Yellowhammer Sawing Lightning Struck Logs

[aigheadish]

YH- I wonder if there's some youngster out there that would love to get some camera time that may also be interested in the trade that would come help shoot video. From what I can tell you are one of the most respected sawyers around and there may be opportunity for someone to come learn and help you out with that kind of thing. I'd say maybe an ad on Craigslist or a call to a community college A/V teacher may work wonders. For the price of an hour's worth of video editing some calls around may prove fruitful. 

[metalspinner]

aigheadish
My MIL just put in her retirement papers this weekend. She spent the last 35 years teaching video production at the local CC. I've heard ALL the stories. 😳
Yellowhammer would spend more time managing the kids than he would producing his own videos. Kids are kids. And we all know they run the full spectrum of dependability. 

Yellowhammer, I really enjoy the style and quality of you videos. Your presentation of information is very clear and to the point. You are a very good teacher. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Or the saw milling videos that get 1.4 million views because the operators look a lot better than I do, and wear Spandex and wet T shirts that's tight in all the right places... If I did that, viewers would spit their coffee at the screen, but for a different reason. :D :D :D

According to Clint Eastwood "A man's got to know his limitations" or something to that effect. :D

   Thanks for the video. I'll be looking for a flooded market this year in the turkey call department. ;)

[jimbarry]

I saw and watched that YT video before seeing this post. The thought running through my head while watching it was that HGTV should make a tv show of Hobby Hardwood Alabama. There would be a lot to teach the public, and sawyers in general. Not to mention kiln drying. I'd change up my tv programming package just to see more of that. Certainly better than yet another one of those "let's buy a house and tear out the drywall and remove some stud walls and put in a beam" reno shows.

As for time wasted with cameras and production, I don't see it as a waste of time. Our YT channel not seen vertical growth in subscribers by any stretch of the imagination. But I think that what we upload might hold some nugget of info that someone can use. That's good enough for me. Maybe I need to invest in a Speedo 

I'll have to go back and watch YH's video again. I still don't see yet why he didn't toe the log first and slab off at least two sides first. I get it though, logs that are suspected to have character are always an investigative matter. It's more of a 'turn and learn' (discovery) rather than a 'turn and burn' (production).

[terrifictimbersllc]

...
Just yesterday, we made a video of us putting together out new monster automatic fish feeder and putting to on the dock.  As I got the cameras out, Martha was saying "Who would want to see this?" and I said, "I don't know.

I knew it! 
He's taking steps to catch fish. 
It had to come out sooner or later.   :D

[YellowHammer]

Dang right.  I've got a nice bass pond I stock with Guntersville Lake Hawgs, and they eat bream like popcorn.  So I have to keep the bluegills fed so they can breed to their maximum so the bass can grow fat and mean.  The literature says a fed pond can support 7 times more fish, so they get fed twice a day.    

[thecfarm]

Videos, it's all in what people are searching for.
Wife has an instant pot video, 641k views, Intex portable skimmer, 244k, Coleman above ground pool, 157k views.
Then some don't even bring 200 views.
I work in a hardware store. I had one customer come in and thanked me for the coleman pool video. He said it helped him a lot.
Then there is a farmer that comes in and asked me if I made videos. I made a video of the snowman family he made of his round white bales of hay. Someone saw it and told him.

[jpassardi]

I'm interested in the fish feeder video - and a follow up on how you like it. I'm thinking about getting one myself to fatten up the bluegills which get eaten by the bass. smiley_deadheader alligator

[aigheadish]

Whoa @thecfarm 641k views is a lot!

[DMcCoy]

Great video!  Clean and clear descriptions of what you are doing.  Leaving enough of the saw milling noise, engine acceleration, board slap, drag back finger tink.  
Nice mill (!) and you operate it well.  The use of water to show the potential.  Good music not overly loud. 
I agree with you that cutting logs like that can have some of the prettiest lumber inside.  If I find interesting looking boards on pallets I will take them apart, because our hardwood options out here on the left coast is very limited compared to yours.
Well done Sir!

[YellowHammer]

Thanks,
You identified lots of the things that I try to address in the videos.  Each takes time, and each is done one step of the time.  It's one of the things that makes the editing take so long.  

I try to use computer algorithms to clear the background noise so I can be heard.  The trouble is, computers, TV's, earphones, etc all handle and play sound differently, so what sounds good on the computer sounds very bad on the TV.

Getting the different views that show what I'm doing, and what may be of interest to others.

Getting the mechanical noises that I had deadened to clear the background noise, back attached and coupled to the action.

Then, trying to fill any dead spots so someone won't get too bored and just click off.

I try to find some sound tracks to match the action.

Then a few special effects to keep people saying Wow!, or What was that? so they will keep watching.

You guys know me, I try to be the best I can, at everything, and this is no different.  I've got a LONG way to go.  I've never even used this kind of software before, there is a huge learning curve, and much of it is completely greek to me. 

One thing I didn't realize is that in a "real" TV, they try to change views every 5 to 8 seconds.  I never realized it.  So when you think about how many cuts and camera views are in a 15 minute video, it gets daunting.  Martha gets tired on me watching some History Channel TV show or other and start counting "1,2,3,4,5,6, next shot", "1,2,3,4,5,6,7, next shot".  Give it a try, pretty much every show does it.  I never knew.  Of course, they have full fledged camera crews and producers, I have Chip. :D :D

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing.  I need to get faster, I want to do more than "just Sawmill" videos, more of what we do every day, and more of what might be of interest to people.  

[WDH]

Like we talked about, you need to do a video, "A Day in Chip's life at the Sawmill"  :D.  It might go viral.  

[caveman]

Thanks, Yellowhammer.  I'm trying to read the FF and watch Bluebloods and now you have me counting seconds between view changes.

[Stephen1]

I have enjoyed a few of the videos, I actually just do most of lmy earning from reading. I enjoy it more than watching videos. I can read faster thn I can watch a video drag out. Thats just me going too fast sometimes. 

[caveman]

I was in my shop last night around 8 p.m. and heard a tremendous thunder boom.  This morning, while walking down to the road to retrieve the paper for my folks, I noticed a loblolly pine on our fence line that was evidently the target of last night's very close lightning strike.  The bark was blasted off of it.  There will be no use sawing this one.  It is toast.

 

 

[Andries]

. .  There will be no use sawing this one.  It is toast. . . 

Well, that works out.
 The tree is now firewood, so you can use that to make toast.
But, are you sure that YH wouldn't take a "turn and learn" run at that one? 😁

[KenMac]

I have sawn a few pines that were lightning struck many years ago. One thing they all seemed to share is that around the strike area the wood is almost completely "lighter wood" as many call it. I sawed one for a friend and about half of his 2x4's were 75% like this. I don't know how it affects the structural strength, but they were heavier than clear ones and more flexible.

[YellowHammer]

You know, it's interesting, I walked my log yard and was amazed at all the logs I have that are lightning struck.  I guess during the long life of a big tree, it's just a matter of time before it gets hit.

I remember when I was looking at express saltwater boats, 30 footers and such, and noticed they were all running mechanical fuel pump diesels instead of the fancy digital fuel controlled pumps.  I was told it was to still have engine power in the case of a lightning strike because a mechanical pump will keep running, and not fry.  Then the guy ship chandler told me "It wasn't if a boat would get hit, it was when..."  Makes ya think.....

[Ianab]

I have sawn a few pines that were lightning struck many years ago. One thing they all seemed to share is that around the strike area the wood is almost completely "lighter wood" as many call it.

I think the resin is the trees response to damage. A lightning strike can cause the sap in the wood it boil, and that's what blows off the bark (or even explodes the whole tree). The tree usually isn't killed instantly (unless it explodes or catches fire), so there is time for the resin to move into the damaged areas. Sometimes the tree survives, other times the damage is too great and it dies. 

[Magicman]

I would not hesitate to saw a lightning struck tree.  Matter of fact I have sawn over a dozen during the past few weeks.  Open the faces so that any damaged wood will not affect the good. 

Lightening strikes are different.  Some may be a short lived flash and only cause surface damage that my not extend but a couple of inches inside of the tree while other strikes seem to hang in there and boil the sap.  The first instance may very well live and pack the surrounding area with pitch while the latter may immediately die.

[WDH]

Down here, a lightning stuck tree has a death sentence from the Ips bark beetles.  They find the sick tree with their radar, then have a family reunion.  The ambrosia beetles come in and mop up the scraps. 

[caveman]

I had an order for some 16' 2x4's and I set aside a decent sized slash pine log a few weeks ago due to a lightning strike wound that I anticipated would not saw well or yield nice lumber.

Anyway, I sawed it this evening and got 18, mostly knot free, very straight 2x4's and a couple of 1x6's from the flitches.  Tomorrow, I need to saw 99 more 1x6's and finish up the 2x4's.

Sometimes you just have to saw them.