# Cedar Logs



## dustytools (May 25, 2008)

Well I finally got around to taking down one of my Cedar trees that I have marked for milling material. No pics of the tree standing but it was roughly 30-35' feet tall and right in the middle of the jungle (the woods look and feel like a rainforest right now) LOL. I got two nice logs and the top still has a couple of nice posts in it. Doubt I will mill anything today but wanted to go ahead and post some pics of the logs. View attachment 71937


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## dustytools (May 25, 2008)

OK, I couldnt resist the temptation to slice off a couple of boards, then I said "What the heck" Ill go ahead and square it up while Im at it, then after sharpening the chain I figured "What the heck" again, Ill go ahead and finish it up while Im at it. I ended up with seven nice boards at 5/4X12"X8'-6". The un-edged boards will end up at about 9 or ten inches wide after edging. These will be used for decking on a little trailer that Im fixing up to haul firewood on. The last picture is of the pile of sawdust that will be spread out in the dog kennel. Thanks for looking. View attachment 71955


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## Trigger-Time (May 25, 2008)

Very, Very nice........your going to hurt Woodshop, when he hear's
what you are going to use that nice cedar for.


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## lmbeachy (May 25, 2008)

Dustytools; Those are some nice looking logs and they made pretty boards. I'm with Woodshop, to nice to use for decking on a trailer. Wouldn't care if my woods looked like a jungle if there where a few cedar logs in there like that.


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## Haywire Haywood (May 25, 2008)

Nice logs Terry! Did you see any rot in the middle of them? All the ones I got ahold of before that were that big had some rot in the middle of the butt log.

Ian


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## oldsaw (May 25, 2008)

Nice job. Should have been some pretty easy milling. Got some nice boards out of it.

Mark


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## dustytools (May 25, 2008)

Haywire Haywood said:


> Nice logs Terry! Did you see any rot in the middle of them? All the ones I got ahold of before that were that big had some rot in the middle of the butt log.
> 
> Ian



These boards came from the upper log and were totally rot free. The base log looks like it may have a slight bit in the bottom but it doesnt look like it goes too far into the log.


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## dustytools (May 25, 2008)

Trigger-Time said:


> Very, Very nice........your going to hurt Woodshop, when he hear's
> what you are going to use that nice cedar for.



LOL, I actually thought about Woodshop when I took this baby down last night. It does seem a shame to use them for a trailer bed but It is light, weather resistant and pretty tough stuff, which makes it a real good candidate. Besides I have more where this came from, the other log is a Monster. I have four more in one of the hay fields that my FIL wants me to remove, they arent this big but they are still nice ones.


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## BobL (May 25, 2008)

Thanks for posting, they look great!


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## Trigger-Time (May 25, 2008)

It's hard to belive how light cedar dry's.


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## Zodiac45 (May 25, 2008)

Nice Pix Dusty,

Looks like great stuff. Wish mine was the red version! I'll make due with the white but it's no where near as pretty as that red.


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## Backwoods (May 26, 2008)

This is a western red cedar tree that I milled up over on the coast not to long ago, all siding.

It took a bit of whittling but we got it done with out any real problems.






















The western red cedar seems to be slightly different then your eastern red cedar.


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## rayvil01 (May 26, 2008)

Dusty,
I bet it smelled great around your place while you were milling that stuff. Beautiful wood. 

Surprised to hear you guys talking about rot. We used to make fence posts out of ERC. They'd supposedly last a lifetime. I doubt that. But, they were certainly rot-resistant. That trailer bed ought to last a good long time.


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## splittah (May 26, 2008)

Nice work, nice wood, nice pics... I wish I had some cedar of my property especially that big! 

Good job!




Dave


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## Zodiac45 (May 26, 2008)

Great pix Backwoods,

Thanks for sharing. Good sized cedar and gotta love that Mizer.


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## big daddio (May 26, 2008)

nice cedar there dusty. great millin' job too. pretty slick of you to make your FIL think you're doin' him a favor takin' those others down LOL. nice sequence of pics. thanks.


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## Stihl-in-Ky (May 26, 2008)

Good looking logs and boards Terry what saw did you use on the mini mill and do you like it.


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## dustytools (May 26, 2008)

Stihl-in-Ky said:


> Good looking logs and boards Terry what saw did you use on the mini mill and do you like it.



Thanks Kerry. I used the 361 on the mini-mill. Ive been hooked on the mini-mill ever since I used yours. I sliced a couple of boards off before I edged the log so that I could get a little more width out of them.


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## wdchuck (May 26, 2008)

Beautiful, and the log shape really allowed for maximum use, not much waste from canting. That trailer bed will be right purdy.


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## dustytools (May 27, 2008)

Thanks for the replies everyone. Ive got it stacked and stickered sitting on the trailer right now. The sideboards will come from the larger log which will hopefully be milled this coming weekend.


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## woodshop (May 27, 2008)

dustytools said:


> LOL, I actually thought about Woodshop when I took this baby down last night. It does seem a shame to use them for a trailer bed but It is light, weather resistant and pretty tough stuff, which makes it a real good candidate. Besides I have more where this came from, the other log is a Monster. I have four more in one of the hay fields that my FIL wants me to remove, they arent this big but they are still nice ones.



...thought I felt my ears ringing this past weekend  

I had the pleasure of walking my oldest of three daughters down the isle on Sat, so been a busy weekend with friends and family popping in and out from all parts of the country, wasn't around much to jump online for very long at a time. The firstborn is always special... I was OK walking her in, but then when the minister asked who gives this woman to be wed, and I said her mother and I do, and I handed her to her soon to be husband, then she discreetly leaned towards me and whispered "I love you daddy"... of course I lost it then... as would any other Daddy. Was a nice wedding. 

Hey... ceder makes great decking for a trailer, go for it. It's the lightest stuff around that also resists rot and decay to a degree, and thus every pound less decking means a pound more you can haul on that trailer. As I stated in another post, redcedar WILL rot though eventually. If you can take the extra weight, black locust or even better, osage orange does not... for all practical purposes, osage does not rot in that application at all... ever... and would probably outlast that trailer. It is pretty heavy stuff though.

NICE cedar log... we get them like that up here once in a great while depending on where grown etc, but usually not that large and check free. I understand cedar grows much bigger and better down your direction. Even in So MD where I lived for a while they had lots of huge cedars like that, and in some areas, pure stands of it 40-50 miles down below Washington DC area. 

Great pics dusty, thanks for posting... yes my mouth is watering looking at them. Hey... water under the bridge


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## TNMIKE (May 27, 2008)

*Nice logs*

Those are nice BIG cedar logs Terry. I have a few like that but I hate to cut them. The majority of what I have are in the 6 to 10 inch range. Good work.


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## dustytools (May 27, 2008)

woodshop said:


> ...thought I felt my ears ringing this past weekend
> 
> I had the pleasure of walking my oldest of three daughters down the isle on Sat, so been a busy weekend with friends and family popping in and out from all parts of the country, wasn't around much to jump online for very long at a time. The firstborn is always special... I was OK walking her in, but then when the minister asked who gives this woman to be wed, and I said her mother and I do, and I handed her to her soon to be husband, then she discreetly leaned towards me and whispered "I love you daddy"... of course I lost it then... as would any other Daddy. Was a nice wedding.
> 
> ...



Congratulations on the new Son-in-law. I agree that the Locust would have been better but they arent that big on our farm due to them being harvested for firewood for the last several years. I figured that a good spraying of diesel fuel once a year or so would help to keep the Cedar protected.


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## dustytools (May 27, 2008)

TNMIKE said:


> Those are nice BIG cedar logs Terry. I have a few like that but I hate to cut them. The majority of what I have are in the 6 to 10 inch range. Good work.



The majority of our Cedars are around 6-10" here too. I wonder how big they will be in the next ten to fifteen years? I dont know how much truth there is to it but someone once told me that if you keep the lower limbs trimmed off that they will fill out quicker.


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## woodshop (May 27, 2008)

dustytools said:


> The majority of our Cedars are around 6-10" here too. I wonder how big they will be in the next ten to fifteen years? I dont know how much truth there is to it but someone once told me that if you keep the lower limbs trimmed off that they will fill out quicker.



Actually, from what I know about trees, trimming limbs will not necessarily make the tree put on larger growth rings (which is of course how the tree grows in diameter). As for how big... in So MD, old redcedars that were allowed to grow often got 36 in in dia, and some larger. Those big ones were usually yard or barn trees or ones stuck out in the middle or a field though, with huge thick branches. The redcedars that grew in the woods, often in almost pure stands, with all that competition grew straighter and taller with few lower limbs, but put on diameter growth slowly. 

I rarely buy wood since I mill so much and as of yet don't use 5% of what I mill, but redcedar I don't have a lot of, maybe 150ft left, and I do use it in the woodshop for some product, so sooner or later I'll have to take a weekend and head south to a sawmill and pick up a load again. Last time I checked into it (several years ago) I could get dry stuff for about $2.25 a bd ft if I got couple hundred feet. I think if I went right to a small rural sawmill in MD or VA I could get it right off the saw cheaper than that.


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## Backwoods (May 27, 2008)

I keep all my young trees trimmed up as far as I can with a ladder. But keep in mind that always, always, leave at least the top 1/3 of the tree with branches as that is most of the photosynthesis happens. I start when they are young and every year or so trim them a little higher.


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## TNMIKE (May 28, 2008)

*I dont about them filling out*

It would be easy enough to try it. I do know that a big cedar like the one you have is old. I had a state forester tell me that one of my big ones was at least 100 years old.


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## TNMIKE (May 28, 2008)

*Cedar rot*

Yes cedar will rot. I have fence posts on my farm that I know have been there at least 50 years and are still sound. I have others that have been in the ground ten years and have rotted down to the heart wood and fallen over. I have noticed the same thing with locust. Locust use to be THE thing for posts in WNC. Their use has declined because they just dont last like they use to.


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## dustytools (May 28, 2008)

TNMIKE said:


> Yes cedar will rot. I have fence posts on my farm that I know have been there at least 50 years and are still sound. I have others that have been in the ground ten years and have rotted down to the heart wood and fallen over. I have noticed the same thing with locust. Locust use to be THE thing for posts in WNC. Their use has declined because they just dont last like they use to.



Ive been noticing the same thing with the Cedar and Locust posts here too Mike. Some seem to last a good while when others of the same species only last a few years. Hedge-Apple on the other hand is said to be the best wood for post material and will last for what seems like forever.


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## nametrux (May 28, 2008)

*Post rot*

I think the old farmers almanac listed the moon phases to use when setting posts so they lasted longer. Wonder if that works with steel T posts?


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## woodshop (May 28, 2008)

dustytools said:


> Ive been noticing the same thing with the Cedar and Locust posts here too Mike. Some seem to last a good while when others of the same species only last a few years. Hedge-Apple on the other hand is said to be the best wood for post material and will last for what seems like forever.



I pulled some black locust posts out of the ground last year that were we figured about 50 years old. The tops of the posts had deteriorated from cracking and weathering, and even started to rot away at some places, but the part of the post buried in the mud below ground was still as solid as ever. You could even see the clean lines of the ax marks made by whomever back then to put a point on the post before pounding the roughly 4 inch dia posts into the ground. They were pounded in about 2 1/2 feet deep. 

Osage orange (hedge apple) does hold the title as THE most rot resistant native species grown in N America.


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## dustytools (May 28, 2008)

woodshop said:


> I pulled some black locust posts out of the ground last year that were we figured about 50 years old. The tops of the posts had deteriorated from cracking and weathering, and even started to rot away at some places, but the part of the post buried in the mud below ground was still as solid as ever. You could even see the clean lines of the ax marks made by whomever back then to put a point on the post before pounding the roughly 4 inch dia posts into the ground. They were pounded in about 2 1/2 feet deep.
> 
> Osage orange (hedge apple) does hold the title as THE most rot resistant native species grown in N America.



Agreed! Osage also has a very high (maybe one of the highest?) BTU rating when it comes to heating with firewood.


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## Trigger-Time (May 28, 2008)

It seems that cedar's grown in poor soil have more heart wood
and less sap wood and will last much longer as post than, cedars 
that have grown in good soil. Slower growing, have more rings 
per inch so I guess thats why they last longer.


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## rayvil01 (May 29, 2008)

I'm surprised to hear Locust outlasting Cedar in fenceposts. That's interesting. My experiences with Locust were not that great. Ten years or so was it. Never tried Osage Orange. Nice wood. Super firewood. 

Congrats Woodshop.


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## woodshop (May 29, 2008)

rayvil01 said:


> I'm surprised to hear Locust outlasting Cedar in fenceposts. That's interesting. My experiences with Locust were not that great. Ten years or so was it. Never tried Osage Orange. Nice wood. Super firewood.
> 
> Congrats Woodshop.



There are apparently varying degrees of rot resistance within the same species depending on what minerals are in the soil where the tree grew and also how fast the tree grew etc. Thus some locust is more rot resistant than others, same with cedar and osage I assume. Also, there are several kinds of locust here on the east coast, and only black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is all that rot resistant. Honeylocust for example is not.


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## TNMIKE (May 30, 2008)

*Ive gotta try that moon phase idea*

Maybe thats the key to it.


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## dustytools (May 30, 2008)

I started milling the other log today. I didnt get any further than squaring up the cant because my wife got home from work and wanted to do a little work in the garden. Ill hopefully get a chance to slice it up tomorrow and will post some more pics then. Thanks for looking. View attachment 72272


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## RAS323 (May 30, 2008)

Nice looking boards, Dusty!!


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## dustytools (May 31, 2008)

I finished up the larger log this morning. I got these six 7/4X12"X9' boards out of it. I promise that this will be the last of the boring Cedar milling pictures for a while,LOL. Thanks for looking. Almost forgot to note that it was what I would consider a perfect day for milling. About 65 degrees with a nice breeze blowing in just the right direction. View attachment 72320


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## woodshop (May 31, 2008)

dustytools said:


> ... I promise that this will be the last of the boring Cedar milling pictures for a while...



Thanks Dusty... NO pics of milled cedar boards or any other are ever "boring" to us. That's why we keep logging on here. I for one love redcedar, it's up there in my top 5 woods to mill and work with in the shop. When I run redcedar through my machines, even though most are hooked to a dust collector, the whole shop smells like a cedar closet.


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## dustytools (May 31, 2008)

Woodshop, if you ever get the chance to make it to Kentucky you're gonna have to look me up so that we can mill you up some Cedar to send back up north with ya.


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## lmbeachy (May 31, 2008)

Dusty, those are certainly some nice looking boards, you are not boring us, we don't get to see cedar boards like that here in Delaware. Lester


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## woodshop (May 31, 2008)

dustytools said:


> Woodshop, if you ever get the chance to make it to Kentucky you're gonna have to look me up so that we can mill you up some Cedar to send back up north with ya.



You got a deal Dusty... KY is a days drive though... so if I could only shake this pesky day job so I could find time to burn a 3-4 day weekend and run down there all would be well with the world. You'd have to let me reciprocate of course... and bring you a load of something from up here you don't have much of and would want. Imbeachy is less than two hours south of me and also offered to have me down to his place... havn't gotten down there yet either. Don't ya hate it when work gets in the way of play????


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## dustytools (May 31, 2008)

Yup, that pesky work thing is always ruining my plans,LOL. Weve been limited to 40 hr weeks for the last few months or so, and working ten hr days has given me an extra day for playtime here lately, that is of course after the mowing is done (mowing the yard= work).


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## Trigger-Time (May 31, 2008)

I always enjoy pictures dusty!

I start a new job 9th of June, will be working 4-10hr days.  

Gary


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## dustytools (May 31, 2008)

Trigger-Time said:


> I always enjoy pictures dusty!
> 
> I start a new job 9th of June, will be working 4-10hr days.
> 
> Gary



I have worked 10 hr days for the last 19yrs and I wouldnt have it any other way. When were not backed up that 3 day weekend is nice. However it seems like we are trying to play catch up about 90 percent of the time. Good luck with the new job!


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## Trigger-Time (May 31, 2008)

dustytools said:


> I have worked 10 hr days for the last 19yrs and I wouldnt have it any other way. When were not backed up that 3 day weekend is nice. However it seems like we are trying to play catch up about 90 percent of the time. Good luck with the new job!



Thanks..........It's more like a promotion. I have been Weapons
Repair Man *slash* Inspector for DOD for 9 years. New job
title will be Inspector. Will work in same shop, but different boss. 


Gary


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## dustytools (May 31, 2008)

Trigger-Time said:


> Thanks..........It's more like a promotion. I have been Weapons
> Repair Man *slash* Inspector for DOD for 9 years. New job
> title will be Inspector. Will work in same shop, but different boss.
> 
> ...


 Congratulations on the promotion!


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