A small oak tree in Scotland!

[Mike Dempsey]

Hi folks

Its a wee while since I checked in here so I thought I would post a few photos of our latest milling job.
This oak is about 90' in overall length and about 4' dia at the base. There is about 60' of millable timber in it and about 2 years worth of firewood in the branches for Bob my logging buddy and myself. As luck would have it the oak took out 6 sycamore trees on the way down and a beautiful yew as well (the biggest syc and yew will be milled and the others logged up for firewood.
The top 30' of the oak hangs over a steep 20' slope so Bob has about a 40' drop if he slips, and as he is roped up to me and I am roped to another tree I just hope his rope knots are sound!
As the trees all have a tree preservation order on them and are located on some land which they are are going to build some posh expensive houses on it has taken about 6 months to negotiate to get permission to cut them up. Best bit is though we are getting them for free and we reckon that the oak will yield about £8000 work of quality wood.
The oak was growing in what can best be described as pure sand and I have no idea why it didnt fall over a couple of hundred years ago.
I will post more photos as we progress.

Happy Christmas to everyone

Cheers
Mike

 

[mikeb1079]

very cool. thanks for the pics, a little christmas present!

what kind of oak is it?

 

[MacLaren]

Very,very nice. I would love to visit Scotland sometime. Great pics.

 

[Mike Dempsey]

small oak in Scotland

Hi Mike

It is a Quercus Robur - English oak, although really it is a Scottish oak. Its a cracking Christmas present and we cant wait to see what the colour and figuring is like. The last oak we did near this one was a strange one as the heartwood was lighter in colour than the sapwood and not the other way as it should have been. Bob and I are both furniture makers although we have our own separate businesses. I do mainly corporate work and Bob does mainly private clients.
I do a lot of work for whisky companies and they like their gifts etc made from oak so this one has come down at the right time.

Mike

 

[Agoraphobia]

Nice! I often point out to people that Southeast Alaska is the same latitude as Scotland. Give us a few thousand more years of habitation and we'll be twins. I'll plant the oak this summer for your twin a few hundred years down the line.

 

[BobL]

Nice Pics Mike. I'm looking forward to seeing the follow up!

Nice! I often point out to people that Southeast Alaska is the same latitude as Scotland. Give us a few thousand more years of habitation and we'll be twins. I'll plant the oak this summer for your twin a few hundred years down the line.

One small difference is Scotland is exposed to the Gulf Stream and so has slightly warmer weather.

 

[Agoraphobia]

Actually that's a similarity as well.We just call ours the Japanese current (that is now washing up Tsunami debris here). Our winters tend to be rainy as often as snowy.

 

[BobL]

Actually that's a similarity as well.We just call ours the Japanese current (that is now washing up Tsunami debris here). Our winters tend to be rainy as often as snowy.

What's the geiger counter reading?

 

[Agoraphobia]

Wouldn't I like to know!