Whatcha Sawin' 2024 ??

[trapper]

Sawed a black walnut this morning  85 board feet.  A lot of work on a manual mill by myself.  88 with a feels like 99 on the current weather

[cutterboy]

Magic, I love that 2nd picture where the cut line zig-zags through the knots.   And yeah, that is a lot of lumber for one job.

[cutterboy]

I've been sawing the logs from the red oak I cut down last week.




All the logs above the butt log showed some stress.


I was a little disappointed with the quality of the lumber. The next two pictures show lumber from the 2nd log up. This log had 4 clear faces.



However the butt log was very nice.





I just love the look of red oak! I have a lot of oak furniture in the house. Also oak saws nicely even though it is a dense wood. It doesn't have the sawing problems that hickory has.


  Keep on sawing.....Cutter

[NewYankeeSawmill]

Gorgeous stuff @cutterboy
Had a customer w/ some nice Cypress logs he wanted me to slab up for him. The maple was ambrosia, too.

[Magicman]

Yup, good logs may make good lumber but bad logs will make bad lumber.  Then of course "may" and "will" are relevant.    Sometimes bad is good enough.  

[Resonator]

Grade face, grade face, grade face... (old sawmill saying).

When sawing for grade, you'll want to roll the cant and look for the best face. Cut until the grade starts to drop, and roll again. Generally the jacket boards (first cut in from the bark) will have the best clear lumber.
All is not lost if the boards have only a couple isolated defects. Some times they can be up graded with the miter box or chainsaw by cutting the defects out of the long board, and making shorter boards of higher grade value.

[SawyerTed]

I set the mil up yesterday, thought I'd saw a few logs today.  I need a little more material for the solar kiln.  

Had 4 poplars 10' long and 14" and bigger, two big knotty pines, a cedar and a big red oak butt log.  

I managed to cut 2 logs before the heat was too much!  I got 8 2x4x10.  2 1x4x10, 1 1 x6x10, 1 2x6x10 and a dozen or so 3/4x8x10.  

I simply had to stop before I perished in the heat...

[Wlmedley]

It's been awful hot here too Ted.Had a little welding to do.Didn't take long to talk myself out of it.Nice boards Cutterboy. I like cutting red oak also.Do you try to shoot for a certain width? I cut some pretty wide and had trouble with cupping .

[cutterboy]

Do you try to shoot for a certain width? I cut some pretty wide and had trouble with cupping .

I like 8,9 and 10 inch in hardwood, but with pine I'll get 12 inch when I can.

[caveman]

Irony- the condition of several of the logs we've sawn.  The other irony is that it has been incredibly warm here lately and every dry mantle we had in captivity (three) have sold in the past couple of weeks.  We have a couple drying on stickers, but they will be months away from being ready to sell.

This morning, a couple of live oak logs into 4 1/2" thick mantles and one wolfy cypress log.  In total, nine new mantles are on a pallet stacked and starting the long drying process.  We typically don't sell a lot of mantles, but I like to always have one displayed and a few available.

These green live oak mantle pieces are some kind of heavy.  The bark was scraped off before spraying with borate.



Both live edges were left on the cypress.  The customers can decide which edge they want to remove (a service we offer at no additional charge).

[WV Sawmiller]

Cavey,

  I like a 3" mantel too. Don't sell a lot but keep several in stock. I typically cut mine 8' and 10' and often people say they want a 6' mantel and I tell them the extra length is for the corbels.

(BTW - before I started sawing lumber and talking about mantels and such here on the FF I never had heard of a corbel and had no idea what one was. This is a very educational site! )

[cutterboy]

caveman, nice looking cypress.

[Magicman]

Just more sawing SYP for me but there was a twist here too.  These logs were staged directly on the ground which has not been a problem but we got into the logs stacked beside the building which were the first to be harvested.  A very nice 14" top end log that was destined to be 1X10's.  I kept whittling termite damage off and finally got down to a 6X6 with no side lumber.


I hope that there are not any more but I know full well that the bottom logs in that entire stack on the far right are subject to have the same termite damage. 

Most of the scattered logs without bark will be 4X4's & 6X6's.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I decided to saw a 5' WO log into 2X6 to use on my deer blind repair project. I will also use the 2X6's for deer blind bases instead of buying treated lumber for that.

It was a crotch log and I had cut most of the similar logs into tomato stakes but I figured this was a better use due to current needs.

    I got about 73 bf out of the log. Now I have about changed my mind and may not use them on my deer blind at all but they will still work for my other plans. I have one more 5' WO log left and I may saw it into 2X 6s for the same reason.

[Magicman]

That is free lumber....

[WV Sawmiller]

MM,

   Well the logs were free from my neighbor who had them cut out of her yard, they fell across the creek and I agreed to remove them for her. To keep harmony I cut the tops and limbs into firewood for my neighbor on the other side of the creek so I could work over there. He was very happy with that request/suggestion.

   By the time you cut and transport them you sure begin to question those "free logs".

[SawyerTed]

My last whack of logs came from my property.  They cost me $600!  I had to have a tree service take them down because they were threatening a structure.  They will be my solar kiln, eventually.  

[randy d]

MM I have been there only our logs were White pine and our bugs were sawyer beetles. We sold them for shoring to a guy that was jacking up a building.

[Magicman]

I know that free ain't free.  My last free logs came from my yard.  The Red Oak will be firewood and the Post Oak; deck railing, bridge decking and the tops, firewood.  Cost for removal; $1800. 

[Magicman]

Thankfully randy d, there is very little longhorn beetle damage.  Actually I was surprised.  Subterranean Termites bring dirt with them so even after we knock the bark off, the Debarker is running.  I am only sawing till noon with wait time between logs and still using a blade each day.

[TimW]

All wood here gets termites unless elevated off the ground.  But wood leaning in the barn is not touched by the little bugs, as it is too dry.

[TimW]

I know that free ain't free.  My last free logs came from my yard.  The Red Oak will be firewood and the Post Oak; deck railing, bridge decking and the tops, firewood.  Cost for removal; $1800.

Cost of MM's bridge decking and deck railing..............$1800

[Magicman]

But the trees overhanging my RV garage and shop are gone.  That was the objective which cost $1800.  The lumber and firewood was free. 

[Magicman]

My grave digging tailgunner is busy with funerals for the rest of the week and Monday is Labor Day so we will resume sawing Tuesday.  We could finish next week but I think more like the week after.

[SawyerTed]

It's so hot here, I'm spending time doing odd jobs in the house.

Seems like I'm spending way more time as PapaTed than SawyerTed the last week or so.