How to straighten logs?

[Vancouver]

I have yellow cedar logs that I salvaged off beaches of vancouver, british columbia. 6" diameter , 8 ft long. One of them is slightly bow shaped. How easily can these be straightned out?
I put another log on top of it and hope that straightens it. I know lumber gets bent if you stack it wrong. Not sure how quickly this happens?

 

[Tony Snyder]

You might cut them crooked on some kind of band mill and then sell the stuff to some barrel maker.
Rocking chair runners might be another application.

Just funnin. Welcome old timer.

 

[Newfie]

Not likely to straighten out at all. It is bowed for one of two reasons that I can think of. It grew that way and the only way to get anything straight out of it is to mill the straight part out of the center, a hassle for not a lot of yield. The other cause would be the wood warping and twisting as it dried, so again the fibers are set in their ways. I have never heard of a log being straightened with pressure.

Be careful cutting those salvaged logs. That kind of stuff is impregnated with sand and mineral and will dull your chains pretty fast.

 

[Dave]

When I worked in the sawmill our two most valuable pieces of equipment were the log straightener and the board stretcher, but it's been so long now I don't remember exactly what they looked like or how they worked.

 

[larscout]

Vancouver,
how bent are the logs ?? are you talking bent or just warped. in my opinion i doubt they will straightin at all.

 

[Bill G]

Guys you missed it, You can easily straighten those logs. I just straightened some 30" diameter Oak and Maple today. Cut them in half and the center of the crook. Wal-La they are now straight. I cut the ones today and rolled them right on the mill. Now they were a little longer than 8 ft. In your case if they are only 6" in diameter and 8' ft in length then I would cut them in half then square them to a cant and sell them as turning stock.

Bill

 

[Dave]

Thanks, Bill, after I read your post I remembered what the log straightener looked like.....just like a chainsaw.

 

[Newfie]

Bill, I think he wants to use them for a fence. Maybe he could make a really short fence or have a section with a nice sweeping curve.

Dave, where can I get that board stretcher. Is it similar to the barrel stretcher we use to have in the Army for the M-60 MG? I keep that tool next to the box of grid squares and the can of radio squelch reducer. Amazing what you can think of for a green LT to hunt down and put in his ruck.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Straightening wood.

I have a couple boards on my pier that are warped. Eight foot 2x6's that if laid flat on the ground bow up about 5 inches.
Every year when I take the pier out for the winter I lay the warped boards flat on the concrete and stack the rest of the pier on top of them. The following spring the boards are as warped as ever.
Ten years of holding them straight for 5 months and no change.

 

[Dave]

The board stretcher was for the guys who would bring in 7'6" logs and expect us to get 8' lumber out of them. As I recall the working parts consisted of tobacco juice spit onto their boots and a pointer showing the way out of the mill. P.S., Vancouver- I'm not trying to be a smart a**, I can't help myself. As has been stated already, logs don't warp, they grow that way. The only way to straighten a log is to use judgement when bucking logs out of the stem. Some guys would cut 8 footers out of a stick no matter how crooked they were, others would look at a stick and adjust log length according to where bends and sweeps were.

 

[Beavergirl]

Ahem

How did the shipyards in Spain, England, and France build ships a few years back. I can't remember but it has something to do with clambakes.

Newfie, anything else you want to tell regarding the employ of that barrel stretcher?

C-

 

[Bill G]

Newfie,

If they are going to be used for a fence then a little crooked would be great compared to most fence post in my area. In this area we mostly use Hedge. There are two things about Hedge the are the hardest "dm" post around and the are CROOKED. A good fence builder can build a straight fence with them though. I am currently looking at a very large Hedge cut. I can assure you that if I get the job there will not be any straight ones. We just had a guy give $700,000 for 160 acres that had every hardwood removed one month ago. He is now going to want to sell the hedge.

Bill

 

[timberwolf]

This thread is being a bit rough, though it is much a fact of life that the logs going to be straigtened.

But what is the wood going to be used for? If you want beams or large longer dementions your likely out of luck, but if you wanted strips for a canoe or kayak, or short hobbie pieces for small projects there is no problem. If the final boards are going to be say 3/4 of an inch or less, just mill it with a chainsaw placing the log with the crook upward and use a thin guide board that will follow the conture of the log. Then sticker the boards putting some weight on top and leave them for a few months.

If you just need short pieces cut the log into half or quarter lengths and make short straight boards. I did just that with some sumac this weekend, bright amber green colored wood with defined grain. Will use the wood for arts and craft projects.


Good luck
Timberwolf

 

[Vancouver]

Thanks for the replies I'm just fencing a corner which is only 50 feet. The irregularities in the logs don't seem to show up. My acre is exposed to road on three sides and people seem to think they can dump garbage on the lot, etc so I put the fence up to say someone lives here. More polite than no trespass sign. I stained it semi-transparent brown. Looks quite good. Now I am going to build gate. I noticed that it is cheaper to buy assembled fences than to buy the individual pieces of lumber.