There's no nails in those logs.

[Tom]

[ellmoe]

There never is, is there?!?! :
Mark

[Timburr]

So, what's the story?  There seems to be some pensive searching going on :

[Tom]

I weakened and said I'd saw 5x5's from some old power poles.  They had been gone over thoroughly.  After a couple of episodes we went over them with my detector.  The ultimate detector still found a few. 

I hate creosote.

[Timburr]

Speaking of creosote, I milled some 60 year old reclaimed, hot bath creosoted bridge beams into fencing rails. I can still pick up the smell in the car 1 month later....DanG 'orrible stuff :'(  One consolation, the bloke didn't need to treat them.

The guy, also guaranteed the timbers were all nail free. HUH....where have I heard that before?  After finding 2 dozen, I lost count.

[music_boy]

Hey y'all
      I swore I'd never do creosote but my buddies brother is putting in a horse paddock and has poles for the posts. He has my metal detector so that's on him at 20.00 per blade. I'm waiting,( won't be long} till it is a little cooler so the body moisture will be minimal. I also have a plastic hazmat suit with organic vapor mask and goggles. (can't believe I'm doing this} :  My thinkin is to catch the sawdust on a plastic tarp for disposal, and have the owner spray with a mist garden hose attachment to reduce dust.
      Oh yea, my pay\reward, are the oak and pine being removed from the paddock area.  ;D Not a great number but worth it.(I think\will find out ;))
      I'm looking for any other suggestions for this project. Special lube for the cut?etc. I have # 9 and # 10 WM blades.
Thanks y'all
Rick

[Tom_Averwater]

I always used diesel fuel for lube on power poles. Make sure to cut them on his place so he can deal with all of the waste ,sawdust and slabs . the butts are very dense from all of the creosote  in them. cut about 6 inches off of the butt log to get rid of some of the dirt . The slabs ,if cut thick enough, make good fence too. 

[DanG]

MB, don't worry too much about the hazmat suit, just set up(on his place) where the wind blows the dust away from you.  Keep in mind that the area for about 1 sq mile will smell like creosote for months, if not years.

[Tom]

Yeah, and don't touch anything with your bare hands and don't rub your face.  That stuff burns!  Youch!    Take some dish soap and water with you and don't hesitate to wash yourself if you start to burn.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Waaaayyyyyyyy back yonder, when I clumb poles for vittles, youster get burned in the hot summer.

  It was almost worth it, because it felt Soooooooooooo good when the burnin stopped.

  Getting it in the tender areas around the eyes was the worst. 

[sandmar]

Funny you should bring this up now. We sawed 5 utility poles Saturday for a friend that had welded on my loader. This was my first and LAST experience with cutting creosote! My house...where the clothes went....my truck where the gloves went.....my sawmill..where the dust went,all still smell like creosote  :-[ Went through 2 blades on 5 logs.....we got the nails out with metal detector,but.........they were peppered inside with .22 caliber bullets  :-\ Wasn't exactly my idea of a fun afternoon,oh well,live and learn.

Sandmar

[thiggy]

I love the smell of creosote in the morning! ;D

[Rockn H]

Some friends of mine bought some land on the river a few miles south of mine, and are building a lodge.  As we speak they are in the process of milling some creosote timbers that they are putting up for lap siding.  Looks pretty good and hopfully the smell will subside within the year. ;D

[DanG]

Don't bank on it, Rockn.  That house will smell like creosote when all of us are gone, especially when the sun shines on it. :-\

[Corley5]

I've got some creosoted 6X10s, 3X12s and misc other material from the old road comm. salt shed that I'm going to use for the new sawmill shed.  It's stacked in the barnyard and even when it's cold out just a little sun on it will bring out the creosote smell.  When it's really hot and sunny the whole place smells of creosote.  I wouldn't want that stuff on a house or anywhere near one

[Frickman]

I'm going to look at some timber behind a fellow's house where he's lived thirty-five years and raised a family. He told me over the phone that there isn't any nails in his trees. He raised a couple of boys, and I bet they pounded in all the nails he never got around to. Boys, trees, and treehouses just go together.

[Tom]

Yep, and wives with flower baskets to hang are death on Southern Red Cedar. :D

[ellmoe]

Tom,

    Speaking of red cedar, is there a tree with a greater likely hood of metal in it than cedar? The percentage of cedar trees with some kind of steel in it must be at least four fold over pine, the number two species in my experience. Alot of the cedar we get is yard trees and that explains a bunch. We also get alot of cedar that started its life going through a birds digestive tract and then sprouted under a barbed wire fence. When it makes it to the mill, "there's no nails in those trees". Actually, they are correct, but the hidden wire and fence staples cause enough problems. :'(

   Yesterday, I ruined a couple of planer blades on a pair of nails. There we buried in the 4/4 board such that the sawblabe missed both of them, but not the planer! Frankly, I'm disapointed in woodmizers metal detector in this instance. Usually it works much better! ;D

Mark

[Tom]

Mark,

I think that red cedar is a nail magnet.   Most every little nook and cranny, limb joint, stub, inclusion and many open flat spots have nails.  Usually Box nails and they are driven by the hundreds.  Sometimes you will find a 16 D and many times wire.   

I shudder when I send my blade into a cedar.  As a matter of fact, I metal detect even those that come from the woods.  I think camps are set up under them and lamps hung from the limbs.

The remind me a lot of the power pole on the corner in the city.  The one with all the years of signs nailed or stapled to it.  The one that is so thick in metal that a lineman can't even get his spur in the wood.   Lord help him coming down.

That's what cedars are.  They are the natural version of the Power pole announcement center. :D

[DanG]

PECAN!  The old-timers around here used to believe that driving a few big nails in the trunk would make the trees produce better and more nuts. ??? :  They would also nail bands of tin or aloominoominum around the trees to keep the squirrels from climbing them.

[ohsoloco]

Walnuts are the big favorite 'round here for that stuff  :(

[Tom]

Oh yeah!   I forgot about Pecan.   You're right they get a bunch too.

[woodbowl]

Nope! No nails in these logs! I know there's no nails!  ................... I just wish I had a nickle for every time I heard that. I don't know what to say anymore. It has almost become a joke. I have to tell them the cost for blades just in case I hit a .................... I can't even get finished .................no nails in these logs! I've been here for 40 years. My Daddy would never allow .......... Then when I hit a nail, they say hummmmm! How in the world did that get in there?  Then I say to myself ............. ka ching!  ;D ;D

[ohsoloco]

A few years ago I picked up a large spruce tree from a backyard in Boalsburg.  While we were working there, an elderly gentleman from one of the neighboring houses came by and said he remembered when that tree was planted.  It was a lightning strike and had to be taken down.  While I was milling the butt log I was really surprised that I didn't hit any hardware.  Just a few inches from the pith I ran into a nail  >:(  After hitting it I kept thinking that he was probably the little bugger that put that nail in there many years ago  :D

[Tom]

What I hear.    "That must've been in there a lo-o-ng time.  Look here, it's galvanized."     :-\