# Large Oak



## Backwoods (May 25, 2008)

The wind blew. A limb fell. I got a call.
This first tree is 60" at chest high, and has a 50' straight section which tapers down to about 36". Age estimate of 350 yrs. Over the last 10 years, it has started a steady lean towards the 150-year-old farm house. I called in back up for this one. An old faller friend has one of those rail saws that you see here. He will bust them into quarters. To close to the house to pop it apart with powder.







This much smaller trees roots tipped up and it leaned into the next tree. Both are coming down in the morning when the tree service arrives. I will be there with the mill.


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## dustytools (May 25, 2008)

SWEET!! Dont forget the camera.


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## Trigger-Time (May 25, 2008)

What kind of Oak is that?


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## Backwoods (May 26, 2008)

California black oak (Quercus Kelloggii) It is in the red Oak group of species.
Out here we just call it black oak.

I broke my camera this last week, But my youngest boy loaned me his "as long as I take real good care of it"


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## aggiewoodbutchr (May 26, 2008)

opcorn:opcorn:opcorn:


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## Backwoods (May 26, 2008)

The tree is down. The firewood bucked and moved. The logs have been bucked to length, Limbs and knots trimmed, the over sized logs have been quartered, the ends sealed, and the logs decked. The boys camera glitched and I lost all of the pictures of the tree coming down and the rest are not very good.

End of log sealed




Half log




84 with a 42" bar
Left the 90 at home




15' log split in half.




When the tree started coming down the owner got sentimental and decided to leave a 30’ stump in hopes that the tree will bush out. So the largest log we got was 15’ long, 42” on the small end 48” on the large end. We found one insulator, and 2 rotten limbs that went about 4’ and 6’ deep. We also got two 8’ logs that needed quartered. And seven others that are between 8’ and 12’. I will get away with only setting the mill up in three locations to get all of the logs milled.

I will keep you up to date.
In the mean time opcorn:


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## woodshop (May 26, 2008)

Looks like you will have some premium lumber from that one, and a LOT of it. Large enough that it will be easy to get some quartersawn without a whole lot of work. Nice haul. We have black oak out this way but it isn't nearly as plentiful as other red oak family species like northern red oak, pin oak and scarlet oak, which make up most of the red oaks out here.


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## Backwoods (May 27, 2008)

This is one of those jobs where an edger and a mini excavator would come in handy. All we have on site fore this Oak is a 20 hp Kubota tractor. It is good for moving the small stuff, but can’t even budge the larger logs.


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## woodshop (May 27, 2008)

Backwoods said:


> ... All we have on site fore this Oak is a 20 hp Kubota tractor. It is good for moving the small stuff, but can’t even budge the larger logs.



...like sending a boy to do a man's job...


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## big daddio (May 27, 2008)

what a tree..........glad to see it going to good use. know it's a lot of effort but looks like you'll be well rewarded. let us know how much footage you get.


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## Backwoods (May 27, 2008)

Now we are making progress. I am getting a lot of high quality true quarter-sawn 5/4 lumber. 14’ long 12”-16” wide that are clear or with only one knot that can be cut out. I am not seeing much figure, but the percentage of quarter-sawn lumber is high.
I will be working on more logs tomorrow. 


Lumber from first 2 logs 




Half of a 14' log 40"-45" tall 




Other side of same log. The saw line is 1" below max hight of the head.




Stack of 14" wide true quartersawn 5/4




Sprlitting the other half of the same log


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## Backwoods (May 27, 2008)

This is the lumber from one log. The camera cut off the forth stack.
The stack on the right is 14" and 16" wide with a few 10" wide on top. The next stack is 10/4 flat sawn that is 8"-10" wide, it is the only wood out of the log that would not make quarter-sawn.


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## aggiewoodbutchr (May 28, 2008)




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## Backwoods (May 28, 2008)

Looks like my grandson when he watches the mill run.


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## woodshop (May 28, 2008)

Backwoods you look like you're havin' fun with that huge thing... thanks for posting pics. I too am drooling over the clear lumber from it.


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## Adkpk (May 28, 2008)

Impressive thread, Backwoods. Nice slicing.


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## Backwoods (May 28, 2008)

Today we did not cut a whole lot of quarter-sawn lumber. 
It was mostly slabs and figured wood that was milled as we 
are getting up into the top of the tree. It rained most of the 
day making for slow progress. I have this one big log left for 
tomorrow. It looks like some of it will be partly figured as well. 
Today there was lots of "OH THAT IS A NICE PIECE" 
and "WOW LOOK AT THAT".
Not a bad day at all.


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## Backwoods (May 30, 2008)

I finished the last log today. It had a nice section of figured wood. However, the wood was decayed to the point that all 11 of what would have been premium 12” boards went straight to the firewood pile, the rest of the log was clear as a bell, nice wood. 

All the milling is done, the three mill sites have been cleaned up, the mill is back home, the homeowner has all the firewood cut and stacked, the brush piled, all that is left is hauling off all that wood so the lawn can be mowed again. A rough estimate is 2,800 bft. I will have a better idea as to how much is there after it is in the barn and stickered. 
I looked at the sticker stack today and I will defiantly have to cut at least two D-fir logs up real soon. 

Total investment is less then $0.40 bft including fuel, blades, time milling and estimating hauling and stacking time.

Time for some of grandpa’s apple pie.


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## aquan8tor (May 30, 2008)

Nice wood there, Backwoods! Love the figure in that last pic. Is that 0.40 including paying yourself for the work? Just curious. Wanna come cut me some stickers? I need a few myself. Nice work. Looking forward to more milling pics.


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## Backwoods (May 30, 2008)

aquan8tor 
Nice wood there, Backwoods! Love the figure in that last pic. Is that 0.40 including paying yourself for the work? Just curious. Wanna come cut me some stickers? I need a few myself. Nice work. Looking forward to more milling pics. 

Yes I figure all hardwood by the hours that I have involved at my normal rate, mileage, gas, ect. all cost involved in the log. Log price to if I were to by the log. Then set a profit margin and pass the savings on to the customer who buy's the wood. Therefore my lumber prices can fluctuate and I still have the same profit margin.






I got all the wood loaded on the trailer in organized stacks. There is a set of scales at a gravel yard just down the road that I use on a regular basis, and this load was pushing max capacity. But it weighed in under. I had a choice take the freeway route at 38 miles or the back way at 42 miles. either way there are mountains. I opted for the slower back way and crawled this load home. Got the trailer unloaded, washed, and stickered the big log. 1,300 bft of mostly quarter sawn wood out of a single 14' log and just a couple wheel barrel loads of fine sawdust.
I have got to mill stickers tomorrow, Bottom stickers and layer stickers. so that I can get all this wood on stickers quickly. The damp weather is in my favor. And I have list of pine and fir milling jobs that keep popping up everyday.



This stack is from one log.




This trailer load was 145lb under 7 tons with 4 stacks of wood, 
1 stack 14'+, one 12'+, 10'+, and one 8'+ all stacked 24" high




This is the other three stacks.




I ran out of stickers stacking the big log. stickers are every 16"




I will place this unit on a solid foundation to air dry.


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## DRB (May 31, 2008)

Nice work thanks for sharing


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## dustytools (May 31, 2008)

Sweet!!


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## TNMIKE (Jun 1, 2008)

*Great Post*

That is one big oak. Is the green moss on the bark?


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## woodshop (Jun 1, 2008)

Very nice, very interesting. btw, I always go the highway route home when I have a full or (often) overloaded van. I figure less stress on the suspension etc cruising down the highway. Less stopping and starting etc. Even if it takes me more miles, unless it's a LOT more, I'll go highway when full. 

You have a nice little setup there, nice business. It seems like you enjoy what you're doing, and that's the key. To bad you couldn't save any of the figured stuff, but that's the nature of the beast.


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## AndyR (Jun 1, 2008)

*Washing the wood*

Hey backwoods-nice thread and pics.
you've mentioned washing the sawn wood a couple of times. Do you mind if I ask why you do that? Just cleaning off the dust etc..or does wetting it down help with surface checking? I know some folks will treat with a bleach solution to help deter insects...

Thanks,
Andy


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## BobL (Jun 1, 2008)

AndyR said:


> Hey backwoods-nice thread and pics.
> you've mentioned washing the sawn wood a couple of times. Do you mind if I ask why you do that? Just cleaning off the dust etc..or does wetting it down help with surface checking? I know some folks will treat with a bleach solution to help deter insects...



The main reason I wash down is so my drying shed doesn't fill up with sawdust. Sweeping with a broom just doesn't seem to be as effective on rough sawn surfaces.


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## Backwoods (Jun 1, 2008)

I have a good water supply and find it to be the most effective way of getting all the sawdust off the wood so that the surface dose not dry blotchy. When saw dust is left on the wood it affects the drying process by not allowing even air contact with all of the surfaces. A paddle set up like a car wash minus the water would work as well by evenly removing or distributing the sawdust over the whole board. The climate here is somewhat damp so getting all the sawdust off allows the boards to dry slightly faster. If I had an issue with cracking because the air is to dry I would put sawdust in a fertilizer spreader and evenly coat all the boards before placing stickers to slow the drying process. Possibly even dampening the saw dust a bit.


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## AndyR (Jun 1, 2008)

*Thanks*

Very good information!


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## big daddio (Jun 1, 2008)

nice millin' job there backwoods. pretty hefty tally for one tree. impressive work!


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## Backwoods (Jun 1, 2008)

This tree was larger then the heritage tree that blew down up at Linfield College this last winter. There are about 30 trees in this grove that are over a hundred years old, and 10 of them are over 250 years old. The old farmhouse that this tree was leaning towards was built during the early 1900’s. I see very few oaks of this size with a long straight trunk like this one. Most of the Oaks that grow in this area have an 8’-10’ straight trunk.


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## Backwoods (Jun 2, 2008)

I milled up five Cull Douglas fir Logs and made a few stickers so that I could get the rest of the Oak stacked correctly. I only got about 50% recovery out of these logs due to breakage, and big knots, but that is why I picked those logs up for stickers a while back. I just hate to mill up a nice log into stickers, although it dose make this time consuming project a lot easier then using cull logs. I ended up with a truckload of trimmings from the stickers that I gave to an elderly man down the road that likes them for kindling. 






both stacks of stickers are from the same logs.


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## woodshop (Jun 3, 2008)

Last couple years I've been making my stickers out of tulip poplar boards I've milled. It dries super fast, has few knots or defects, and is pretty plentiful here on east coast. I make mine down in the woodshop though, not on my mill. You can mill in one day what I mill in a whole year though, so I'm attending a whole different ballgame


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## Backwoods (Jun 4, 2008)

TNMIKE
That is one big oak. Is the green moss on the bark? 
__________________



Sorry I missed this the first time around. 
Yes, the moss grows heavily on the trees in the deep shade out here. This tree was part of a grove that had created a solid canopy with a park like setting under it. Now there is light that will reach the ground under these trees.


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## MJR (Jun 4, 2008)

Very nice. Time or history will never change. I am glad this part of it found some one skilled like your self.


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## Backwoods (Jun 6, 2008)

All the Oak is stickered and stacked in a shady location on a hard surface to air dry for now.


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