# How to get into logging



## ky044 (Mar 26, 2014)

I live in Eastern ky I have always wanted to be around logging I used to weld and work at a surface mine and worked In the underground mines as far as logging I've never done that is there anyway I could get a job with a logging company or would I be wasting my time


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## northmanlogging (Mar 27, 2014)

call a few up, ask for a job. You'll need to have experience with saws or equipment, preferably both.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

Be wasting my time then haven't fooled with saws much as far as equipment I've helped work on it but I have really run any of it


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## slowp (Mar 27, 2014)

Well, you could introduce yourself, and maybe offer to learn for free, or at a reduced wage. How old are you? What logging job do you want to do? Operate a processor?
Run a skidder? What kind of physical condition are you in? 

But first, and I'll try to remember what Gologit wrote, douse yourself with a bucket of cold water, roll around in the mud, slam your hand in a car door a few times, and then ask yourself if you want to be a logger. 

It isn't like axmen, and it gets boring for some people, out here, the wages used to be really good--in the 1980s, but they haven't changed much since the 1980s. Mechanization is taking over on the flatter ground, and the National Forest is pretty much off limits now.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

I'm 25 and on pretty good condition I don't really know what is like to run if just like to give it a shot


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## tbow388 (Mar 27, 2014)

From what I have heard on here it is hard to get started in logging. If you have good work ethics and a old employer that would be willing to vouch that you work your tail off maybe someone would be willing to take you on.

If you are in KY i am sure you have pine logging companies around there. That would be where I would start.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

I'll look Into it I hope I can find a job doing that I'll ask around and look if I can't find one pretty quick I'll try to get another Welding job or truck driving job I got a few small logging companies not far from my house I'll try to get up with the owners or bosses and see if they need anybody thanks for all the advice


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## tbow388 (Mar 27, 2014)

Get ready to work!!! Just cutting firewood is one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

Yep it is work that's for sure..what do you think I would start out doing if I was to get a job around here logging


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

As far as the pine logging I've not really seen no logging companies around here fool with i know a local logging outfit logged at my neighbors about 1 year ago and he ask about my parents property if we wanted it logged I said I doubt it but I'll let you all cut the pines if you want them we have about 125 behind t our houses he said he would give us 25 cents a board foot for them I don't know if that's good I not most of them is around 80' tall oh yeah forgot to mention there white pines


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## stihl sawing (Mar 27, 2014)

Pine logging around here is done with harvesters, no saws. they don't even carry a saw on the truck. You would have to work heavy machinery. Unless you are Hispanic and can plant seedlings. That would be a no experience job and a backbreaking one at that.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

Well I'm not Hispanic and cant run anything much so ill scratch this idea


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

Bout have to be family or kin around here to get a logging job


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## slowp (Mar 27, 2014)

stihl sawing said:


> Pine logging around here is done with harvesters, no saws. they don't even carry a saw on the truck. You would have to work heavy machinery. Unless you are Hispanic and can plant seedlings. That would be a no experience job and a backbreaking one at that.


 
That's how a few of us got our foot in the door. Forestry jobs, that is. My first job was on a tree planting crew. It is easiest on steep ground. You don't have to bend over so far on steep ground. Back breaking? Sore muscles for a bit, but the OP is young, as I was, but he now sounds like he is not into hard work. If tree planting is too hard of a job for you, might as well forget about the whole thing. Unless you are on a piece of equipment, logging is a physically demanding job, about on par with tree planting.

I still volunteer with my trusty hoedad and do some tree planting. But I can leave when I'm tired, and I don't have to make a quota.


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## slowp (Mar 27, 2014)

ky044 said:


> Bout have to be family or kin around here to get a logging job


 
Go to school and study forestry if you want to work in the woods. If you are not good at math, get a tutor and take some basic math and algebra classes, first. Forestry schools will often help you get a job, and some, like Oregon State, have logging classes. OSU has or had their own yarder.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

Don't care to work and I'm not getting upset for the information you all have given me I worked in the coal mines for several years on it's not logging but walking around in the dark in a coal mine four foot high ain't easy neither but I will ask so e of the logging company's around here all they can say is yes or no agian I don't mean to be rude in anyway thanks for the information


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## slowp (Mar 27, 2014)

So you don't want to work, but want to log? How is that possible? By the way, the machinery breaks down, and you do have to get out of it and wrassle parts off and on.


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## stihl sawing (Mar 27, 2014)

slowp said:


> So you don't want to work, but want to log? How is that possible? By the way, the machinery breaks down, and you do have to get out of it and wrassle parts off and on.


Think he worded it wrong.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

No I enjoy working I like being outside I've helped work on equipment some when I worked at a surface mine nothing major just simple thing like greasing chainging parts and stuff I think I could do the work if I could just get my foot the door as far as afraid I getting muddy and nasty being tired for. Working I know about that and that just means you put In a good days work and if I was to sorry to work I would have never made it in the coal mines we worked 60+ hours a week and 10 hour shifts it was always something different everyday I really enjoyed I I'd still be doing it but I got laid off because the coal business isn't doing so well anymore it's hard tryin to start over especially when that's all you have ever done since you have got out of school. But all you can do is try to look for other jobs that spark your intrest and not give up


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

And sorry for all the misspelling all I have is a iphone again thanks for the information slowp and stihl sawing and to others that have chimed in ill quit bothering you all and if I sounded rude in anyway I apologize I didn't mean it


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## treeslayer2003 (Mar 27, 2014)

ky044, 25cents a foot is 250 a thousand, yes that was good money. ya would have got over a thousand dollars a semi load. the best I can get for yellow pine is 300 and that's for big sticks, I certainly couldn't pay 250 for it. I can't get rid of white pine here at all.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

I'm pretty sure that's what he said I could be wrong that's been a few years ago thanks for the info


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## treeslayer2003 (Mar 27, 2014)

you could try for a topper.......hard work tho.....I wish I had a 25 year old to top my trees lol.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

I could ask I got a pretty big logging company down below me without a doubt there the biggest in this county I think there's about 4 brothers that run it it was started by the dad and uncle I'd even use my own saw if they'd give me a job that 044 ain't doing no good sitting here I don't know what they pay I'm gonna say maybe 12 to 13 dollars tops and I would not complain about the pay that's pretty good for here I'd say like I said earlier I enjoyed the coal mining jobs I had excellent pay and benifits but that's a thing of the past


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## 1270d (Mar 27, 2014)

if someone is green they get to limb and top for a year or so. that way you get to see the whole operation work for a while, learn the lingo etc. limbing/topping is hard on saws though, if I was you I wouldnt volunteer to use my own.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

Well I won't do that the. I'll just use there if I can even get a job all I can do is ask and be honest about my work history and stuff with them


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## northmanlogging (Mar 27, 2014)

Give her Hel ky, doesn't hurt to ask, and if you have any time on a saw its better then nothing.

But like SlowP said logging isn't easy or for the faint of heart. But it sure is a boat load of fun...

Personally I'm not sure I could handle coal mining, have to have room to move. Cold, dark, dangerous I can deal with, not having much choice in direction of travel, or head room not so much. That and the war Dept. has specifically forbade any mining... or comercial fishing, logging she's ok with


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## treeslayer2003 (Mar 27, 2014)

no com fishing? more waterman here than loggers lol. I have done a little, it is hard work to.....worse than logging imo.


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## northmanlogging (Mar 27, 2014)

Tis dangerous... or some such, Not much scares me. Fishing would be fun, but water freaks her out pretty bad, and the comercial fishing we got around here generally involves big water, and bigger storms, lots of bad accidents.

Stream fishing she's down with, or ponds and lakes, its that ocean thing she don't like.

Not real sure what her beef is with the mining thing though.

I actually rather like exploring caves, and old mines, just pretty sure I couldn't handle being stuck in one for 10 hours sling'n a shovel... there would be lots of broken stuff from me feaking the F out the second I got stuck in a spot I couldn't turn around in.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

You would be allright ... You would enjoy a good roof fall it really gets the blood a pumping it's really not that bad you just gotta keep your mind on things kinda like logging always keep your mind on what your doing and never get to comfortable with your work when you get like that your a danger to yourself and you wouldn't use a shovel that much in the mines only people that do that are by beltmen that's usually what you start out as in the mines the. You move on the equipment such as scoop , roof bolter , continuous miner


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## northmanlogging (Mar 27, 2014)

Yeah, I just have to be able to move around a bit, get funny if I can't move my arms and stand up straight.


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

You can move but sometime you can't stand up straight some of the mines around here are only about 30" high you would probally like it though your always learning somthing and ever cut that the miner cuts is a new place to explore I got some nice (kettlebottoms) petrified trees from out of the mines not the whole tree but a small section


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## ky044 (Mar 27, 2014)

this is a kettlebottom I'll quit trashing the tread up with coal mining stuff


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## 1270d (Mar 28, 2014)

ky044 said:


> this is a kettlebottom I'll quit trashing the tread up with coal mining stuff



Nah, keep on, its your thread. I think its interesting. That sure wouldn't be my cup of tea being folded into a 30 inch space, me being 77 inches tall. Claustrophobia runs in my blood. 

One of the log truckS blew a carrier bearing and was on side of the highway. In order to help you had to crawl under one tag axle and two drives. I made it under the tag OK but the diffs pressed on my chest when I tries to go under. NO Way, couldn't do it.


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## ky044 (Mar 28, 2014)

I never was in 30!inch stuff much just a few times when I worked for a contractor that done underground welding and repairing then I went to work for a coal company full time and it was always four foot of higher there. It stays about 65 degrees or so in the mines year round any ways back I've got to continue my search for a logging job


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## littlejohn (Mar 31, 2014)

Ky044 they aint seen fun till there on a pillar section thats been pillard about 10 or 15.breaks before it comes in all at once lol def an adrenaline rush


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## ky044 (Mar 31, 2014)

Boom boom boom and then the curtains fly up it the pillar line


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## littlejohn (Mar 31, 2014)

If you really want a logging job even though you dont have much experience, a good attitude and persistance will pay off, just keep trying and eventually your name will get around, wish you the best of.luck. Coal aint doin worth a crap anymore, its bad here in.wv as well


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## littlejohn (Mar 31, 2014)

ky044 said:


> Boom boom boom and then the curtains fly up it the pillar line



I like the ones when your ears pop and you.dont hear anything and you see all the curtains flappin agains the top lol


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## ky044 (Mar 31, 2014)

Yeah i hate it to man wish I was still running a scoop every day but prolly won't ever get to again oh well life goes on I just hate seeming people that's done one thing for so long have to start over


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## littlejohn (Mar 31, 2014)

I respect you for enjoying a scoop, I run a pinner, roof ranger on.thr 5' stuff then at patriot I run a walk through, the top there was about.12 to 15' that sucked lol for a little guy.anyways lol


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## ky044 (Mar 31, 2014)

Yes it would I hate using wrenches and having to stand on the drill pot


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## buckeyebasser23 (Mar 31, 2014)

you should be able to find a job in logging. get on that iphone look some locals up and show yourself before they start their day(assuming they don't meet at job site) this will show em youre serious about it plus it tends to have a turnover rate so chances are theres an opening (or about to be ) at one of the companies. I know Ive gotten calls for workers and now and then we hire but I remember one that showed up , and kept showing up at our shop finally we just told him come with us that day and he was a good hand for the time he was here until he went into the military.


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## littlejohn (Apr 2, 2014)

buckeyebasser23 said:


> you should be able to find a job in logging. get on that iphone look some locals up and show yourself before they start their day(assuming they don't meet at job site) this will show em youre serious about it plus it tends to have a turnover rate so chances are theres an opening (or about to be ) at one of the companies. I know Ive gotten calls for workers and now and then we hire but I remember one that showed up , and kept showing up at our shop finally we just told him come with us that day and he was a good hand for the time he was here until he went into the military.



Persistance and a will to work even without experience means alot to some companies like I said above. Just keep it up and itll turn out.


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## ky044 (Apr 2, 2014)

I sure hope so I'm going tommarow to get up with one of the logging companies


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## littlejohn (Apr 2, 2014)

Good luck man


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## ky044 (Apr 2, 2014)

Thanks brother I need it


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## huskyhank (Apr 3, 2014)

"Don't care to work..." means the same as "don't mind to work..."
Its a usage that is common in some parts of the South, usually by older folks.


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## ky044 (Apr 3, 2014)

Application today go talk to one of the owners tommarow


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## 1270d (Apr 3, 2014)

Good luck


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## littlejohn (Apr 3, 2014)

Goodluck buddy


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## ky044 (Apr 5, 2014)

Said they would keep me in mind but didn't need anybody at the moment oh well move on to the next one


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## Gologit (Apr 5, 2014)

ky044 said:


> Said they would keep me in mind but didn't need anybody at the moment oh well move on to the next one



Keep trying. It's hard to get on with no experience but if you keep after it something will go your way.


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## Marshy (Apr 5, 2014)

Maybe look on CraigsList for companies that are looking for land to log then contact them and ask if they could use a hand. You might find some of the smaller outfits looking for log jobs on CL and might stand a better chance hooking up with them... Good luck.


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## ky044 (Apr 5, 2014)

I'll check it out


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