# Shake rat



## Humptulips (May 17, 2012)

I remember a story of an old logger that had rose through the ranks from chokerman to hooktender to camp foreman. His old age was the reverse culminating back where he started setting chokers.
It looks like my career could be on a similar path.
One of the first jobs I had when I was still in school was getting out shake blocks. I have been cutting shingle blocks of late. Shake rat then and shake rat now.
Here's a few pictures.

A cedar slab I rolled out. Hard to say how long it had been buried in the ground. There was a 4 foot spruce stump growing over it on the other end. Didn't get a picture of that.











My yarder!





Old growth shingle blocks. Worth about $800/cord.





Some second growth cedar shingle blocks on the right. Worth about $300/cord.





Hard on chains. Lots of filing. Close to home though. You can see the roof of the house in the first pictures. Next show is about a half mile down the road. God, I hate the long commutes.

The aftermath.


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## wowzers (May 17, 2012)

I spent quite a bit of time last fall and winter on pole jobs, and after bucking them there is a ton of long butts that seem salvageable for shakes. I have been toying with the idea of trying to get a salvage permit to make shake blocks.


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## HorseFaller (May 17, 2012)

Gots to love old growth findings. 


---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?s31hzb


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## paccity (May 17, 2012)

very good humps, at least your making some coin. Ben millin on doing that for a few years now.


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## Humptulips (May 17, 2012)

wowzers said:


> I spent quite a bit of time last fall and winter on pole jobs, and after bucking them there is a ton of long butts that seem salvageable for shakes. I have been toying with the idea of trying to get a salvage permit to make shake blocks.



Find a mill first and talk to them about what they want. If it's really shake block quality I think it's worth a lot not sure how much but more then shingle blocks.
Most mills around here are cutting shingles though. Not much shake wood left.


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## Gologit (May 17, 2012)

*Humptulips*

Glad to see you're healing up.


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## OlympicYJ (May 17, 2012)

Humptulips said:


> Find a mill first and talk to them about what they want. If it's really shake block quality I think it's worth a lot not sure how much but more then shingle blocks.
> Most mills around here are cutting shingles though. Not much shake wood left.



No there isn't! The promised land has been picked over so many times now! Goin back with shovels diggin buried cedars outta the units. Which I'm sure you knew all of this lol And Shingle wood is another 200 bucks a cord but not 100% sure on that. Even though most mills are doin shingles instead of shakes I would imagine it would be worth at least that much more. Certainly not less, shake roofs are gettin rare.

Btw is that a stihl lightweight you have mounted up?


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## Humptulips (May 18, 2012)

OlympicYJ said:


> No there isn't! The promised land has been picked over so many times now! Goin back with shovels diggin buried cedars outta the units. Which I'm sure you knew all of this lol And Shingle wood is another 200 bucks a cord but not 100% sure on that. Even though most mills are doin shingles instead of shakes I would imagine it would be worth at least that much more. Certainly not less, shake roofs are gettin rare.
> 
> Btw is that a stihl lightweight you have mounted up?



Sometimes I wonder how they can keep finding cedar but the trucks just keep going by. It'll come to an end oneof these days.
Friend of mine was fixing some road to a block show down on the Cape Elizabeth Rd. The guy told him it had been shook 7 times before. They figured on getting 150 cord.
One thing for sure there's nothing left where I been working. 

That bar came off a Stihl I had to junk. The bar was new so I saved it. Not much use on it but pretty old. I couldn't stand to see it go to waste. Changed the tip from 404 and recut the bar slot to make it fit the Husky. Kind of a mixed message Husky saw with a Stihl bar.


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## imagineero (May 18, 2012)

Nice looking chainsaw winch! I've been looking for one of those for ages. They almost never seem to go up for sale here in aus. I saw only one for sale last year, and it was very light duty. It was driven by some no name 35cc saw, went for hundreds :-( 

A capstan winch would be even better. Finding or building one that's portable is a whole other story.

Shaun


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## tramp bushler (May 18, 2012)

Hey Hump; I know where theres a thousand or four cord of OG red cedar . Some of it 8' thru . And you've been there . Heceta Is. When I was a riggin man there if a cedar had any twist or defect we left it . Logged right over it .


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## slowp (May 18, 2012)

Beautiful wood!

Your theory of "going back" seems to be sound. I was planting trees earlier this year. That was my first job in the woods.


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## Joe46 (May 18, 2012)

A few years back I took a trip to Lake Ozette. Had a lot of old cedar rat friends that lived on the Hoko Rd. The Hispanics had gone back through the area and taken down all the OG cedar stumps for shakes and shingles. There went a lot of spring board photos also. There was always money to made in shake bolts if you were willing to work for for it. I can't imagine that stump wood was anything like what Humptulips is cutting.


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## Humptulips (May 18, 2012)

Joe46 said:


> A few years back I took a trip to Lake Ozette. Had a lot of old cedar rat friends that lived on the Hoko Rd. The Hispanics had gone back through the area and taken down all the OG cedar stumps for shakes and shingles. There went a lot of spring board photos also. There was always money to made in shake bolts if you were willing to work for for it. I can't imagine that stump wood was anything like what Humptulips is cutting.



I think a good percentage of the shingle blocks come from stump wood anymore. That stuff I cut was eady and twisty otherwise I imagine it would have been gone years ago. The good stuff was cut on the land prior to 1960.
Hispanics have surely taken over the shake and shingle business both block cutting and mil work.


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## Humptulips (May 18, 2012)

tramp bushler said:


> Hey Hump; I know where theres a thousand or four cord of OG red cedar . Some of it 8' thru . And you've been there . Heceta Is. When I was a riggin man there if a cedar had any twist or defect we left it . Logged right over it .



When I was there I didn't think the cedar looked any good. Real twisty not shake quality. Now a days they'd love it for shingles though. When I was at Soda Bay there was some beautiful cedar left. Anything that split got left and almost every butt log split.
I've heard that there are guys cutting cedar in SE and putting it in containers and shipping it south by barge for some of the mills.
FS could make some money if they wished. They won't sell salvage cedar here so I imagine they wouldn't up there either.
Some places they are getting more for the cedar salvage then what they received for the standing timber.


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## Humptulips (May 18, 2012)

imagineero said:


> Nice looking chainsaw winch! I've been looking for one of those for ages. They almost never seem to go up for sale here in aus. I saw only one for sale last year, and it was very light duty. It was driven by some no name 35cc saw, went for hundreds :-(
> 
> A capstan winch would be even better. Finding or building one that's portable is a whole other story.
> 
> Shaun



The winch is painfully slow and not super powerful either. At least I can pack it.
To roll that slab out of the ground I had two blocks purchase against a parbuckle.


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## tramp bushler (May 18, 2012)

For a number of years the red cedar from PoW got barged to the Tubafor mill in washington . . . I have heard of guys augmenting their meth lab production by shake rating in some places where the road system is closed off . There are shingle mills in Thorne Bay .


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## ShaneLogs (May 18, 2012)

Looks like some fun! I would love to do that too  The only good thin about that Husky is the bar on it . Good job though, Rep sent.


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## OlympicYJ (May 18, 2012)

Ah gotcha Hump. Someday it will come to an end for sure! Kinda sad to see it go.



Joe46 said:


> A few years back I took a trip to Lake Ozette. Had a lot of old cedar rat friends that lived on the Hoko Rd. The Hispanics had gone back through the area and taken down all the OG cedar stumps for shakes and shingles. There went a lot of spring board photos also. There was always money to made in shake bolts if you were willing to work for for it. I can't imagine that stump wood was anything like what Humptulips is cutting.



They are cuttin the stumps up if they aren't too eady. Lot of that down in Pacific County.


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## slowp (May 18, 2012)

tramp bushler said:


> For a number of years the red cedar from PoW got barged to the Tubafor mill in washington . . . I have heard of guys augmenting their meth lab production by shake rating in some places where the road system is closed off . There are shingle mills in Thorne Bay .



The Tubafor mill goes by another name now, which I can't think of because everybody calls it the Tubafor mill. It is still running.


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## ShaneLogs (May 18, 2012)

That old chase mill looks awesome! How old do you think that thing is ?


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## Humptulips (May 18, 2012)

Haywire said:


> My Father had an old Chase mill. I edged many a bundle growing up.



Still some of the upright shingle machines working but mostly they are cutting them on band saws. I guess it saves wood.
Always looked scary watching shingle sawyers reaching for the rough shingles coming off the head saw while working the clipper saw and grading shingles. Pretty much a blind reach and the shingles would be laying up against the saw blade.


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## tramp bushler (May 18, 2012)

A riggin slinger friend I worked with in Kake was missing a finger from working in a cedar mill . .
I lost the front end of one finger to just a regular table saw , wouldn't want to be around more than 1 blade wirling near my fingers at 1 time .


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## ShaneLogs (May 18, 2012)

Haywire said:


> Late 1800s.



Vintage :msp_thumbup:


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## Haywire (Oct 19, 2015)

Some interesting reading & pics on shake block cutting here:

http://www.chicalo.com/shake_lasqueti/shake_block_cutting/shake_block_cutting.htm


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## tramp bushler (Oct 19, 2015)




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## SliverPicker (Oct 25, 2015)

I found a 6' diameter redwood on the beach one time. It came down the Mad River in a rain storm. The puppy was 60' long. I wrecked several bars and drive wheels and chains trying to saw bolts out of that thing. Beach sand has a lot of quartz in it! I finally gave up and let the tide have it.


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