Forestry Glossary?

[Jeb]

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum and the forestry / timber business.  I enjoy ready the posts but from time to time I come across a term that I am unfamiliar with.  Today's new term is "butt log." Now I think that would mean the lower section of a tree; the trunk as it were.

I wonder if anyone has compiled a glossary of terms that are in use?  Not just of technical terms but terms commonly used in the forestry/timber business.  A glossary of vernacular terms.

Just a thought..

--Jeb

[Tom]

You're right, a butt log would be the first log above the stump.  The butt-end of a log would be the end toward the stump of any log.  It's called that because it is relative to the Buttress of the tree. 

Buttress. A ridge of wood developed in the angle between a
lateral root and the butt of a tree, which may extend up the stem
to a considerable height.

There are glossaries everywhere.  The wood handbook has a pretty good one

[WDH]

Like Tom said.  The butt log is the first log in the tree and is usually the best quality log since it is on the lowest portion of the tree with the fewest limbs/defects.

[Cedarman]

I am going to confuse the issue a little about the best log being the butt log in a tree.  WDH is right that it is most of the time.  Except with eastern red cedar.  The second log will saw the best lumber most of the time because knots are no defect in cedar, but are in hardwood.
And down the slippery slope we go. :D :D

[isawlogs]

Well if where gonna slide some ,  ;D   I prefer the seconde log in a good tree anytime. Most times it is knot free and it dont have butt flare , grain is straighter. Not to put the butt log to side now. I just like the lumber off the second log better to work with .  :P

  Ya can keep slidding now . :D

[WDH]

Cedarman,

Cedar always has to be different :D.

Marcel, I underestand your point about butt flare and all.  There are several slippery slopes in the world   ;D.

[Coon]

yup there are all kinds of slippery slope in da world...... one even had lots of snow snakes and caused me to fall on my ash pretty hard yesterday.  Only got a couple of small bites from them..... ;D

[Magicman]

Cedar always has to be different :D.

You can get logs out of cedar....  ???

[Cedarman]

We buy cedar "logs" from 1" up to as big as they get.  Just where is the division line as you go up in size from stick, to sapling, to post, to pole, to log?
We even cut 9000 saplings that were 1/2" to 1 1/2" at 8', delimbed, bundled and shipped. We ain't picky, if it's cedar we'll log it.

[SwampDonkey]

Depends on the cedar, not all cedar is the eastern red variety. :D As far as eastern white, that limby small stuff is ok for rails and posts, but no good for good logs. Just about every lot of land in my area has a eastern white cedar on it lurking someplace. Sometimes even in a rock pile in the middle of 200 acres of field. ;)

[WDH]

Cedarmanwhisperer, you are in a class by yourself, and I mean that earnestly and with great respect.  You are my cedar-go-to-man!  You can do with cedar what no other can  ;D.

[isawlogs]

SD You saying you aint got no cedar logs .. Cause we have real nice white ceadr swamps , cedar up in the hills aint good for anything other then kindling .

[SwampDonkey]

Marcel, yes we do. Just saying that small stuff being used in the ERC market won't make logs as eastern white cedar. The stuff here growing in the upland sites, like in hardwoods are bigger than swamp cedar. But swamp cedar grows in pure stands and you do get some huge ones on the not so wet swamps, but mostly around 8"-18". I had a link to post here, but after reading about what it said for size in height and girth and declaring it at risk to boot, it's best not to make the link. I don't know who in Forestry Canada wrote that but it doesn't fit my view. :D

[Cedarman]

WDH, thank you for the kind words.  If you get a chance, check out the hippogriff nest at the Harry Potter section at Universal Studios in Florida.  Made with 400  2" x 6' to 8' old bark falling off crooked cedar with busted ends.   That thing is 12 feet in diameter.

[Brucer]

And of course Western Red Cedar often has but rot, so the butts may not be that great. The bigger the diameter, the better the chance of rot.

I'm just in the process of improving my wildland interface and I've been taking down a lot of WRC. About 40% have butt rot, but in every case it disappears at the 8' mark.

[SwampDonkey]

Some big old cedar that was cut in the past from those upland sites had just a little pencil rot in the end and they would lay to waste on the yard, many were over 20 inches and you would think a shingle mill could use them or just cut away that little bit of rot. I would think there was a lot of good wood in those logs. Last summer I was on one lot that had 100 cords of cedar stacked along the road to rot and it looked sound on the ends. Talk about waste. In that same block most everything else had died and fell down before they got to it. What a mess to thin with a brush saw.  Your feet never touched firm ground, just rotten wood. :

[isawlogs]

A pile of cedar like that would not last long here , I would be on it and buying it in a flash. Why dont you get it and have it sawed and sell it . It is a crime to let good wood go to waste  :-\  If you have no market for it .. leave it standing   :

[SwampDonkey]

It was crown land timber and they don't seem to market cedar too hard. If it were private wood it would be sold. All I know is it's real criminal and you or I are not allowed to take it.  :

[DanG]

  :

[isawlogs]

  Maybe ... just maybe no one offered to buy it .. too bad you are not any closer .  I would become a criminal real quick    Now if it was all punky in the center and no good , then make kindling out of it .

[Jeb]

Thanks for the help on the glossary and the education about cedar.  I know who to go to now if I ever have a question about any and everything cedar!

--Jeb

[SwampDonkey]

The place is also gated by Irving, although the land was under the Fraser Paper License. But, I do have a key.  ;D