timed cuts through red oak?

[rmihalek]

Have any of the speed saw guys in the group made timed cuts through red oak? I have a lot of red oak (of many diameters) to cut and I'm looking for a bench mark to compare my meager engine and chain mods to.

 

[ehp]

I have to say for myself i have never put a racesaw in to red oak, not saying it could not be done cause oak cuts quite nice compared to other hardwoods, you may ask 066 or someone down south on that , never cut sweet gum ,is it as hard as red oak ?
what i have put a race saw in has been 17 in round soft maple that cut real good , it was alot faster than i thought it would be and cut alot of yellow popular , i kind of like yellow popular cause my motors seem to run real good in that wood

 

[Al Smith]

Red oak reply

Hello everyone; A very good test is one on red oak .I can say,that Ohio red oak,is perhaps the hardest there is[ Indiana and other "heart land included".This is what I test all my saws on ,after a rebuild or tuneup.As far as soft maple , I cut a rather large[54"dbh] about a month ago.Hard,yes,but not like the old "iron wood red oak".Mike Acres,told me,in an e-mail,that red oak was like cutting concrete,with a chainsaw.I have included a picture of the 100 year old big soft maple. Al

 

[eyolf]

I think there might be a lot of variability in "red oak". Of course, I'm in an area where the soils are poor and the climate cool...25 miles north of me red oaks get very hard to find...and that can have an effect on the wood. I took down a tree a couple of years ago that grew on the north side of a steep esker (long gravel ridge left by glaciers)...dang tree was 130 years old, but only about 16" in diameter...and hard as rock. 16"oak trees in a fence row maybe 60 years old cut like butter.

Then find yourself a lightning-killed burr oak, dry as dust , rings like a mandolin when struck with the axe to listen for hollow...now there's a workout for the saw!

 

[z4lunch]

Red Oak??

Steve here...
Did some one say something about red oak...
Heres and old beast Trent and I dumped a couple weeks back..
Don't even want to know what the racoons thought when we took the roof off there condo... Think I might have even given one a haircut!!!

 

[z4lunch]

tymed cuts

Anyway,
I'll save a log of red oak to make some tymed cuts to compare... What size should I save... Which saw would you like me to tyme
088KD, 066A dual port...Stock 064 Stock 090av
Steve

 

[Gypo Logger]

The bush I'm in right now is 50% upland hardwoods, but the rest is swamp and soft maple.
While cruising around the swamp and swimming through clouds of mosquitoes, I came across several large Silver Maples in the 24"-30" class.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I'll dump the cleanest one I can find and make a timed cut with the 088- whenever it stops raining! GGRRRR.
Good job Steve, it looked like a barberchair looking for a place to happen, but you brought it down nice.
John

 

[rmihalek]

Most of the red oak logs that I have set aside are around 12" diameter. A quick counting of the growth rings indicates that these are from 30 year old trees. I have a Stihl 028 (47cc) with 16 inch bar and Oregon95VP chain. I don't how useful it would be to see Gypo Logger ripping through some red oak (or silver maple) with a modded 088, but I'll watch the video anyway!

 

[Bills Oak]

Timed Cuts through Red oak

Hey there Z4Lunch, Let me know & or post your times, saw used & Diameter of Red Oak, I cut a lot of Red Oak here in Florida & I have a MAC saw with a 100 cc kart motor, ported with a modified carb & exhaust setup on it that I would like to get timed against some Huskys, Stihls, etc. I'm not real up on chain styles, I just use a full chisel stock chain but this saw is a screamer & I have not been able to bog it down cutting through 18 inch Red oaks with an 18 inch bar so it might just hold it's own against a newer saw. It puts my Husky 359 to shame & is about twice as fast through an 18 inch Red Oak..Thanks, Bill Irvine

 

[bwalker]

In MI red oak is fairly soft. Hard maple and white oak are much harder.

 

[ehp]

Yes Ben is right , here the hard maple is almost twice as slow cutting as red oak , red oak cuts fairly fast here and so far i have not seen hard red oak , i know it is out there but just not around here

 

[rahtreelimbs]

Why isn't the size of the saw matched to the wood? I can understand a Husky 346 running in 8" x 8" wood. But why run a 372 or 7900 size saw in an 8" x 8" cant? It seems that a more fair assessment would be to use something near a 12" x 12" cantor something larger.