Tree Iron

[JoeyLowe]

 :D

Have you ever had one of those days when you were better off just sitting in front of the TV watching some mindless show like the news?

Well, today was one of those days.  Here is a photo of the little surprize that I found inside a pecan log.  The pic doesn't do it justice.  The iron was close to 2" wide and about 6' long.  Oh, and it was darn near 1/4" thick.




For those of you who are curious, the pecan came out of an old grove.  At one time, I imagine that the tree tried to split and the owner, took a piece of iron and wrapped it around the trunk to hold it together.  Over time the tree just up and swallowed the metal.

Ruined a perfectly good blade and made me squeal.  

[JoeyLowe]

 ;D

Here is another pic of some more tree iron.

[customsawyer]

That will get the old blood pressure up there. >:(

[rebocardo]

Yea, I had that happen recently with a brand new ripping chain. I was ripping a piece of wood, for FIREWOOD, and when you hit vines you feel a little kickback/zip. So when it happened I just pressed harder. Ended up hitting a buried lag the tree grew around and completely took off two cutters and pretty much toasted the rest of the chain. The hazards of urban lumber and clothes lines.

I would guess the pecan grower probably made a good decision for HIM, since it did keep the tree intact enough to grow more pecans.Just stinks being the person afterwards. I love the trees where people have filled in rot holes with cement :-D

[JoeyLowe]

 :D  I had forgotten all about cement knots.  That brings back a few memories!

[Frickman]

Around here years ago they used to pour cement into hollow yard trees in town. You can't rely on a metal detector to find all the tramp material in a log.

[Curlywoods]

 >:(  That has got to suck!  I hope that wasn't some of the Pecan that we discussed

[JoeyLowe]

Hey Mike:

One and the same! ;D  Not to worry though.  There is plenty more.

[WoodSmith]

 ??? Is it worth the expense and effort to use a metal detector to locate the metal and take the time to attempt to extract it before sawing, or attempt to locate the metal and saw through it knowing where it is, or just saw and when you hit metal put a fresh blade on, would this option be cheaper for the customer in the long run and easier on the sawyer?  ???

[rebocardo]

> Is it worth the expense and effort to use a metal detector

If you can afford a good one, yes. I can not at the moment so I try to take off the top 3-4 inches sometimes when making a cant. Especially for backyard trees so you avoid any recent 16D nails or small hooks used for clothes lines.

> saw through it knowing where it is

I can only speak for myself using a chainsaw mill, at $20+ per chain and the 2+ hours it takes to resharpen by hand a 28" badly damaged chain, sawing through even a small 16D nail is not worth it.

[Minnesota_boy]

I am one to believe in just sawing and taking my chances instead of using a metal detector.  With the number of logs I go through in a year of sawing and the relatively few that have hardware, I think it pays well to forget the metal detector and pay the price for resharpening/replacing blades.  My time is worth too much (to me anyway) to spend it finding the few pieces of hardware.

[rvrdivr]

There is an old pecan grove across the road from me and this is what the old man told me, that years ago they would drive iron into the pecan trees to get them nutting. I would be cautious on the other trees you cut.  

[Brad_S.]

I second Minnesota Boys post, and I deal primarily with urban logs. Takes alot of time to cover all the faces of a log, and with a stack sitting there, I find it's more cost effective to just go for it. If I know where something is before hand, I will take the time to get it out.

[JoeyLowe]

I have to agree with others about taking time to run a metal detector over a bunch of logs.  Most of the time the detector is going to go off anyway and you really have no way of knowing if what is a real "hit" and what is not. ;D

[Jim_Rogers]

My metal detector has a setting for all metal or just coins and jewelry. I keep it set to all metal.
When I think there is metal in a log, but looking at the end grain and seeing metal stain, then I scan the log.
I first scan it walking from end to end and sweeping the detector right and left over the log. When it beeps as it detects some metal, I shorten my stroke and see where the center of the beep is. I mark this spot with a line with a lumber crayon. This line goes towards each end of the log.
I then turn 90° to the log and scan over this line. As the detector beeps again I shorten my stroke and try to find the center of the beep and mark it again with the lumber crayon going around the log.
This creates a + or an X depending on how you look at it. I chop in with an axe on either side of the X and try to pop out the center and expose the head of the nail or bolt.
After pulling the exposed nail out, I re-scan for more nails.
If I'm sawing my regular logger's logs I don't always scan every log.
But if I'm scanning a custom sawing customer's logs, I scan every log and charge them for the time it takes to scan and pull the nails.
Jim Rogers