The Forestry Forum

I mentioned before that I have been ordering cull hardwood loads. About 15% can be milled on the bandsaw, remaining I cut, split , sell as firewood. More than pays for the load of logs. Am I sooooooooo smart!
When I oredered the last load the logger mentioned there would be "a little" mud on the next load. Well about 40% do have mud (these will go for firewood) I started this weekend and can see I'll be going thru chains! Any suggestions? Carbide 18" chain goes for about $100.  Pressure washer?
tks in advance. What did people do before this site?

Wash'em.    Water is cheap.

I couple guys I know use a pressure washer to remove most of the mud. Another fella has one of those commercial pressure washers with a rotating brush the cleans them much faster.

We skid our own logs year round, no matter what the weather conditions.  We almost always have dirty logs since they are almost 100% winched up hillsides and then skidded as much as a half mile.  When bucking the logs or sawing them,  one thing that helps a lot is to try and saw into a clean face.  The chain or blade can exit a dirty surface without doing nearly as much harm. :)  I do use a wire brush on a dirty area that the blade must enter, on occasion :)

powerwasher is what i use for all dirty logs, unless they are old enough to peel.

Something I learned the hard way was that when a logger brings in dirty logs, TRY to get him to at least put them in the bottom of the pile.  Also tell him when he cleans up his landing and takes the bottom logs from the pile to NOT grab a half yard of mud, dirt and rocks in the grapple and put it on the TOP of his load of logs comming in to you! just common sense, ok that is in short supply now a days!  IF you use a power washer, keep your logs separated by a couple of feet on the deck at least so when you blow off the dirt and mud it doesn't just land on the next log or the one you already washed. You may need to lay a tarp over the logs in either direction so you don't just keep passing the dirt to the other logs. i have seen guys go through a lot of work cleaning one log only to pass the problem on to the next log.