# Logs worth?



## stillhunter

I have rights to a stack of mostly White/Post Oak logs 12/14' x 24-50+", about 30 and recently cut. No rot/hollows at all, is this wood worth selling to a sawmill, or should I just split/burn and sell as firewood?


----------



## blades

That's a small lot, most mills have buyers and won't even bother with that quantity. A mill might take it if you do the transport. If lucky might get enough to cover transport+ a bit more. Make more as firewood possibly depending on your area but its green so premium price is not what will happen. CSS for a couple years drying it out money in the bank weather you sell use yourself.


----------



## ropensaddle

Yes and we all know firewood is the new gold


----------



## twoclones

Just for fun


----------



## deepsouth.us

White oak makes for terrific trailer decking.


----------



## gunny100

stillhunter said:


> I have rights to a stack of mostly White/Post Oak logs 12/14' x 24-50+", about 30 and recently cut. No rot/hollows at all, is this wood worth selling to a sawmill, or should I just split/burn and sell as firewood?


id just cut them up for firewood


----------



## Enrico Carini

whiskey barrels


----------



## carhartt

I just hauled in a chestnut/red oak to my local mill because I thought it was worth more than firewood. 5 logs 8ft 8 in. the only log that was worth anything was the butt log. It was like 300 board ft of lumber and the average price was .35 a brd ft. So I got a chk for 97.00. not worth the effort. It had more value in the firewood when you figure in the work getting it out and loaded.


----------



## twoclones

carhartt said:


> I just hauled in a chestnut/red oak to my local mill because I thought it was worth more than firewood. 5 logs 8ft 8 in. the only log that was worth anything was the butt log. It was like 300 board ft of lumber and the average price was .35 a brd ft. So I got a chk for 97.00. not worth the effort. It had more value in the firewood when you figure in the work getting it out and loaded.


That's how it goes. I received a 42" diameter x 9' long black walnut log to carve for the customer. Just about everyone who saw the log whined about it not becoming lumber. When I crunched the numbers, it was more profitable to carve a bear than to mill, dry, plane, then market the lumber.


----------



## Jackbnimble

I have one Oak timber that is about 25 feet long, 16 inches thick, 14 inches wide. My only problem, I have no idea how to move it. I have two others. Each is about 15 feet long, 17 inches deep and 12 inches wide, but I have the same problem. Can't move them. I want to use them to make a timber frame garage/shed with mortise and tenon joinery. (I rarely can hit a nail squarely, let alone make joinery, but I'm up for a challenge.) So, my next project is to build some kind of contraption to lift and haul these babies up a rocky, steep wooded incline.

How did the ancients build stuff that required this kind of equipment to move/transport large stuff? I'm thinking of some kind of steel cables and a come-along device attached to a big old tree. Or a Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave or an Mil V 12 Mi 12. 

If you have any thoughts not quite as ridiculous as mine, please share them. Thanks


----------



## carhartt

Jack you need to find a friend with a loader tractor and some chain and or cable. Quad can be useful but not sure about a log that size up hill.
Twoclones how does black walnut hold up to weather as a carving? I know its a quick rotter. What do you treat the carving with like a seed oil or something?


----------



## Jackbnimble

A tractor, on my property? I have no friends willing to sacrifice a perfectly useful piece of machinery on this rock pile with scattered trees. But, thanks for the suggestion.

Just been reading about attaching a winch to a chainsaw to move big timbers. I immediately see this video in my mind. Big old foot ensnared in one of these things and doing a split until my voice is 6 octaves higher. Machines generally have it out for me. I've done my fair share to them, but come on. Everybody deserves a fresh start.


----------



## blades

Well you want to make timbers out of them so with out moving them I suggest an Alskan saw mill rig . your chain saw and one of these ( there more than one mfg) allows you to mill it in place. With a couple jacks and such one can get it done.


----------



## twoclones

Winch is good. I carry an assortment of short pipes to use as rollers for winching logs onto my tilt bed trailer. A snatch block can be really handy as well. These were a one man operation to load and unload thanks to my 8,500 pound winch, a snatch block and some steel pipes.


----------



## Jackbnimble

Holy Mackerel. A man after my own heart. Love it.
I have hand-milled the beasts referred to, so they vaguely resemble real timbers, because I want to use them as structural posts and beams in the shed/garage I hope to construct on my property.
Does Stihl or any other chainsaw manufacturer give its blessing to use their equipment with a winch? Would hate to harm my MS660. It's about all I have left from years of trying to jury-rig various and sundry objects into something they weren't designed for.
I don't even want to know how your like your 880. I'd be obsessing about getting one if you were at all fond of the monster. (Even if you weren't!)


----------



## Jackbnimble

Well, I did it. Screwed two large bolts into ends of this one monster timber and attached a rope to them and pulled until I blew a gasket. But, must have moved the old beast 20 feet. 1 human power. Not much, granted, but didn't cost a lot (not including lifelong chiropractor visits). I may have found a solution to moving big timbers and committing long, agonizing suicide in the process.


----------



## noodlewalker

Jackbnimble said:


> Well, I did it. Screwed two large bolts into ends of this one monster timber and attached a rope to them and pulled until I blew a gasket. But, must have moved the old beast 20 feet. 1 human power. Not much, granted, but didn't cost a lot (not including lifelong chiropractor visits). I may have found a solution to moving big timbers and committing long, agonizing suicide in the process.


I am not understanding the reasoning for moving the entire log.... why not mill it in place? you are going to mill it at some point anyway? why do it there and not here? it sounds like a lot of unnecessary work for the same end result. mill it into smaller bits then move it is my vote. good luck, it sounds like a great project!! post pics of the progress!!


----------



## Jackbnimble

noodlewalker said:


> I am not understanding the reasoning for moving the entire log.... why not mill it in place? you are going to mill it at some point anyway? why do it there and not here? it sounds like a lot of unnecessary work for the same end result. mill it into smaller bits then move it is my vote. good luck, it sounds like a great project!! post pics of the progress!!




Well, first of all, you must understand something. In the course of my long and illustrious life, I have never, ever, not once, done anything which resembled normalcy.

Number 2, Edison is one of my heroes and I fully agree that genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. It's the perspiration part I've got down pat.

Thirdly, Edison never failed, remember? He just found 2 billion 189 million ways that didn't work. I'm at 2 billion 185 million at last count, so something's bound to give, I can feel it--in my back.

Fourthly, I want to keep several gigantic timbers that can serve as structural posts and beams for the garage/shed/dog-house I hope to build. So, I'm hoping to preserve a few of these monsters for that purpose.

Fifthly, and this has nothing to do with the first fourthlys, I love big, freshly cut wood slabs from trees. It is stunning how beautiful and strong and tough and wonderfully smelling these pieces of never before cut wood really are. Something is very special, very unique, and impossible to put into words how healthy, very hard and robust, slightly damp, red and cream tinted grain from virgin oak looks and feels and how the aroma is intoxicating.

I warned you I was nuts


----------



## noodlewalker

lmao.. you crack me up jack!! good luck to ya. I want to see pics though.


----------



## rarefish383

Where there is a will, there is a way. Mostly I like to use snatch blocks. But, this Dawn Redwood had a nice tree, with a limb sticking out, next to it. I use a 3/4 inch, 17,000 pound bull line, through it over the limb, tie it to the log, back my trailer up against the tree. Unhook the truck, hook to the other end of bull line, pick the log up, let it swing over the trailer, and let it down. Untie the rope, re rig to pull it the rest of the way on the trailer.









Or, just pull it up the ramp, Joe.


----------



## noodlewalker

I love this method!!! well done..


----------



## rarefish383

This worked even better, but I tried to pull and 8' log 40" across at a real steep angle and it snapped off one of my 4X4 post. One day I'm going to make a steel box tubing gantry that will break down, it really is much faster, and since it's picking up, the log slides better. When the log gets to the trailer I just open the snatch block, flip the rope out and pull the rest of the way up. I tried this with a cheap 3000 pound winch and it worked, but real slow. It was faster to unhook the truck, and use the truck to pull it up. Sorry, I had video of the winch pulling a log up and deleted it. The 5 logs on the bottom are 8' Hickory, the short ones on top are just blocks of Oak firewood. Joe.


----------



## buzz sawyer

rarefish383 said:


> Where there is a will, there is a way. Mostly I like to use snatch blocks. But, this Dawn Redwood had a nice tree, with a limb sticking out, next to it. I use a 3/4 inch, 17,000 pound bull line, through it over the limb, tie it to the log, back my trailer up against the tree. Unhook the truck, hook to the other end of bull line, pick the log up, let it swing over the trailer, and let it down. Untie the rope, re rig to pull it the rest of the way on the trailer.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Or, just pull it up the ramp, Joe.


I do it the same way but put blocks in front of the trailer wheels to keep it from going forward. How do you keep the trailer from moving? Almost forgot, I also run the rope through the bottom of the front of the trailer so I'm not pulling at such a great angle - more direct pull on the log. Maybe that's the difference?


----------



## rarefish383

Yep, that's it, I'm pulling down enough that it doesn't move. Sometimes I do stick a chock in front of the tires. Sometimes if it's heavy enough the trailer will move about a foot, before the log starts to move, and the jack digs in enough to stop it. I have learned how much I can pull with out doing that, I don't want to bend my jack. I let a friend borrow the trailer and he forgot to slide the foot up and pin it, so it only cleared the ground by a couple inches when wound all the way up. Then he ran over a speed bump, BANG, took a big chunk out of the speed bump and bent the jack bracket a little. It's pretty tough, but now that it has the bend started, I'm a little more careful beating on it, Joe.

Buzz, I may have asked you this before, but I'm getting old and forget what I did 5 minutes ago. How far are you from Hardy County? I have a little farm in Mathias that we hunt on, Joe.


----------



## johnnyballs

stillhunter said:


> I have rights to a stack of mostly White/Post Oak logs 12/14' x 24-50+", about 30 and recently cut. No rot/hollows at all, is this wood worth selling to a sawmill, or should I just split/burn and sell as firewood?


a little late joining this thread, but several people i know who smoke meats only use white oak and pay top $$$ for it...but it can't be seasoned...


----------



## buzz sawyer

rarefish383 said:


> Yep, that's it, I'm pulling down enough that it doesn't move. Sometimes I do stick a chock in front of the tires. Sometimes if it's heavy enough the trailer will move about a foot, before the log starts to move, and the jack digs in enough to stop it. I have learned how much I can pull with out doing that, I don't want to bend my jack. I let a friend borrow the trailer and he forgot to slide the foot up and pin it, so it only cleared the ground by a couple inches when wound all the way up. Then he ran over a speed bump, BANG, took a big chunk out of the speed bump and bent the jack bracket a little. It's pretty tough, but now that it has the bend started, I'm a little more careful beating on it, Joe.
> 
> Buzz, I may have asked you this before, but I'm getting old and forget what I did 5 minutes ago. How far are you from Hardy County? I have a little farm in Mathias that we hunt on, Joe.


Wow, don't know how I missed this question. I'm not too close to Hardy County - see attached map with red x's/. I'm in Ohio county.


----------



## rarefish383

buzz sawyer said:


> Wow, don't know how I missed this question. I'm not too close to Hardy County - see attached map with red x's/. I'm in Ohio county.



Yep, a little more than a hop, skip, and a jump, Joe.


----------



## In4apenny

If you can get your truck and trailer to the logs but have no way to winch or lift them try this. Pull the trailer parallel to the logs but about 5-6 feet away. Get two I beams and lay them from the trailer side to the log base. Now hook a cable to the trailer at two spots about as far apart as the log is long and run it under and over the log. Hook another cable to the firs one and to your truck, ATV or whatever and roll the log up the beams and onto the trailer. I've stacked them 3 layers deep that way when I had to on a 10 ton equipment trailer. Some loads were decent 25-35" diameter 14' 6" long red and white oak logs. Keep the angle as low as you can and they will roll up pretty easy. Do be careful if the log has a heavy taper though, the large side will move further per revolution and cause the log to go sideways if you don't watch and adjust it.


----------



## rarefish383

Yep, that's called parbuckling, works well with a trailer that has no, or low, sides. Some of the winches on saw mills work like that, Joe.


----------



## In4apenny

rarefish383 said:


> Yep, that's called parbuckling, works well with a trailer that has no, or low, sides. Some of the winches on saw mills work like that, Joe.



That's the way my 1200 loads logs onto the log bed. Gotta say I do like the hydraulic arms on my lt40 better though, much faster and doesn't have the tendency to shift while loading like the 1200.


----------



## Jackbnimble

rarefish383 said:


> Where there is a will, there is a way. Mostly I like to use snatch blocks. But, this Dawn Redwood had a nice tree, with a limb sticking out, next to it. I use a 3/4 inch, 17,000 pound bull line, through it over the limb, tie it to the log, back my trailer up against the tree. Unhook the truck, hook to the other end of bull line, pick the log up, let it swing over the trailer, and let it down. Untie the rope, re rig to pull it the rest of the way on the trailer.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Or, just pull it up the ramp, Joe.


----------



## Jackbnimble

rarefish383 said:


> Where there is a will, there is a way. Mostly I like to use snatch blocks. But, this Dawn Redwood had a nice tree, with a limb sticking out, next to it. I use a 3/4 inch, 17,000 pound bull line, through it over the limb, tie it to the log, back my trailer up against the tree. Unhook the truck, hook to the other end of bull line, pick the log up, let it swing over the trailer, and let it down. Untie the rope, re rig to pull it the rest of the way on the trailer.
> 
> 
> Wow. Great job!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Or, just pull it up the ramp, Joe.


----------



## SeMoTony

Enrico Carini said:


> whiskey barrels


Stave = white oak clear first cut off stump only. And that clear is very specific to not even 3/16" or less branch since that goes all the way to center (pith) and will leak around. gotta be what it's gotta be


----------

