Daninvan
ArboristSite Operative
Making up for lost time recently!
After last week's session at the beach I got out on Sunday to a buddy's place in Coquitlam, a suburb of Vancouver. He had four skinny logs that he had picked up from a property in the interior of BC, near Williams Lake. Don't know for sure but I think three were pine and one was something else, maybe spruce or hemlock.
He and his wife wanted to get a 4" thick slab with one live edge to use as a mantle. The widest of the logs was just over 10" so there wasn't a lot to work with.
We slabbed up three of the four logs my buddy was quite disappointed that even though the logs had not lain on the ground for very long, there was a significant amount of soft and punky wood in all of them.
In the end buddy and his wife liked the one above that had a lesser amount of punky wood, and the knot holes, some staining, and a bit of pink near the edges. Going for that rustic look to match their mid century modern bungalow I guess!
Turns out he also had a piece of cherry that he was saving, so we milled that up too. I am not sure he will get much out of it, it was really just a piece of firewood, but this was his first milling experience and he was pretty happy.
Pretty easy work, milling up the skinny softwoods and the small piece of cherry with a 3120! And the weather was just on the edge, some dark clouds threatening to rain the whole time, but just a few sprinkles at the end just as we were wrapping it up.
Couple days later I had a chance to get back to the beach log dump.
Another lovely morning. This year the rules changed at the chainsawing area and there is no chainsawing before 9 AM. I guess the people who own the $35 million houses that look down on the beach were complaining about the noise. Anyways I don't mind sleeping in a bit later but it means that I miss the best light in the morning. Still, not bad when I arrived at 8:30 . . .
This time it was cottonwood and cherry. I normally would not even look at cottonwood, but this was quite a large diameter trunk section and it had been cut very straight, so I thought I could get the big mill on it and peel off a couple cookies just for fun.
Yep, 42 inches in diameter. We counted the growth rings and it looked like it was just under 40 years old. A couple of the early rings were over 1" wide.
The cherry had good promise, it was quite a wide log and the one end was quite solid, although the other end less so. We figured there would be some good slabs in it.
We had a new guy join us today. He brought us coffee and donuts. Note to all future milling newbies, that was a great idea! We thanked him by giving him an axe and getting him to help take the bark off the cherry!
The first cut out of the cherry looked promising, we were happy! This was another of the flowering cherries, with the grafted wood being pinker than the trunk wood and the graft line clearly visible near the top of the log.
Once we got into it though the log was disappointingly full of cracks and stain. It was wide too, we had to trim it near the middle as it was too big for my 36" bar which cuts about 29" or so.
We got three bowl blanks out of it and a couple of short narrow pieces. And a bunch of fire wood.
One of the few times we stopped and left a big chunk because it was not worth the couple minutes of effort to peel another slab off.
Meanwhile, the 60" bar with a brand new chain was patiently waiting for its turn at the cottonwood.
We started to take a 3" Cookie off the cottonwood and got less than halfway before we hit a nail. Doubly annoying was that we cut through the nail lengthways! I guess a nail was inevitable with a new chain on a 60" bar! Had to resharpen.
The figure was pretty cool, one of the guys said it looked like an explosion. One rotty patch though.
I was surprised for such a soft wood, and being bucked rather than ripped, it really seemed like a lot of work for my 3120. After we took out two cookies I had enough of this little experiment. I decided to cut the cookie in half since it would most likely crack anyways. This might control the cracking a bit.
Aside from the nail we had some ongoing starting problems with both saws when they were warm. They will be into the shop tomorrow for a tune up.
Saw something really strange too, there was a guy near us cutting up a skinny alder log for firewood. After he had bucked out about a dozen pieces or so, he carried them down to the water and threw them in the ocean! We had no idea what that was all about.
As we wrapped it up for the day it remained beautiful. Hope to be back again next week. Cannot believe how lucky we have been with the great weather - Hoping it continues for next week!
After last week's session at the beach I got out on Sunday to a buddy's place in Coquitlam, a suburb of Vancouver. He had four skinny logs that he had picked up from a property in the interior of BC, near Williams Lake. Don't know for sure but I think three were pine and one was something else, maybe spruce or hemlock.
He and his wife wanted to get a 4" thick slab with one live edge to use as a mantle. The widest of the logs was just over 10" so there wasn't a lot to work with.
We slabbed up three of the four logs my buddy was quite disappointed that even though the logs had not lain on the ground for very long, there was a significant amount of soft and punky wood in all of them.
In the end buddy and his wife liked the one above that had a lesser amount of punky wood, and the knot holes, some staining, and a bit of pink near the edges. Going for that rustic look to match their mid century modern bungalow I guess!
Turns out he also had a piece of cherry that he was saving, so we milled that up too. I am not sure he will get much out of it, it was really just a piece of firewood, but this was his first milling experience and he was pretty happy.
Pretty easy work, milling up the skinny softwoods and the small piece of cherry with a 3120! And the weather was just on the edge, some dark clouds threatening to rain the whole time, but just a few sprinkles at the end just as we were wrapping it up.
Couple days later I had a chance to get back to the beach log dump.
Another lovely morning. This year the rules changed at the chainsawing area and there is no chainsawing before 9 AM. I guess the people who own the $35 million houses that look down on the beach were complaining about the noise. Anyways I don't mind sleeping in a bit later but it means that I miss the best light in the morning. Still, not bad when I arrived at 8:30 . . .
This time it was cottonwood and cherry. I normally would not even look at cottonwood, but this was quite a large diameter trunk section and it had been cut very straight, so I thought I could get the big mill on it and peel off a couple cookies just for fun.
Yep, 42 inches in diameter. We counted the growth rings and it looked like it was just under 40 years old. A couple of the early rings were over 1" wide.
The cherry had good promise, it was quite a wide log and the one end was quite solid, although the other end less so. We figured there would be some good slabs in it.
We had a new guy join us today. He brought us coffee and donuts. Note to all future milling newbies, that was a great idea! We thanked him by giving him an axe and getting him to help take the bark off the cherry!
The first cut out of the cherry looked promising, we were happy! This was another of the flowering cherries, with the grafted wood being pinker than the trunk wood and the graft line clearly visible near the top of the log.
Once we got into it though the log was disappointingly full of cracks and stain. It was wide too, we had to trim it near the middle as it was too big for my 36" bar which cuts about 29" or so.
We got three bowl blanks out of it and a couple of short narrow pieces. And a bunch of fire wood.
One of the few times we stopped and left a big chunk because it was not worth the couple minutes of effort to peel another slab off.
Meanwhile, the 60" bar with a brand new chain was patiently waiting for its turn at the cottonwood.
We started to take a 3" Cookie off the cottonwood and got less than halfway before we hit a nail. Doubly annoying was that we cut through the nail lengthways! I guess a nail was inevitable with a new chain on a 60" bar! Had to resharpen.
The figure was pretty cool, one of the guys said it looked like an explosion. One rotty patch though.
I was surprised for such a soft wood, and being bucked rather than ripped, it really seemed like a lot of work for my 3120. After we took out two cookies I had enough of this little experiment. I decided to cut the cookie in half since it would most likely crack anyways. This might control the cracking a bit.
Aside from the nail we had some ongoing starting problems with both saws when they were warm. They will be into the shop tomorrow for a tune up.
Saw something really strange too, there was a guy near us cutting up a skinny alder log for firewood. After he had bucked out about a dozen pieces or so, he carried them down to the water and threw them in the ocean! We had no idea what that was all about.
As we wrapped it up for the day it remained beautiful. Hope to be back again next week. Cannot believe how lucky we have been with the great weather - Hoping it continues for next week!
