Standing mill wood...

[Mark Webb]

Wilson Cypress Company, One of the largest cypress mills in the country, was located here in Palatka, Florida.  They cut from the late 1800's till around the 1930's when all they large cypress was almost gone. They would send their men out a year in advance of cutting a stand and girdle all the trees they intended to harvest, to kill them in other words. This was done so they could make rafts and float to the mill in Palatka. If the tree wasn't completely girdled it would still have enough green wood in it so it would sink. That is where we are getting alot of the dead head cypress and pine (longleaf) that is valued so highly today. There is still one large cypress standing down by Sanford, Florida that is 17' 9" in diameter. But back in Wilson's days these and larger (25' )were not uncommon.
Mark

[tyb525]

Mark, that is interesting info. I suppose that was a special case for cypress though.

But if it wasn't for those rafters and loggers, we wouldn't have this beautiful sinker cypress you see today

[Mark Webb]

I was able to find this picture of the big cypress I was talking about. This was taken in 1952 and I am the little boy on the front row, left end.
Mark

[tyb525]

Boy Mark, you haven't changed a bit in 58 years! ;) ;D

That's a big tree!

[Magicman]

'cept, he had shoes on then.    :D

[Jeff]

Here is an old clip of harvesting Cypress. Its pretty poor quality. I captured it from an old film we had here quite a few years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLxNf3C-pro

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Griding trees has its place like Jeff said  With Log building the main reasons for that are that there will be less settling to allow for and you can put the lagest raidial check into the cope and cut most of it out  ;) but one issue is if you want a clean look to your log wall system you need to do alot more draw knife work to get a nice finish  ;) We always used fresh select grade logs for our houses in D/fir and Radiata pine we also did one place with Redwood 50' footers with one flat side for the internal wall that was the softest stuff ive ever milled it was like a hot knife through butter  ;) :D ;D ;D 8) 8)

Asfar as Sawing goes Cut them as soon as they have been felled as Softwood degrades fast and you end up with more waste . And in Hardwoods down here the main issues to deal with are tension and degrade through checking & end splits and it just makes more work for the sawyer because you then have to saw the log to suit those things its just an added defect to deal with  ;) Case hardening is another issue with logs that have been stockpiled or standing dead for awhile  ;)

Ty down here in the hardwood industry we use sprinklers because we dont log hardwoods in the high country during 3 to 4 months of winter so the loggers go flat out during summer to get the mills quotas in to the mill yard wich is the worst time for degrade to happen  Mate ;)

Asfar as releving tension in logs i can tell you that it dont matter if the logs been down a day or 80 years if it still has that sapwood still on it its gonna move (pull) where ever it wants to to go if you dont allow for it  ;)

Mark and Jeff nice info and clip  ;) ;D 8) 8) I think we only had three species that where floated in any great volumes which was Red Cedar ,Huon Pine and Hoop pine most of are hardwoods are too dence to float and if you rolled a log in to a river it would disspear on you  ;)  :D :D Red gum was floated in a way up on the river but they used outrigger barges with the paddle steamers back in the day

Regards Chris

[Magicman]

Here is an old clip of harvesting Cypress. Its pretty poor quality.

I love watching those old logging clips, no matter what the quality.  That's some interesting old lost sawing techniques.

[rpg52]

I've been told, ("short hand for not having any experience.") that Madrone, a hardwood found along the Pacific coast from N. Calif. to Canada, will cut without checking if buried in mud for a year or so.  Otherwise, it checks terribly like many other related species such as the Manzanitas (lots of these in California).  Don't have any personal experience with it so really don't have much factual to add to the discussion.
Ray

[Magicman]

Do Manzanitas get large enough to saw?  I saw lots of them with the redish bark peeling that were only clumps of bushes, similar to our Crepe Myrtles.  Maybe different varieties?

[Dave Shepard]

I run into this debate frequently. I DO NOT want to see any old logs come into the log yard. Old white pine, fine, but there will be an assortment of degrade, but it will still saw fine. Hardwoods present an altogether different scenario. I'm sawing cherry right now that is probably between 1 and 2 years old. I had to switch to a 4° band, saw slower, and flip more often. Fresh cherry I can saw with a 10° band, and go probably twice as fast. I may be wrong, but I think if you saw fresh logs, you can get the lumber stickered or in the kiln and have a much better chance at reducing loss to end checking. These cherry logs are full of end checks, which means I now have to consider that when I choose my opening face.

Had one guy tell me that seasoning hickory in the log was the only way to saw it. ??? I told him the best way to saw hickory was to drop the tree across the mill and have someone limbing just ahead of the sawhead, and they might get it before it split in two. I've also resawn a lot of old timbers. They move around when you cut into them as well.