Whatcha Sawin' 2024 ??

[richhiway]

Smart Dog.

[richhiway]

Going to saw the last Spruce log today. Someone gave them to me and I milled a nice stack of framing lumber from the load. Going to be my new wood shop. I came up with a name for my milling/woodworking enterprise. After I retire at the end of the year, I plan on putting more time towards it. 

Hackeldam was a small community in the 1800's located along the Neversink river. There was a sawmill located there along the river, it is all state forest now. There are remains of water power along a tributary.
It is about two miles from me.

We have been having a lot of rain, been just warm enough not to snow. The next week is high pressure with sunshine. Teens at night, mid 30's during the day. After about a month of clouds, it feels like an early Spring!

Keep up the good work!

[Magicman]

Nice Logo.  ;)

Lets see, I could have named mine; Coonbox Sawmill, Shankstown Sawmill, or Red Lick Sawmill after three long time gone towns near where I grew up.  Shankstown is gone, Coon Box is now only a crossroad, and I went to school at Red Lick.

[SawyerTed]

For me it could have been Neatman, Rosstown, Flat Shoals or Wilson's Store.  All communities within a short distance from here.  

Neatman Creek has a big part of its headwaters on our farm.  The Weather Channel actually lists the weather for Neatman, NC.  It is of course the suburbs of Mountain View, NC.   

[richhiway]

Finished the spruce. Onto the Hemlock and Pine. Beautiful day great to see the sun!

Easy to add pictures now.

M.M. I would have picked Coonbox with Red Lick a close second.

What is a Coonbox?

[Magicman]

What is a Coonbox?

Legend said that it was exactly what the name said but it pre-dates me so I am no witness.  Something to do with trapping and coons.  Red Lick was a red salt lick that deer came to.  Shankstown also pre-dates me and I have no idea.  Shankstown creek crosses under the highway and there is a sign.  My Brother and I went to the supposedly location but found very little evidence of the town.

[SawyerTed]

Not sure where Neatman came from.  Probably a family name.  Nobody can tell me exactly where downtown Neatman is.  My wife doesn't know.  

Flat Shoals creek runs east on the other side of Flat Shoals Mountain from here. We have a good view of the mountain.  

Of course a mile down the road there was Mr Wilson's store and the Ross family lived a little further.  IG Ross was the last Ross who lived there, he also ran a store.

We also live in the Greater Quaker Gap community.  The gap cuts through the Sauratown Mountains but as far as I know, no Quakers live there now.  

As best I can tell, no Neatmans, Rosses or Wilsons live in the community any more either. 

The reality is my sawmill business is listed as a "service" for insurance purposes- Summey Lumber Services.  

[Don P]

I've wondered if it was Quakers or Moravians from W-S that got mislabeled?
For those that don't know, the real cradle of forestry in the US was there.

[WV Sawmiller]

   No pictures because the battery in my little point and shoot camera was dead. :-\

   I sawed a 5' long White oak that was about 18-20 inches diameter. I wanted to test my hydraulics with a little weight. The controls all worked okay. This week I'll buck and try it again with a big 12' poplar log I need to saw to finish my barn project before I take the mill on another mobile job. 

    I sawed this white oak into about 16 dozen 1-1/8" X  1-1/8" tomato stakes. I'll sell most for $15/dozen and about 18 of them that trimmed out at 4' at $1 each so not a bad return off a short log and an hour on the mill. Yeah, I spent another hour or so on the table saw and shrink wrapping into bundles of a dozen each but my retired time is not as big an issue since I can pick when I choose to use them.

[Magicman]

I had a "minimum rate" sawing job this morning sawing Red Oak.

Eight of these 2" X live edge X 12' plus four 4X6's and a whack of 2X4's.
No scale but three hours including travel & setup, plus he tipped 50 bucks! 

Another minimum rate job Wednesday sawing a fallen Pecan tree which will be primarily slabs.  He is sending me pictures but it sounded like three 8' logs.  I love these $400+ half day job$.  ;)

[WV Sawmiller]

Tomato stakes from yesterday

High tech jig for holding and wrapping 12 tomato stakes (Patent pending

[WV Sawmiller]

I went up and bucked a 12' poplar log. I still have 25' of butt log left for future use.


I dragged it down and sawed it into 4/4 boards 6"-14" wide. Was largely a test of my hydraulics which worked fine even with a big heavy log.

[WV Sawmiller]

Here is the lumber from the above post. (Still struggling with this picture limit process - sorry never took.)
(Update - Looks like Jeff and crew fixed the issue. Thanks boss.)

[fluidpowerpro]

That's a nice looking poplar log. Not many are that big in my neck of the woods.

[WV Sawmiller]

   There are at least 2 more even bigger still waiting to be bucked to length and dragged down. As mentioned 25' of butt log is still up there.

[Don P]

Different "poplar". MN would be aspen (popple) and WV is tulip poplar, the largest eastern tree.

[barbender]

Night moves☺️

[fluidpowerpro]

Different "poplar". MN would be aspen (popple) and WV is tulip poplar, the largest eastern tree.

Thanks, I learned something today. So are they a totally different tree?

[beenthere]

Short answer is "yes". Each have their nicknames that leads to confusion. 

[Don P]

Different "poplar". MN would be aspen (popple) and WV is tulip poplar, the largest eastern tree.

Thanks, I learned something today. So are they a totally different tree?

Although... aspen is the largest organism, there is one aspen grove, all one root from one seed, that covers over 100 acres ~40,000 stems. Pando in Utah.

[Magicman]

Night moves☺️

Looks cold.  So you are set up relatively permanent/stationary?

How do you move your sawdust out? 

[WV Sawmiller]

Don P,

   Thanks for jumping in. I forgot that other folks think of Aspen as Poplar when we mention it. It is a real pleasant tree to cut as a soft hardwood. It is actually in the Magnolia family. It grows fast and straight and in a wide range of soils, I know they get really big but I did not know it is the largest tree in the east. I have a White oak nearly 5' in diameter. I lost a 40"+ fork off it in Superstorm Sandy a few years ago but the trunk and other fork seem healthy. I thought there were oaks or maybe elms that got bigger than tulip poplar and I'd bet Bald Cypress are the biggest we grow although they are not a hardwood species.

[Magicman]

I forgot that other folks think of Aspen as Poplar when we mention it.

Actually Aspen is Poplar and although our Tulip/Yellow Poplar is called Poplar, it is not an actual bonafide member of the Poplar family.

LINK

[Resonator]

The Poplar we have up north grows like a weed, the paper mills here grew thousands of acres of it for pulp production back in the day. It can be clear cut, and then will re-grow itself by thousands of stems growing up from the stumps. Down south they have fancy wood like "Tulip" and "Rainbow", up here we have "Pulp".

[SawyerTed]

Tulip Poplar is a joy to saw. It's relatively soft, straight grained and knots aren't too hard to cut.  It has a spicy or peppery odor that's not unpleasant.  Our farm has plenty of big poplars and logs yield lots of board feet.  It's satisfying to mill.  Next to cherry, it's my favorite to mill.

I recommend poplar for siding when customers have a choice of pine, poplar or oak, especially if they paint or solid stain it. 

Here's a whack waiting on me.