sawing Telephone poles - Advice

[Jemclimber]

In my area, they are electric poles owned by the electric company. The telephone and cable companies also put lines on the electric company's poles. When a wind storm snaps a pole the electric company replaces it, but will not remove the old pole until the cable company moves their line to the new pole.  If the cable company moves their line and does not notify the electric company and in the mean time another wind storm comes along causing the old pole to fall onto a said car, completely smashing it right down the middle, neither the electric company nor the cable company will lay claim to being responsible for the pole.  With repeated calls to each the only way to get them to pay a claim is to take them both to court. They will fight the claim and the amount the car is worth and the judge will make each of them pay a percentage of a reduced amount of what the car is worth.  In my case since the electric company owned the pole, they paid 2/3rds and the cable company paid 1/3.  It was a long process.

[Skipper11A]

The only commercial sawmill in this part of Texas specializes in sawing utility poles due to a lack of good timber.  Well, this spring the sawmill owner's facebook page was updated by one of his friends to notify his followers of his passing.  The obituary mentioned that he died of cancer but he also had liver failure, heart disease, and MANY OTHER HEALTH PROBLEMS.  There are many stories in these parts about adverse health problems of customers who bought his creosote lumber.
 
My answer to cutting creosote wood is always NO.  I am expanding that to a blanket NO for any treated wood after reading the comments from those forum members with much more milling experience than I have.

[Chuck White]

Sawed bunch about 10- 15 yrs ago.
I agree with sixacresand never again.
Too much hardware and very noxious dust.

I remember when I got my mill, Pete!
I actually ran the mill for somewhere around two years before the creosote smell was gone!
Even the service manuals smelled like creosote!
All was still good, it was just the smell, no dust!

[Hackeldam Wood Products]

in some areas they drill the poles and inject pesticides in them. The utilities here cut them in short lengths and send them to be disposed of. They no longer give them away.

[sancobg]

I have a large number of telephone poles I am going to cut into 6 X 12 X 20 timbers for a pole barn.  They are all 40' +++++.

I will be cutting the bottom 6'-0" that is treated. I cored 4 poles and only the bottom is treated so I don't see a problem.  

[terrifictimbersllc]

Do you know what kind of wood the telephone poles are?

[tule peak timber]

I just bought quite a few used poles and should have them here in a month or two,,,we shall see.

[doc henderson]

I call the ones on the street telephone poles and the ones that run along the railroad tracks telegraph poles.  i got some back in the day.  cannot pass up free stuff, gave them all away.  of course now telephone land lines are about to go the way of the telegraph!

[tacks Y]

Only treated on the bottom? Not so sure about that. Treat a pole and stand it up, all the extra treatment settles down. Look at new poles in a yard they look the same top to bottom.

[WDH]

This child will not saw such a thing . 

[Southside]

If they are pressure treated, then it's not just the bottom as the whole pole goes into the pressure vessel and is subjected to both a vacuum to remove moisture, then a submersion and pressurization to force in the treatment chemicals.  Either way like WDH said, when it comes to poles, this dog won't cut.  

[Sixacresand]

Not  a healthy thing to do.

[Peter Drouin]

Use them round just cut with a chainsaw flat to put your cut lumber too.


 
is what I did

[Woodpecker52]

30 years later and the cut off power poles holding up my shed still in great shape, just stuck in bare ground and built on them.

[Walnut Beast]

Use them round just cut with a chainsaw flat to put your cut lumber too.


 
is what I did

Looks nice Peter 👍

[scsmith42]

From what I've learned over the years, utility poles fall into one of three categories.

Cedar poles, if treated it is only at the bottom. Ok to mill if the bottom cut off.

Creosote treated poles, not ever a good candidate to mill. Very carcinogenic, sticky residue on the bands and mill.

Salt treated/ copper treated (green) poles. Not as bad as creosote treated but still hazardous sawdust. Not an ideal candidate to mill.

Different parts of the country used different types of poles

All have high potential for metal strikes.

[thecfarm]

I would reread this whole thread, slowly, again.  ;)

[Bruno of NH]

I got a call 2 weeks ago about cutting 15 old treated poles .
I declined .
The guy was mad as heck.
Sorry
I would do cedar poles after the first 6' are cut off.

[DPatton]

I get calls to cut poles from time to time but have never entertained the idea based on the information here on the forum. Thank you all for saving me from having to learn this on my own.

[Nomad]

     Another thing to remember if you're cutting them at your location; the sawdust from both creosote and pressure treated is considered a HazMat when it comes to disposal.

[Wintergreen Mountain]

    If I was approached about sawing power or phone poles, I would REFFER them, so fast,  to my strongest competitor! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D + ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D 

[DocGP]

Kindly older gentleman around here built a log house out of creosote poles.   Only went to his place once to work on horses, and my eyes burned just standing outside.  He passed not too long after moving in, from cancer..  May not be related, but spouse passed also within a year.  No one interested in purchasing it from family, who are now trying to sell.   

Maybe just coincidence, but.....

Doc

[alan gage]

I sawed some cedar poles for myself after sawing off the butts. Got some nice big beams out of them and quite a bit of 1" side lumber. Some of the side lumber was real nice and some of it had splits from the pole cracking as it dried.

This spring a fella wanted me to saw some cedar poles into 1x lumber and I told him no problem, just cut off the butts. His poles turned out to be in much poorer condition than mine and the large drying cracks were full of dirt and gravel. It was a lot of working trying to get the best possible boards out of those poles with much waste. Boards weren't very good.

On both of those jobs I went through a lot of blades. I don't think I'm going to stand in line to cut cedar for a customer again but wouldn't rule it out depending on the quality of the poles and what type of lumber they wanted out of it. I think I'd raise my rate next time, probably figure something hourly.

I've still got some poles left to saw for myself and am hoping to get more this fall that the city will be pulling out. Happy to saw it for myself.

I know there's another mill about an hour away that has accumulated a lot of poles. I think he saws a lot of them into 8x8.

Alan

[Woodpecker52]

I remember Muhamad Ali had a training camp in Pa. and his cabin was made from creosote bridge timbers.  I am sure his boxing contributed to his later life tremors,etc.  I have always wondered about the effect of creosote.  

[red]

Most poles are not worth sawing