs as I remember.

I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

Tom

I've not been in the quantity production end of Eastern Red Cedar before, but I have dealt with enough at a time that I was looking for a good way to get rid of the limbs.   The wood is brittle and it's hard to do anything enmasse without something splintering. The best way that I found, without hurting the log was a chainsaw and leaving a little stub so as not to damage the suface of the log.  The larger limbs required undercutting to keep them from tearing before they parted.

The second best way was with a very sharp 3 1/2 lb. felling ax.  Most limbs can be removed with one swipe from the underside and it happens so fast that they don't even feel it.  If more than one swipe is needed, then you have to pay a little attention to the next cut.   The problem with the axe is that you need someone who is familiar with using one, or they might cut their leg off.

Breaking the limbs off, either manually or with a limbing gate, makes the knots break off inside of the log and will, many times, ruin the log.

Wes Lyon

Thanks everyone.  Gives me much to think about.  I will be looking at the stand next week to evaluate it and see if I want to take a run at it.

Wes

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