Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Backyard Lumberjack]

If its laying down I'd take it there's a difference if your taking wood that is still standing compared to stuff that is already laying or is dropped. No need to let good wood go to waste. That's just like that wood I got the other day when I did my post the whole tree blew over root and all and it was on rail road ground well the tree came down across the dirt road and all they did was cut it in half and push it aside to let it rot.

that's what I say!... deadfall or just fall... if its within reach... I reach!

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

the whole trunk is twisted and those knots. Hardly got a straight split out of this tree except for some of the medium branches, and even those had knots. Ya, it looks cracked, but once you go in, man..corkscrew, gnarliest oak I ever saw.

This isn't the largest diameter tree I have tackled, I did some elm (just a piece of the trunk) that was six foot diameter before, with a big crosscut. Made thin slabs for tables. That got to be a lot like work...this is the most massive tree though, by a huge margin.

impressive by almost most standards...

 

[svk]

@zogger when it's all over you should put up photos of the tree in chronological order from standing to firewood stacks.

 

[dancan]

New scrounging PPE

 

[woodchip rookie]

Whats the bottom of the soles look like?

 

[MustangMike]

Was hot as H*** today, but I milled one 7' Shag Hickory in the am, took a long break (had to do several things at home), then went back and milled a second one. Got 4 nice 2" boards from each log. Clothes got so sweat soaked had to change shirts & paints after each log, but I ended up with 8 nice boards.

I've got the routine down for this size log, but that 40" Red Oak still intimidates me. Looked it over again today and don't see any easy way to attack it!

If anyone has advice on milling the large diameter stuff, please share.

Although my ported 77 cc saws seem to pull through this stuff fairly fast, the chain usually stops about 3 or 4 times per board, making me wish I had a 90 cc saw!

 

[husqvarna257]

Dancan
Do these boots have a steel plate from the toe to the ankle or do they have Kevlar like chaps to stop the chain? Knew a really nice guy at our old church that cut the top of his foot wide open when he slipped with his saw, steel toe does nothing for that. Before anyone asks he ran saws for years, he cut 20 cord a year for his OWB. He had surgery for the foot but he was on crutches for months. I told him about foundry boots that cover the whole foot.

Mustang Mike
I take it from your pics that blue fords are in at your house! nice job on the hicklory

 

[woodenboater]

Nice boots Dancan I was looking at those same Royer boots at a local saw shop. They had a pair someone else ordered but passed on but they were wrong size for me. Rather spendy but so is safety. Ended up with a pair of black leather Stihl saw boots which cost a bit less Much more comfortable than the orange jobs I had before, the metatarsal guard of which would dig into my shins making for a painful day in the woods.

@husqvarna257 , those boots have cut protection on the front and partial sides I understand. and they're made in Canuckistan !

 

[svk]

Was hot as H*** today, but I milled one 7' Shag Hickory in the am, took a long break (had to do several things at home), then went back and milled a second one. Got 4 nice 2" boards from each log. Clothes got so sweat soaked had to change shirts & paints after each log, but I ended up with 8 nice boards.

I've got the routine down for this size log, but that 40" Red Oak still intimidates me. Looked it over again today and don't see any easy way to attack it!

If anyone has advice on milling the large diameter stuff, please share.

Although my ported 77 cc saws seem to pull through this stuff fairly fast, the chain usually stops about 3 or 4 times per board, making me wish I had a 90 cc saw!

Told you eventually you'd want that bigger saw!

 

[dancan]

Yup , a real spendy boot .
I wore them for about 3 hours , I thot they were real stiff at the beginning but that didn't last for long , I found them comfortable , stable in the woods and not as hot as I expected , happy so far but time will tell .
Here's the specs ,
http://royer.com/en/product/8614/

 

[cantoo]

Today was one of "those" days. Things just weren't going well for me. I'm selling some cedar posts from the lots I'm clearing and needed to bundle them up. I under estimated how heavy the lift of 12' posts would be. Then they got stuck in my piling crate. Then jiggling them around to get it unstuck they managed to shift 6" to the north causing the rear wheels to come off the ground. Of course the tractor hydraulics wouldn't lift any higher than this either. And of course I couldn't let it back down because the crate was caught on one end and jammed into the logs on the other end. And it was hot as Hates and I was getting mad as heck. I finally got it unstuck, maybe next time I will remember that the Kubota is only 35 Hp.

 

[cantoo]

I bought another Stihl for my grandson, old one quit working. 2 minutes after opening the new one my wife says" did you try new batteries in the old saw". Well of course I did, Ok maybe I didn't. She put new batteries in it and the damn thing works, had some corrosion on one post. So my grandson hands me the old one and says "papa's saw" and walks away with the new one. He had a sleep over at our house that night. At 4:57 in the morning I wake up to a strange noise, listen hard and it's him revving up the damn saw in his bedroom. And I went to several auctions this week, bought 15 bouquets of flowers for my wife. Let's just say she was less than pleased when I asked her if it made up for not buying any for the last 30 years. Told her "better late than never". Some women are just never happy.

 

[DFK]

Mustang Mike: You have got to make a lest one Axe Handle out of some of the sap wood from that Hickory.

Cantoo: you got a "Saw Man" in the making right there.

David

 

[svk]

Been scrounging up some history the last few days.

We drove from Florida to Texas over the last three days. Hit the National WW2 museum and the Confederate Civil War museum in New Orleans. The WW2 museum was absolutely fantastic. The Confederate museum was much smaller but very interesting. I have two great great grandpas that served in the civil war; one for the Union and the other for the Confederacy.

Then on to Houston to visit the USS Texas and on to Corpus Christi to visit the USS Lexington.

It's rained for 9 days straight down here and we've been ahead of the flooding the whole way. They literally shut down I-10 right behind us on Saturday.

One of many flooded spots we crossed on I-10

 

[DSW]

If anyone has advice on milling the large diameter stuff, please share.

Although my ported 77 cc saws seem to pull through this stuff fairly fast, the chain usually stops about 3 or 4 times per board, making me wish I had a 90 cc saw!

Bigger saw.

I own an 076 exclusively to mill. I have a beast of an 80cc saw. Its my big firewood saw. I was milling some decently wide red oak and gave the 076 a break and threw my ported Echo 8000 on there. Granted it has a crosscut chain with the rakers down(it is a firewood saw) and granted on smaller stuff it'd be fine but it was night and day on the mill. It was cutting fast when it was but stalled probably three or four times in a foot and a half of sawing. These logs were 8 foot long and I got probably 5 or 6 slabs out of each and the 076 didn't stall once. I'm fairly positive I could have freaking starting that thing in the cut and it wouldn't have cared. Torque monster. Chainsaw milling is labor intensive, at least with the big saw its one less thing fighting you.

 

[zogger]

Here's the tally from a single round of the main trunk of oakzilla -- 126 splits! Would have been more if split when fresh cut, this is minus the bark and most of the cambium layer. Somewhere's between 1/4 and 1/3rd cord.

 

[dancan]

I was out tonight and picked up another load from that little back yard extension .

Birch on the bottom and then I threw some Zogger wood on top .

Hey Zog !
I have an idea , you wanna trade a load of my fresh scrounged Zogger wood for some of that old oak you got there , nobody wants that old wood , could have mold or sumthin ....

 

[Zeus103363]

Been scrounging up some history the last few days.

We drove from Florida to Texas over the last three days. Hit the National WW2 museum and the Confederate Civil War museum in New Orleans. The WW2 museum was absolutely fantastic. The Confederate museum was much smaller but very interesting. I have two great great grandpas that served in the civil war; one for the Union and the other for the Confederacy.

Then on to Houston to visit the USS Texas and on to Corpus Christi to visit the USS Lexington.

It's rained for 9 days straight down here and we've been ahead of the flooding the whole way. They literally shut down I-10 right behind us on Saturday.

One of many flooded spots we crossed on I-10
View attachment 519718 View attachment 519719 View attachment 519721 View attachment 519724

Cool trip! My family and I made the same trip a couple years ago. There is also a sub and a destroyer escort in Houston not too far from the USS Texas. Look up sea wolf park. It was devastated by hurricane Rita, but the ship and sub are still there. Its usually empty. Dont forget about the USS Alabama, and the USS Kidd in Baton Rouge. I have 2 boys and we have been around the country seeing museum ships.




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[svk]

Cool trip! My family and I made the same trip a couple years ago. There is also a sub and a destroyer escort in Houston not too far from the USS Texas. Look up sea wolf park. It was devastated by hurricane Rita, but the ship and sub are still there. Its usually empty. Dont forget about the USS Alabama, and the USS Kidd in Baton Rouge. I have 2 boys and we have been around the country seeing museum ships.




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We heard about the Seawolf park but I've already toured a handful of WW2 subs and a destroyer escort up in Albany NY. Missed the Kidd.

After yesterday I've toured every capital ship (anything larger than a destroyer) museum on the east coast and gulf coast except the New Jersey and Salem. Drove through the Salem's lot but it was closed that day. I do need to get to the Sub museum up near Groton CT sometime.

 

[zogger]

I was out tonight and picked up another load from that little back yard extension .

Birch on the bottom and then I threw some Zogger wood on top .

Hey Zog !
I have an idea , you wanna trade a load of my fresh scrounged Zogger wood for some of that old oak you got there , nobody wants that old wood , could have mold or sumthin ....

HAHAHAH! Actually I was admiring that mostly straight grained birch, you got some nice ones there.