Metal logs

[moodnacreek]

Perhaps this will help a beginner with a sawmill. First you need a metal detector unless you saw woods grown timber. Large old logs are trouble for many reasons especially having had things nailed to them. Back before computers when kids played outside they built tree forts. There where cloths lines and hooks to tie up the dog. So you get a load of logs from an old farm and the ring count says they are 50 years old, You know the place and no one has worked it for 75 years. If those logs came from inside the boundaries they should be clean but that one big old grandfather you want cut table tops from has a horse shoe in it. Any large butt log must be considered a metal log until proven clean. With the exception of power lines and tree stands upper logs are almost always clean. Young fast growing uppers I just saw. Knowing where the wood came from and it's age is a big help. The nails from posted signs are a problem and a metal detector will find them easy because you know just where to check,. Most of these trees have heavy branches on one side indicating they grew on the edge of the lot. If you post your land use plastic signs and aluminum siding nails in case you live to be old and forget.

[Southside]

Come on - you left out the most fun part - ceramic fence insulators!!!  

[barbender]

 I have a really accurate metal detector, the only drawback is that it uses single use metal indicators that cost around $30 each, but it will find any metal in a log.

[beenthere]

barbender
Puzzled by what this detector is. Any more info? 

[Ianab]

barbender
Puzzled by what this detector is. Any more info?

A brand new saw band? 

Finds any metal in the log, 100% guaranteed. 

[SawyerTed]

Upper sections have things like TV antennas and wires... and the fasteners.  

[cutterboy]

in case you live to be old and forget.

The first time I hit a nail (new blade) it was a nail I nailed into the tree myself.   From a long ago and forgotten bird house I nailed to the tree. The bird house was gone but the nails remained.

[Magicman]

I only saw customer's logs so there is no log/tree history.  I have two wand style nail finders on my truck and the customer is welcome to use them, and some do.  The last time they were used the logs came from a trailer park.  They found many nails and then I found a few @ $45 each.  That's $25 for the blade and $20 for me to replace it.

I will not use the metal detectors because that may tend to transfer the nail ownership from the customer to me.  They ain't my nails nor my responsibility to find them.

[moodnacreek]

I only saw customer's logs so there is no log/tree history.  I have two wand style nail finders on my truck and the customer is welcome to use them, and some do.  They last time they were used the logs came from a trailer park.  They found many nails and then I found a few @ $45 each.  That's $25 for the blade and $20 for me to replace it.

I will not use the metal detectors because that may tend to transfer the nail ownership from the customer to me.  They ain't my nails nor my responsibility to find them.

You don't buy logs.

[Magicman]

Correct, I only saw customer's logs at their location.  I neither buy nor sell anything.

[moodnacreek]

Upper sections have things like TV antennas and wires... and the fasteners. 

Age and location can almost tell you when to expect this.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

I don't buy or except yard trees except for firewood.   If its been in a growing in a yard, there is most likely metal and not worth my trouble.    The only metal I used to routinely saw through were the occasional bullet.     My biggest problem dulling blades was muddy logs.  Wear out lots of wire brushes.

[Rhodemont]

Been watching this oak grow over the gate hook for 20 years.  Used my chainsaw and cut around to expose it about 5 years ago but it is still healing over.  Feel sorry for the sawyer who fells this tree and tries to saw it.  Hopefully not me.

[Ron Wenrich]

I used to tell people I had a metal detector with 50 teeth.  I could fill half a coffee can each year on woods grown timber.  Lots of sign nails.  I also had a tulip poplar that had a bunch of RR spikes used by an overzealous hunter.  They were in the 1st - 3rd log on a tree and were grown over. 

Metal detectors usually pick up the ceramic insulators.  They are usually hung with a 12d nail.

[doc henderson]

We went to Disney when the kids were little.  We would be at Epcot, and the kids just wanted to go back to the room to play on the hammocks they had on the beach.  so, we got home and got hammocks, and of course the kids barely cared.  I had two elms and put in screw hooks and hung a hammock.  one of the trees have been taken down, and the other stands.  I keep looking at the metal and want to remove it but years ago it would not turn out.  I will have to remove good wood to get it out with a chain saw.  hate doing it to the tree.  I have no plans to cut and saw it, so on it goes.  prob. easier on the tree and elms tend to bleed from wounds for years.  I should leave a note for the guy in 50 years who hits it.  maybe he will read this on the forum.  Sorry sir!

[rusticretreater]

I have an old tree that grew around an eyelet that held a cable for a trash fence over a creek.  It fell not too long ago and I immediately went out and marked it with paint in case it got lost somewhere in my inventory of logs.   I also find barbed wire in trees that grew along the fence line.  

I've been pretty good at tracking the logs from the areas that metal may have been used. Now, if I can quit introducing blades to the backstops on my mill. 

[Southside]

I have a really accurate metal detector, the only drawback is that it uses single use metal indicators that cost around $30 each, but it will find any metal in a log.

Ahh yes the Turbo 7, think of it like a Saw Stop for Bandsaws. 

[GAB]

I have a maple tree with one of my broken tapping bits in it.
I do not plan on being the one sawing that butt log.
GAB

[barbender]

 Beenthere, my preferred metal detector I speak of is the Woodmizer 7/39° Turbo, 1½x.045. Preferably fresh out of the box☺️

[Southside]

I think the worst one I ever had was three nails 6" into the first cut on a brand new band....

[doc henderson]

Well my uncle Jerry wanted to make a cedar chest for his granddaughter, so he brought a log.  We hit about 16 nails at about 6 feet all in a 3-inch diameter.  He worked for the county all his life.  I told him a blade was only 23 bucks, but to him he incited JC and thought that was a huge amount and kept apologizing.      Uncle Jerry!

[jpassardi]

Customer's former clothesline in a Hickory... 

[Magicman]

I once sawed into and through yellow poly rope deep within a Pine tree/log.  It had once been a temporary horse corral and there was no evidence of anything on the outside.  The customer bucked the remaining butt logs above horse height.