Nails and fencing embedded in trees.

[tree-noob]

I've been felling trees close to the property line to prepare for a fence installation. A few of them, right at the edge of the property line, have nails (from old signs), fencing and fencing staples embedded in them.

I have a small saw mill where I would benefit from cutting some of the trunk sections into lumber; but,, I can't afford to wreak too many mill band blades in the process.
So, my question is, how do trees grow? What I mean is, if a nail or fencing is put on or in a tree and they become embedded, do they move upward as the tree grows or do they remain, roughly, at ground level? I'm guessing it's the latter, that they stay at ground level and don't move upward - that they embed in the additional rings. (I've seen a lot of old fence embedded in trees but they're still at ground level.)

If the metal doesn't move upward, I should be relatively safe with cutting out the first 7 to 8ft section of the trunk and using the rest of the trunk in the mill... Right?

Any info will be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[ValleyForge]

Trees don’t ‘grow’ upupward so whatever height the nail was placed originally it will still be at that height.

I use one of these because the excitement of finding a nail with a sawblade is just too much for me anymore..lol

 

[northmanlogging]

the tree will grow around what ever object, and the object, nail rock, 10mm socket will stay pretty much in the same place, every once in a while something will have a broad enough surface it can be pushed out, but its rare.
Best bet is to get yourself a cheap metal detector and see if you can find the iron, and cut around it.

 

[tree-noob]

I got a good metal detector, a Garrett Super Scanner, and still got burned with a buried nail. I "thought" I did a good job going over the log section. I guess I'll have to experiment a bit more using thicknesses of rough cut lumber and a nail, to simulate a buried nail.

If there's good reason to suspect the first 6 to 8 feet, it's easy enough to use it for firewood. A chainsaw blade is a lot cheaper than than a sawmill blade.

Thanks for the info.

 

[benjo75]

We have a pretty good White metal detector for the sawmill. It only detects to about 8 inches in wood. If it's a questionable log we'll run it over the log after every few boards. We'll still hit something every once in a while. We usually discard the first 8 ft of any questionable tree. Most people are obsessed with putting metal in trees. There will be bullets, nails, fences, T posts, wire, rocks and anything else that someone can put in or around a tree.

 

[blades]

only thing i haven't found in a tree is the kitchen sink, but I am sure somewhere someone has.

 

[Bubster]

Just keep in mind that if fence were nailed to the bottom of the tree,and the tree grew from the bottom,the fence would be 20 feet in the air over time.I build fence for a living and have found everything from nails to horse shoes in trees.Horse shoes will make a bad day worse.One thing to look for when cutting trees is blue streaks in the wood.If you are cutting low ,blue streaks are always a sign of metal.Blue streaks up higher are from being wind shook.As a general rule,most woven wire is 47" tall,so add another foot in case there was a strand of barb wire on top.Cut about 6 feet high and you are usually okay.

 

[Mad Professor]

Sacrifice the bottom of the trunk for junk/firewood. Use old worn out chainsaw "stumper" chains to drop and buck those sections. I have a few dozen of those chains hanging on the barn wall, all are sharp now but will get tossed next time out.

I saw a big oak butt log come into a mill I once worked at. So big it was difficult to get the first cuts off, had to shut of big saw, then finish the cuts with a chain saw. When we finally got to slicing it up, the saw hit something the 440V 3 phase 200 hp electric motor could not handle. The lights in the mill dimmed and the breaker flipped. Then the carriage would not back out of the log. We had to get 6 guys using a small log as a battering ram to move the carriage; the big circular saw blade looked like a potato chip.

What was inside? 4 horseshoes from an old split rail gate. That was a "line tree", that the butt log never should have been brought to the mill. The head logger caught hell from the mill owner/overall boss.

 

[Seachaser]

I have found wire and nails almost in the middle of large oak trees. You have to be careful with old deer stands from back in the day when they used nails. But on a fence line, everything above five feet should be gtg.

 

[jolj]

I put up a fence with "T" pole for my sisters horse on her property in 2003, her husband has a bad back when it comes to work.
I had help from another family member, sister past five years later & husband sale me the 4.89 acres.
I now have a 25 feet section fence full of black cherry trees, because husband could not spray or weed eat the fence once a year.
Now I have a fence with wild black cherry trees 6-10 inches in diameter, with hog wire imbedded in them on the bottom 48 or so inches. I would love to mill them & make letter boxes or small wooden boxes out of the wood.
So when the time comes, I will just saw the tree at the top of the fence & mill the logs.
Then remove the wire between the trees & use my backhoe to dig the stumps up, if I can salvage one side of the log on a vertical band saw then great, if not I will burn it in a fire pit, then remove the wire from the ash.