Back to 3/8" for a while

[mtngun]

Back to the slow-but-reliable 3/8" ripping chain until I get my lo-pro nose issue sorted out.

Today's victim, a 20" doug blowdown, straight as an arrow. When I found this baby, I thought I'd hit the jack pot.

But, you know how Mr. Murphy is always following me around. This tree had significant rot at the butt. The first 6 feet of the trunk were scrapped for firewood.

Furthermore, it had this rotten seam (lower arrow in pic) ALL THE WAY up the tree. I forget what this is called -- Brad will be along to remind me -- but it is a structural defect. When the board dries, it'll split along the dark seam. Also, there is some grey spalting in the sapwood, which is unusual for douglas fir. Pic is about 20 feet up the trunk.

The tree hasn't been down that long -- there are still brown needles attached to the branches -- but it must have been diseased for a long time before it blew down. Blow downs seem to be nature's way of thinning out the weak and sickly trees.

Scroungers can't be picky, though.

Did I mention that the log is on a steep, brushy hill, and I had to lug the slabs uphill to the truck ? Yeah.

White/Grand fir 2nd growth in the background. Very typical for that species, and there's quite a bit of it in the area. It's kind of a trash tree, not good for much other than pulp, but it's a pioneer species that can take over shady clear cuts. It's thin bark doesn't tolerate fire, so it used to be kept thinned out by wildfires, but thanks to Smokey the Bear and clearcutting, a lot of western forests now look like this.

 

[mtngun]

Spalted doug. Not fancy compared to hardwood, but interesting as douglas fir goes. Most of the boards from this tree will be used for barn framing, but I may set the spalted boards aside for furniture.

I called it a day after slabbing two logs. There was time to slab a 3rd log, but dragging boards up the hill had wore me out.

Boards from today and yesterday.

Statistics:

-- 2.2 hours CSM run time.

-- swapped chain after finishing first log (6 slabs).

-- seemed happiest and cut fastest at 8500 - 9000 rpm, yet I had a tendency to lug it as low as 7000 rpm. It takes a delicate touch to maintain the higher rpms, though it never actually bogged.

-- mini speed test, pass #3, 16" wide, 0.42 inch/sec.

-- speed test, pass #3 on another fresh chain, 16" wide, 0.29 inch/sec. Slower than previous test because the aux oiler needle valve had plugged, and I didn't notice until the test was over. The aux oiler makes a difference ! ! !

-- speed test, pass #5, 17 1/2" wide, 0.25 inch/sec. Sloooow.

 

[PineFever]

Great Job. I need to get some time to do some more milling, maybe later this week. Thanks for the report.

 

[huskyhank]

Mtngun, make a roller nose and your problem is solved. It appears you have tools and skill to do this.

 

[BobL]

-- speed test, pass #3 on another fresh chain, 16" wide, 0.29 inch/sec. Slower than previous test because the aux oiler needle valve had plugged, and I didn't notice until the test was over. The aux oiler makes a difference ! ! !

It sure does, When I turn the aux oiler off and maintain the same cutting rate, the engine temp always rises.

Nice post and nice pics BTW.

 

[dallasm1]

Good post with ecxellent detail. Around our country the white fir gets pretty big, but it is still "last choice" wood as it rots so quickly. If you can get it milled and indoors it is fine for utility lumber.

 

[Brmorgan]

I love logs like (minus the split) that for regular utility/structural lumber. Easy to work with, lots of knots but no big ones really.

If there's pitch in that crack, it was there when the tree was alive and is likely due to wind or another tree falling into it. I hate those cracks when they go end-to-end because they're very rarely straight and tend to spiral around the log to some degree, so it's hard to just sacrifice one board to get rid of them.

Did you notice any beetle channels under the bark? I don't really see any in the photos, but that staining is pretty much the same thing as Blue Stain in Pine; it's caused by the same fungus which feeds off the moisture and sap sugars in the sapwood and is largely carried by bark beetles. Having such a strong resinous nature, Douglas Fir can usually fight off the beetles and fungus better than the thin-barked Pines, so you don't see the blue or gray coloring nearly as often and it isn't as intense or widespread in the tree when it does occur.

What was your "nose issue"? I don't remember reading about it. I'll have to go back through a couple of your other threads I guess.

 

[mtngun]

If there's pitch in that crack, it was there when the tree was alive and is likely due to wind or another tree falling into it. I hate those cracks when they go end-to-end because they're very rarely straight and tend to spiral around the log to some degree, so it's hard to just sacrifice one board to get rid of them.

You nailed it. Pitch crack.

When I edge/rip the slabs, I have to either cut out the pitch crack, or else put the pitch crack in the middle of the board, where it won't be highly stressed.

The majority of the blowdowns that I mill have pitch cracks, at least close to the butt. This tree has a pitch crack the entire length.

Not very many beetles on this one, but the stain does indeed look just like blue stained pine.

I'm told our local doug is prone to get a kind of "root rot," that weakens and eventually kills standing trees. I don't know much about it, but I'm guessing this tree had it.

 

[jimdad07]

Not a bad haul for a day's work. You envy our hardwoods, I envy your softwoods for the building material. A lot of what I am milling right now is coming from my load of fire wood logs. I do, however, have a large sugar maple down at my BIL's house he is going to let me mill and have the lumber, I will replace it with some of my firewood. Plus I have another sugar maple log a friend brought over. What I need to find out is if you can go on state land and mill up blow downs in New York. Probably not, they would want to tax you on it. Sorry for the rant, nice work, hope you can get the lo-pro figured out.

 

[mtngun]

What I need to find out is if you can go on state land and mill up blow downs in New York.

No doubt NY state has a long list of regulations, and you'd have to buy a permit.

In general, government agencies frown upon milling because that's considered a commercial activity, even though Alaskan style milling is almost exclusively a hobby. I would ask for a firewood permit and not say anything about milling. There will likely be regulations regarding the maximum length of wood you can haul home. For example, the USFS has an 8 foot max length for firewood.

We have a long list (one page) of woodcutting regulations, too. The good news is that I live in an isolated area where enforcement is pretty much on the honor system.

I stay away from timber sales, only take deadwood, avoid rutting up soft roads, throw the slash in a pile, don't litter, etc.. I figure I leave the forest a little cleaner and healthier than I found it.

This particular tree would have simply rotted if I hadn't milled it, so I feel pretty good about making something useful out of it.

 

[BobL]

We have a list of regulations for cutting firewood, craftwood collectors, and millers, that are about 8 pages long.
I have read these several times and they are clear as mud.
From what I can make out between the mud, tea leaves and bureau-speak. . . .

We have regulations requiring specific permits that relate to
- harvesting local native plants versus non-local plants
- harvesting on private versus public land
- whether you are selling the timber or if it's for your own use or the land owners use.
- whether timber stays on, or goes off the property.
- harvesting living versus dead plants
- the length of timber harvested (ie firewood versus lumber)
- the volume of timber involved

For example, if I mill lumber from live local native plants on my own land for my use and it stays on my property, I am supposed to have a permit! When a mate of mine asked an 'over the counter person' at the state forest regulator, "How many of this type of permit have you ever issued" they said "None"!

The real "nuisance permit" is, if I want to mill anything that comes from another private land owners property, it's the land owner that is requried to have a permit. While many people I know are happy for me to mill on their property, they are very unlikely to go and get a permit even if I pay for it! This is especially the case if the land owner is an organization or institution. For example, our local library had one of its walls threatened by tree roots and have to have several trees taken down - for me to legitimately mill those trees the local library (or local city council) was supposed to have a permit. Can you imagine the bureaucracy involved in explaining all this and getting them to do it?

The only milling I can theoretically perform legally without a permit is milling non-natives on private land for the land owners use and that lumber must not leave the property. As soon as I take the lumber off his property both he and I need a permit. If I or he sells that lumber, both the land owner and I need another permit.

Have I bothered about any of this - no I haven't.

I understand the reasoning behind controlling milling, otherwise cowboys would come in and strip mill the place of it's unique trees, but the stupidity of all this is that just about everything I mill would end up as woodchips, firewood or just left to rot. But as a lawyer said to me, it would be too hard to make legislation to cover this because it cannot be clearly demonstrated. The result is we have a bunch of laws and a bureaucracy that many people pay any attention to.

 

[mtngun]

Have I bothered about any of this - no I haven't.

I understand the reasoning behind controlling milling, otherwise cowboys would come in and strip mill the place of it's unique trees, but the stupidity of all this is that just about everything I mill would end up as woodchips, firewood or just left to rot.

:agree2:

 

[huskyhank]

Wow.

Here its mostly private land and the owner simply owns the land and the trees. As far as I know if you don't foul the watersheds you can do what you want with your own land and trees. I hope that the trees cut are used well and not left to rot, burnt or chipped for mulch. Or left standing to make a nice forest.

The more populated areas here have restrictions - mostly on developers and in urban areas. But in general, your trees are yours and you can cut them or not.

I guess in areas where trees are truly scarce it might make some kind of sense to regulate them. Here trees are not scarce, they're everywhere.

 

[BobL]

Wow.

Here its mostly private land and the owner simply owns the land and the trees. As far as I know if you don't foul the watersheds you can do what you want with your own land and trees. I hope that the trees cut are used well and not left to rot, burnt or chipped for mulch. Or left standing to make a nice forest.

The more populated areas here have restrictions - mostly on developers and in urban areas. But in general, your trees are yours and you can cut them or not.

I guess in areas where trees are truly scarce it might make some kind of sense to regulate them. Here trees are not scarce, they're everywhere.

Yep - if trees are like weeds then regulation is maybe less necessary but our situation is quite precarious.

It's easy to be critical in hindsight but we once had small but unique and fantastic forests of Karri (superb high strength construction lumber with a weight for weight as strong as steel) and Jarrah (a stunning red hardwood that is ideal for quality flooring and furniture making) and to a lesser extent of Tuart, Blackbutt and other very unusual trees. Large areas of karri were cleared to grow useful things like tobacco or farms that we unsustainable. The climate favored insects over the tobacco so large amounts of insecticides were used and although tobacco growing stopped nearly 50 years ago some of this land is still very limited in what it can be used for. Aside from farming , the trees were milled to use in construction (that's fine), but a very large proportion were used for rail road ties and to pave the streets of English cities which could easily have been done with something else. Now we have almost no original virgin forests and what is left obviously needs to be regulated. One remaining commercial source of timber are private land owners but if they sell it all off, this will impact on the following

The South West corner of Western Australia which is the only place on earth where these trees grow, is one of the world's 25 biodiverse hotspots. (the only ones in North america are in the Sierra Nevada where the Sequoia and Condors hang out and in Mexico). 80% of the plants and animals is this region are not found anywhere else on earth. The forests in the South West corner of Western Australia are also much smaller than areas like the eastern US or PNW and there are still many plants and animals we know nothing about and not many people are studying what is out there. It needs some sort of protection but I guess it depends on how it is done as well as what is done.

I don't want to start a climate change debate but long term the South West corner of Western Australia is probably doomed to become a semi-desert and those trees will probably all die out as they will not be able to adapt fast enough to survive. Already there are strong signs of this happening. The Jarrah forests have taken a big hit from a fungal disease and large areas of forest are just dying from lack of water. Overall and longer term (100 - 200 years time) I am not worried because the northern part of our state will become wetter and the small forests that are up there will hopefully bloom - and there is some amazing weird stuff up there to investigate.

 

[lmbeachy]

Man I am glad I live in Delaware, if I want some lumber I just go back to the woods and find the tree I want and cut it and work it up to suit myself. If i decide to sell some of it I just do it.

 

[mtngun]

I moan about the permits and regulations on public land, but at least I do have public land to use for woodcutting and recreation. That's not true in some parts of the US.

On the whole, public lands are a very good thing for those of us who can't afford our own private forest. I gladly buy whatever permits they are selling, and try not to break any more rules than I have to.