The Forestry Forum

Well apparently  I have joined the ranks.  I had a neighbor ask me to mill up a birch that should have been cut down when their cabin was built about 50 years ago.  In fact here is a picture of where the overhang of the cabin had an area that was cut out to allow the tree to grow through the roof and soffit area. 

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10927/444/IMG_4709.JPG)


Here is the birch that was dropped.  Note the largest bolt was not milled as there was already a piece of metal that may have been a yard light that was screwed to the top part of the bolt.  I had mentioned to my neighbor that we should not try to mill the first bolt as I had a strong feeling that there was a good chance of hidden metal. 

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10927/444/IMG_4705.JPG)



So after hauling the logs to my mill, I put on a new blade, started the engine and took off the first slab.  Everything looked good so I lowered the head to take a 1" board of the top and pushed the carriage down the track.  I got about three feet down the log and I heard a sound that I knew was not normal.  Pulled the board off and there it was.  My first nail.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10927/444/Firstnail.jpg)

Took time to dig out the remainder of the nail and took a quick look at the blade and scraped the metal fragments out of the gullets of about six teeth.  The nail as best I could tell was around 11 to 12 feet off the ground, since the bolt we did not cut was about 7 to 8 feet long.  We continued the sawing without further incidents.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10927/444/Napoleon_Birch010.jpg)
 

By the end of the job we had around 100 bd ft. of birch lumber.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10927/444/Napoleon_Birch002.jpg)

The boards when dry, will be hauled back to my shop to make the tread for the stairs in the above picture. 

I charged him by the hour, and didn't charge for hitting the metal as there was no major damage to the blade.  He was real happy to be able to use a tree that was on his property to use for his stair treads, and at the end of the day I was happy to have had my first paying job. 

One nail log down and many more to come.  ;)  Happy sawing.   :)

Nice job. You're making me homesick for white birch-- we only have river birch around here, it's the only kind. Oh well, where I came from we didn't have some of the other neat species that are here.

I like how you kept your slabs so thin-- I've seen people waste quite a bit of slab wood. Maybe that's called production efficiency, I don't know, but it seems wrong all the same.

And it looks like you might be thinking of some creative use for the slabs other than firewood.