Ultra-low cost logging and labor-intensive logistics (Congo): need some advice

[Lorenzotto]

Hi, I'm working with Congolese farmers at the forest frontier. Some of them have, in the past, been independent loggers, who work with a chainsaw and an Alaskan mill (I think it's called that in English - the tiny portable fixture for the chainsaw, with which you can cut logs into smaller pieces). They cut some trees, saw planks, and move them to the big river, from where they're transported to Kinshasa, 1000km downstream, on a barge.

Today, after years of wars, this artisanal market has completely disappeared. Reasons are the lack of investment in materials, the lack of roads and infrastructures, the lack of fuel (fuel is very expensive). However, if given the opportunity, these loggers would start again, and use their knowledge from the past. The skilled workers are there, the trees are there.


However, I have another view. That of an ultra-low cost, labor-intensive production method, which follows some simple principles:

1. use no fuel, only axes, crosscut saws and ad-hoc built sawing pits
2. do not create roads (there are none to begin with), but keep it "low-impact" and walk with planks through the forest
3. sell and save

Manual labor costs US$1.5/day. Gasoline, which we'll avoid to use, costs US$9/gallon (US$2.4/liter).

Once some capital has been built up, light mechanization can then kick in and logistical chains can be improved (even though you'd need millions to begin with).

Does anyone have experience with:

1. crosscut saws?
2. felling huge trees with an ax?
3. saw pits?

P.S. There are no traction animals in the region, even though we could train oxen.

[Maine372]

in some wilderness areas of the US, gas powered equipment is either not allowed or not logistcally possible. many parts of the appalacian trail is maintained with hand tools.

many working grade hand tools are availible from baileys, a site sponsor here.

the US forest service has several publications availible on their website regarding the use and care of such tools. the AMC (appalachian mountain club) may be able to help with some hands on training. im not connected with this group but have worked with a couple guys who were. 

it sounds like if you have some willing labor, some capital investment to get the tools, and somone who can translate and teach the labor pool you could probably meet your goals.

please keep us updated, and we all love pics!

[zopi]

ok...I love this stuff...first, about the lack of traction and infrastructure...ox logging will make trails, which can be expanded to roads later...parts of US route 66 started out as ox trail...anyhow, the ox is a good place to start, easy to train, easy to work, and relatively safe, and pretty tasyy if they blow out or get hurt bad...if you have adequate grassland to feed them,,,right up there with gasoline...grain is energy, soil is grain, be careful how you look at that resource...that said...six big charolais or brahma croses can move a buttload of timber.    if you dig around on google books, there are many free books which the copyrights have run out on, and there is a wealth of information about falling and logging with hand tools. a good basic guide it the Foxfire books..typically to fall with axe and saw, one will chop the notch, then back cut with the saw...the use of the wedged and glut in the back cut is essential...stick a crosscut and you have a problem...also..keep a fatty anmal skin or som elard or tallow handy..rub the saw down with it when it gets sticky...Pit sawing is not too bad...it is a bear to produce much lumber though..and it is not easy to find tillered pit saws these days...it is not too hard to set up a waterwheel gang saw though, although that is probably out of your scle for a bit...and i don't really know what resources you have.    Wish I was there though...sounds like fun.  oh...for information on oxen...prarie ox drovers, and rural heritage are good places to dig up info about building yokes and logging tack..

[Ironwood]

I have travelled a little overseas and one thing that ALWAYS impresses me is the use of the common and available tools and "equipment". We in the US are very spoiled (me included) with all our mechanization. I would say the real challenge may not be building or forging tools locally from local scrap steel, but rather the high density of the wood in your region. Not the number of trees "density" but the actual dense fiber and shear weight. This will make even the best hand tools a REAL bear to function, AND those are the high demand wood products people want (usually). If for construction then the lighter/ less dense wood would be first choice.

Rebar is common useage for non critical metal and then the common truck spring steel for better qualities. Both are frequently seen in usage in remote corners of the globe. 

Ironwood

[trim4u2nv]

Many of my neighbors were from the netherlands and were displaced and relocated after WWII to our area (Lansing, and South Holland Illinois.)  Many were millrights and engineers and built scale model windmills copied from the homeland.  This mill link below is built almost entirely of wood.   South of us near Kentland and Fowler Indiana is a very large electric wind farm which is much more efficient.  But the wooden winmills have run for 200-300 years with proper maintenance.

http://youtu.be/EEqBpG2aNhE

http://calculating.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/forgotten-history-wind-powered-sawmills/

[Ianab]

Think you should do some research on how logging was done 100 years ago or so. Some old books, sawmill museums etc?

Like  trim4u2nv posted, old sash sawmills would be build from local wood with a minimum of metal parts, some bolts, cable and pulleys etc. They took very little power to run, so could run off a waterwheel, or in the case of this one a small portable steam engine. No reason you couldn't run one off a small gas engine. I know you said gas was expensive, but a little 4 stroke engine would only need a couple of gallons a day? Whole thing could be "transportable" by unbolting it, and have the crew carry it to the next site. Maybe a day to move it?

Pics from the Kauri Museum here in NZ.



It was powered by this, but could be run by just about anything,


To move large logs...


Two horse power, but could drag a 20 ton log in from a mile away.


So you can set up the mill and winch at a central location and haul logs to it from a radius around. After a month, dismantle and  move to new location.

You also had wagons and bush trams (a narrow gauge railway) both of which could be ox powered.


In use.


This sort of stuff is labour intensive, but if you have the raw materials and manpower to build that sort of stuff I don't think you need to go back to the Stone Age technology wise.  Gas is ~$8 gallon here too, but no one mills wood by hand here...

Ian

[shinnlinger]

I wonder if converting gas powered machines to run on "wood gas" would make sense here.  The deal were you cook the methane out of the wood....