stinky oak odyssey

[grouch]

If the pile of photos I'm about to post were scratch 'n sniff, there'd be a mob with pitchforks, chainsaws and torches coming after me. I expect red oak to smell like a Boy Scout troup putting out a campfire with no stream or pond available, but this thing was the worst I ever encountered. Think rotted garlic in a high school locker room with a urinal that doesn't flush. Or a dog kennel that's never cleaned.

This will be photo-intensive. It will track 1 tree from selection to usage. It will take me a while to get it all up in proper order.

This opening post will probably be the largest block of text I'll put in.

Why this photo "essay"? I don't know. I just have a vague feeling it might be useful to others in the same boat I'm in. (And I snapped all these pictures and didn't post most of 'em before).

There are lots of us hobbyists, farmers, woodlot owners, woodworkers, and other amateurs just wanting to make our own lumber from our own trees. Speaking just for myself, I don't have all the equipment, experience, training and expertise to be a forester, faller, logger, miller and dryer all-in-one. Too pig-headed to let such minor details stop me from cutting my own wood, though.

The pros -- from independent mobile and stationary custom millers to the folks who work every day as part of whole tree operations -- have provided the bulk of the mountain of information that is The Forestry Forum. (Thank goodness they take the time to share and discuss. What you don't know can maim, mangle and kill in the woods or around the sawmill).

I don't have to figure out how to make harvested trees pay bills that won't wait. I just have to try to figure out how to accomplish some of what the pros do without the machinery and other resources they've found necessary to squeeze a profit out of processing trees that the owner/seller thinks is gold and the lumber buyer wants for nearly nothing.

Foresters seem like walking encyclopedias, but that's the first (ill-fitting) pro hat you have to put on if you're working your own woods for yourself. Unless, of course, you live where you can just call a real forester in to advise you. How you gonna make lumber before selecting the tree? Are you helping or hurting the sustainability of your woods? The safe bet is the dead tree, except they like to drop widow-makers on you and they don't warn you as much in advance as green trees when they start to fall and they are needed by the wildlife and probably a dozen other exceptions I don't even know about.

After you choose it, you get your feller-buncher out of the garage or barn ... oh, not there, eh? Alright you grab that fine professional chainsaw ... ok, the undersized, underpowered chainsaw you use for pruning and firewood. Or maybe you anticipated cutting 24" diameter trees and bought one with adequate power, but you saved half what the pros pay so your saw weighs as much as a small calf.

Now, cut that tree without wrecking yourself, the tree, buildings, other trees and your equipment. What notch? How much hinge? Is it going to barber chair? A good sawlog sized tree has a bit more mass than the 6 to 12 inch diameter poles cut for firewood.

Then you have to get it from the woods to the sawmill. Does your tractor or atv weigh as much as the log? Got a come-along? Once on the mill, how you gonna slice it? Turn it? Congrats, now you get to sticker, dry and store your pile of lumber!

It may sound like I'm trying to discourage other amateurs from even starting. I'm not. (I don't qualify as an expert at anything -- amateur or pro). Every time I fire up my little sawmill -- which is not nearly as often as I want -- I wish I could and would have gotten one 40 years ago. But back then, there was nothing like this forum so I might have ruined my trees, lumber and myself.

Enough rambling; on with the show...

[grouch]

Target selected, about dead center of the photo:













This is not quite a veneer log.







From downslope:


Things been livin' on it:




Appears to be sound wood just below the surface:


(Barely visible on the right in the above photo, a whopping big poison ivy vine).

View from the top of the hill, target in the center:

[grouch]

First tree out of the way is a little mulberry at the top of the slope.


Target tree is on the left. Straight ahead is a weirdly crooked sycamore and a young, vine-covered black walnut. Don't want to damage either one.


Arrow pointing down at target, left-most arrow points at maple in the way, lowest arrow points at gum in the way:


Mulberry




Water maple (look closely and you can see the saw at its base)


My first attempt at a Humboldt notch (didn't know it had a name until this place taught me)


Sighting through it (camera's tilted, not the world):

[grouch]

Gum tree down:


That's my house on the right, a project car ('68 Volvo Amazon) lower right, Woods 5 ft mower under some gum limbs center foreground and an undamaged oak in the background. Missed everything I intended to miss.  :D

View back the other way shows the upper twigs a little closer to the roof than I really prefer:

[Ljohnsaw]

How long ago did you take these trees out?

I'm no expert (verrrry far from it) but your hinge looks pretty thick and probably made it a little tough to get the trees to go over?

Waiting for the next set of slides...

[grouch]

How long ago did you take these trees out?

That's a tough one to answer -- the first photo is datestamped Dec 7, 2015 and I just got the last of that oak out of the woods this March 30. Stuff kept getting priority over the last 16 ft.

I'm no expert (verrrry far from it) but your hinge looks pretty thick and probably made it a little tough to get the trees to go over?

I'm always a bit chicken on the felling cut. I pause often to listen. Those trees fell pretty much where and when I wanted. You can see the wedge marks on the maple.

Waiting for the next set of slides...

Hope they have something of some interest to you.
I had to take a break.

[grouch]

This may have some folks scratching their heads.



In carpentry, cabinetry and even metalwork, you mark and then you cut. I've cut angled and curved cuts with a chainsaw when the intention was straight and level. Hence, the blue paint marks.

The hard-to-see vertical paint line is the intended fall line. That painted string was the best way I could figure out how to mark a reference line around the circumference of that tree. On the uphill side you can see the line is about the height of that 12 oz coffee mug above the ground.

On the downhill side, it's about my eye level:



Across the slope (perpendicular to the intended fall line), after the string was removed:



Zoomed out, same position, slight curve away from the line of fall:


From down the hill, in line with fall line, house visible:


Across the slope, other side:


Top of the slope, looking down at the notch from where it's supposed to land:


Should've marked the notch cut, too:






Can't make out what it's trying to say


Not the most encouraging sight:




The smell that was coming out of that wood was ... remarkable. I took a sliver of the wedge back to the house. My wife has to literally put her nose against apple blossoms, lilac and wisteria to smell them. Not this stuff. She asked, "What is that smell?" before I got around the corner of the porch to where she was working.

[grouch]

Down where it was s'posed to be -- right on top of maple and gum logs and limbs:



All those hair-looking limbs? The most rank poison ivy vine I've met. The main vine was about as big as my arm at the base.



Tree was very considerate in staying on the stump.







Ants and goo:



In Whatcha Sawin' fishpharmer pointed me to a message by beenthere that may explain the heavy odor. (Izzat 'nuff links in one sentence?)





I don't trust standing dead trees. They sometimes make little tiny pops or snaps and then *BAM* they're on the ground. This one made good loud cracks before falling, but it was still sudden. The slope made my retreat faster.

Almost forgot. While stumbling around on that hillside, I found this:



Fellow old folks may recognize a steel Royal Crown Cola can with an aluminum top sporting the hole where the completely removable top plug was. Youngsters may want to imagine thousands (millions?) of curled slivers of thin aluminum tossed on the ground from such cola and beer cans. Those things made beeches dangerous world wide for a time.

[square1]

The smell that was coming out of that wood was ... remarkable.

Nice work getting those not so solid trees on the ground where you wanted them safely.

I can relate.  Back in the early 80s the state allowed people to cut where a forest fire had gone through a few years prior. Thousands and thousands of charred, dead standing red STINKY oak (the charred part smelled bad, but it wasn't the worst smell coming from the trees). Our amenities were a converted tourist bus with a tiny sink in the bathroom and no shower. Six of us arrived on a Thursday evening, set up camp, and cut all weekend, never leaving the forest. We filled the belly of that bus and several pick-ups with cab high racks pulling trailers.    Lord, we smelled awful.  We stopped in a diner on the way home Sunday night for dinner and cleared the place of other customers within a few minutes.  To this day, nearly 40 years later, I can still smell that smell.

[btulloh]

Grouch, you have some interesting tales and tell them well.  They're always fun to read.

Good job getting the hollow/dead tree to go where you wanted.  I wouldn't want to bet on that.  I'm just glad I can't smell what you're cookin'. :-\

[grouch]

Nice work getting those not so solid trees on the ground where you wanted them safely.

Thanks. The maple was easy. The only worry with the gum was whether or not it would reach too far.

I can relate.  Back in the early 80s the state allowed people to cut where a forest fire had gone through a few years prior. Thousands and thousands of charred, dead standing red STINKY oak (the charred part smelled bad, but it wasn't the worst smell coming from the trees). Our amenities were a converted tourist bus with a tiny sink in the bathroom and no shower. Six of us arrived on a Thursday evening, set up camp, and cut all weekend, never leaving the forest. We filled the belly of that bus and several pick-ups with cab high racks pulling trailers.    Lord, we smelled awful.  We stopped in a diner on the way home Sunday night for dinner and cleared the place of other customers within a few minutes.  To this day, nearly 40 years later, I can still smell that smell.

Ha! Glad I wasn't trying to eat there!

Grouch, you have some interesting tales and tell them well.  They're always fun to read.

Good job getting the hollow/dead tree to go where you wanted.  I wouldn't want to bet on that.  I'm just glad I can't smell what you're cookin'. :-\

Thank you for the kind words. Still more to come on this particular tree tale. Hope it has something you'll enjoy.

As to the cookin', I cut into some of that oak yesterday to make some thin strips. It *still* stinks. It's almost down to what I'd expect from a normal red oak.

[grouch]

The last picture of the oak, down but still on the stump, was taken December 11, 2015. The maple and gum were sliced up not long after that, but the oak stayed on that hillside until March 4 of this year. That's the way it goes sometimes.

[A few of these photos were previously posted in the Whatcha Sawin'? thread].

Hatchet took care of most of the rotted bark and sapwood on the top log:






(Burned out the highlights and the shadows are still too dark)


Hold your nose! Get the vents going!







Besides being the stinkiest wood I've cut, it was also the wettest. Some strange colors were there while it was wet.















I decided to separate the crotch section from the relatively straight grain at this point.



Might note the water oozing out where I've clamped that chunk of wood.



(This picture has the color off. It shouldn't be purple).


(And this one is not quite red enough)


Someday I'm going to look at a pile or stack of lumber I've cut and where it says I should have changed the blade is going to be close to where it says I changed the blade.

[grouch]

Stained glass oak?


Some of the colors disappeared as fast as the water:


So much bad wood around the pretty




The approx. 5 ft long relatively straight grain piece:




(Photo too red)


The bad center makes this utilitarian at best:








Most of this is destined for planter boxes. All cut 5/8 inch thick for 1-1/4 inch narrow crown staples.

[grouch]

2nd log from that oak, 2017-03-09:















Still slicing 5/8 inch thick for planter boxes.













Getting into the separated center














Even seeing all the defects, she was still saying, "That's too pretty to use for planter boxes."

Nevertheless, first box, from some of that 5 ft stuff shown earlier:

[grouch]

Here's the critter I kept finding in the oak:



Strangely, I didn't take any photos of the fight getting the big log up the hill. I tried to drag it with my tractor -- 1980 Long 310, 30 hp (28 PTO), about 3900 lbs -- and only made holes. Tried the 12,000 lb winch on the front and just scooted the tractor. I ended up using the tractor, winch, 2 snatch blocks, most of my chains, a 2 ton farm jack, a 1 ton come-along, and various and sundry chunks of limbs as rollers. The slope rises 2 ft in 4 except one little gentler section that rises 1.5 ft in 4. That part was half the length of the log.

It did come out of its nest:











Needs a slight trim:




Rotten banana?


Fine toeboard


First slice:




Almost full length cut:


If I had cut this tapered, with the upper part of the log level for each cut, instead of with the pith level, I might have salvaged more wood from it.

[Magicman]

Most times your lumber recovery will be greater with "pithy" center logs if you saw parallel to the "bark".  This will leave the Washington Monument in the center which will be rotten anyway.

[grouch]

Most times your lumber recovery will be greater with "pithy" center logs if you saw parallel to the "bark".  This will leave the Washington Monument in the center which will be rotten anyway.

I didn't figure that out until *after* sawing the taper out of it. Doh!

It should've been cut in two, also. That bend was almost exactly halfway. I was just determined to see if my track extensions would let me saw 16 ft.

[grouch]

That photo of the tractor, log arch and 16 ft log makes it look like that just magically appeared in the field. It leaves out part of this 'odyssey' of wearing many hats on the way from woods to boards. I shouldn't do that.

After measuring that butt log on the hillside, and after hauling the 2nd log to the mill, I figured out I needed to lift a little higher to straddle the mill and place the log better. My previously squared arch got an arch added:



Slag visible even if it is a bit dark. Tried to get the ends of the addition aligned over the posts, using material on hand.


That 2nd log was all the little hand-cranked worm gear winch could handle, so I knew it wouldn't lift the big one on a straight pull.


Brackets cantilever it outside the arch for pulley clearance.


Had to trim some protrusions that hadn't been in the way before.


Ummm. Sometimes holes just magically appear when I try to weld either pipe or thin stuff. Actually there was a crack that appeared in the pipe as I bent it and when I tried to weld just the crack, a hole developed (by magic!) and I had to do some filling.


I had a choice of either having the bolt horizontal or having my freehand cut brackets aligned. (I had cut the holes before welding the brackets on).


Winch turned around like it should've been to start with. This is almost to maximum height and, as seen in the previous photos, is just enough to let the big log clear the bunks on the mill.

[derhntr]

Grouch, I am in no means a expert tree feller, however I would expect that you would have a easier time using a open faced notch and plunge cutting. Some good tips on how to do it on youtube.  Since I started using that method last year I feel much safer felling large trees. I almost never use the old method anymore. Knock on wood but I have not hung a tree since starting to use the open faced notch. Really help when you have to drive the tree through branches of other trees.

As far as stinky oaks I have cut some black oak that would curl your nose hairs with the sour rotten egg smell. But the worst one was a hollow beech tree that unknowing held a skunk. Fell the tree, then started blocking fire wood blocks 4th cut up the tree I found the skunk with the chainsaw. The odor hit about 2 seconds after the saw cut the skunk in half. Think I left the blocks in the woods for 2 months. The following year burned them in the fireplace. Lets just say the wife was not a happy camper. :D

[grouch]

The only good I can see in cutting that skunk is that at least it didn't have time to aim at you! Don't think I'd be happy about skunky wood in the fireplace either.

I'm still laughing. Thanks for brightening a dreary day!

[Magicman]

  :P  You used the term "magic" three times in Reply #17 and I wasn't even there.  ;D   :D

Now how is that for brightening your dreary day??   ???

[Weekend_Sawyer]

I really enjoyed this thread.
Thank you for sharing it with us.
Jon

[Kbeitz]

Check this one out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLkgWFh9lDs

[grouch]

  :P  You used the term "magic" three times in Reply #17 and I wasn't even there.  ;D   :D

Now how is that for brightening your dreary day??   ???

Musta been thinkin' about you and how logs just sorta gather where ever you park that WM.

[Edit to add:]
Logs just sorta *magically* gather where ever you park that WM. :D

I really enjoyed this thread.
Thank you for sharing it with us.
Jon

Glad to hear that. Welcome and thanks. Still getting the rest of the photos ready to post. I waffled a long time before starting this and then finally came to the conclusion that if only those who knew what they were doing posted, the discussions would be pretty thin.

Check this one out...

'Way back, Ianab gave me advice on using a bore cut. I still haven't tried it, though.  ;D

[grouch]

There was another twist in the path between 2nd log and the big mama. It turned out to be a dead end, but was still part and parcel with this tale.

I wanted tongs for my log arch. It's a little time consuming and aggravating to jack logs and wrap chains. After some sketches and fiddle-faddling around with cardboard and digging through what I had on hand...


Black pipe wasn't my first choice but the only suitable steel rod I have is some cold rolled 1-3/8 and 1-1/4. Don't want to pay for that precision just to bend it.

A little plasma on some 3/8 inch plate


Center punch


A 1 inch flat washer makes a decent template for plasma cutting a hole


Eyeball center


Works, but not as well as hoped


Should've chipped slag and made it pretty




The chain sucks


Better, but no way it's going to open enough for the big log








It will handle logs this big and a bit bigger, but not the ~23 - ~24 inch log I wanted


I think adding 3 inches to each leg will let it handle any log that will fit between the uprights on the arch.