Harvesting Logs for lumber

[Shawn]

I have a 33", by about 30' of straight lumber. I want to get every BF I can from it. I have cut down trees before and need a little help. I want to cut as close to the ground as possible. How should I set up for my cuts. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Safety First!!!

[chet]

I'm not really sure what you are referring too.  But in order to get as much out of the butt log as posible I would use a Humbolt notch.

[Jeff]

Illustrations to Chets post

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/logging/manual/felling/cuts/notches.html

[Max sawdust]

Humbolt notch is a very safe notch, however I perfer the conventioinal notch because I can cut closer to the ground.  For me I think I get the most from a but log that way, because I am milling myself I do not need to cut the notch off the but log. (So what if a few boards have an angle on the end.)

I will give you that the humbolt is best if you are going to true up the log after the cut.
max

[Shawn]

Thanks everyone. This is what I was looking for.

[Mike_Barcaskey]

you can only cut so close to the ground, so I can see no difference in using the conventional vs. humbolt.
now if you are going to stand and cut at waist height, a humbolt is better
but when cutting as low as possible, what's the difference?
edumacate me, please

[Max sawdust]

With the conventional notch on the flat cut  the saw is parallel to the ground and you come down with the angle cut.  Humbolt notch you have to angle upward from the ground.  For me I can not cut as low with the humbolt, because I find it very difficult to angle upward from the dirt.  I would rather keep the chain spinning parallel to the ground with no chance of contact.  Guess I just am a conventional kind of guy :D
And I get a real low stump that people like ;D

I mean we are talking 2 or 3 inches here and more often than not you have to cut some of the butt off cause of rot or something anyway. And again I understand the humbolt will give you more recoverd lumber if you having to square the but cuts anyway.  : And Yes I will give you the humbolt is a tad safer than the conventional. :

Max

[SwampDonkey]

I mean we are talking 2 or 3 inches here and more often than not you have to cut some of the butt off cause of rot or something anyway.
Max

And if it's too low ya have to cut that butt flare off, might not matter if it's your own wood. But, butt flared wood means you'll be hauling your load back home from the mill. Some of the boys were cutting small hardwood and they used processors that left alot of butt flare, they had to have a guy on the yard to buck that flare off.  :

[Tom]

Custom sawing, we cut the flare right along with the butt log.  It can make for interesting grain but realize that the swollen flare is a different acting wood than the rest of the trunk and the ends of those boards, containing the flare, might require special handling.

It has never bothered me too much whether the wedge was cut from the stump or the log.  A lot of the "bedding", "wedge",  may end up in slab wood anyway. 

The conventional notch takes the wedge out of the log but leaves a low, flat stump.   Good for less clean-up. 

The humboldt takes the wedge out of the stump but leaves a flat butted log.  This is good for sawmills with dragbacks but makes no difference to mills without them.

While I appeciate the chainsaw handling of a professional like Chet, I have trouble with Humboldts and would opt for the conventional notch for safety's sake. 

[Mike_Barcaskey]

Tom, whether the angle cut is on the top like the conventional notch or on the bottom like the Homboldt, the wedge that comes out of the tree/stump is from the same spot. If your wedge is say 12" high (vertical line along the bark of the tree), that 12" section of the log is no good no matter which notch you use

the only advantage I see in the Humboldt is that you do not have to make another cut to square up the butt of the log

some guys argue that you can get more bf with a Homboldt. I say its the same for either notch, as long as the notches are in the same spot

am I corect?

[Bro. Noble]

If you take part of the notch from below the level of the back cut and part of it from above,  you can end up with the same angle of notch as a conventional notch,  but it is shallower and only half as much is from the log.  That space where the notch came from the log is often edged out of the butt'swell.  Am I making any sense at all? :D :D

[Tom]

Mike,

You're correct if the log is squared up after it hits the ground.  

The situation I run into is that the log isn't "butt trimmed".  Loggers around here don't even do it.  They are working in a "pulp" environment and that little piece is just so much more tonnage.  Homeowners and farmers don't think to do it.  They even measure the log from the long edge which can cause some of their boards to be shorter than they expected.

That's why I tried to distinguish my comment with the "custom sawing" comment.

There is a thread on here somewhere about how impressed I was with the condition of the logs I saw in Pa. when I visited Ron Wenrich.   Those guys are sawing for sawmills and the logs are straight, even ended, and stacked on a truck so neatly that they look like culvert pipes.   There is quite a difference in the marketing of a log to a sawmill where boards are the goal and in marketing logs to a pulp mill where chips are the goal and lumber is a by-product.


Yep, Br'er Noble.  That is the way we approach our logs regardless of the way they were felled.   The sawyer cuts around the notch and tries to get the most from the log by including most of the notch in a slab.

[beenthere]

.................. Am I making any sense at all? :D :D

Why start trying now?   ;D

(But 'yes', perfect sense to me )

[Mike_Barcaskey]

Tom, if my wife buys me a new digital camera tomorrow, I'll have to post a few pics of my logs. I've been told there are top-notch
Ends are square cut, cut to the length wanted at the mill. I'll string them to work the straightest log and paint the ends.
one of the mills here will buy all my spruce and pine unseen (I drop it off whenever) cause he knows I dont leave junk

[SwampDonkey]

Mike, some guys know full well how the logs are to be bucked and culled, but will try to sneak by anything they can. One of the biggest answers I get is that they can't afford to hire a guy on the yard to buck and cull logs. 'I'de rather send all the wood as pulp'.  : ;D

[Mike_Barcaskey]

yea, well it comes down to this,

"Hey, I know this guy Mike who cuts good logs, no junk. You can trust him"

or

"That no good Mike, all he leaves is the crap. I feel like his personal dump"

It's the same with the wood chips I sell. My guys get tired of hearing me yackity-yack about the pop can or chain box in the chip load.
But a load of wood chips is a product,
throw a couple of pieces of litter into it and you have a load of garbage

(not that I dont screw up sometimes,  :(  I just dont do it on purpose or out of neglect)

[SwampDonkey]

I understand ya full well Mike, nobody was trying to jab fun at ya. ;) But, I beleive that if the price was higher for hardwood sawlogs in my area they'de make a bigger effort to do the right thing. When the majority of sawlogs sold here are around $150/cord and the pulp is $100/cord treelength there's not much incentive. This is mainly due to small piece sizes. Not many sawlogs over 12 inches here in the average run of wood from a harvest. We're probably lucky to get the price we have. From reading posts from some sawmillers on this forum, they wouldn't much look at 10 inch logs because of recovery. For years our marketing board would offer a free service to woodlot owners that involved bucking and moving their hardwood logs. But, it became logistically impossible to handle all the requests, most people where using the free labor from the marketing board. They still use the service, but they have to bring the wood to the log yard at the marketing board and I think there is a bucking fee now. We have a new yard and loader now to sort, buck and load wood.

[Mike_Barcaskey]

SmellyDonkey, all is good    didn't realize I was coming off as defensive

from my standpoint, I want to deliver the best quality I can, in any part of my business. That being said, I ain't the cheapest beer on the shelf

[SwampDonkey]

A SwampDonkey is a moose, just so ya know ;D :D

[Mike_Barcaskey]

yes, and I have heard they stink (at least an old, worn tooth bull in the rut  :D)

[SwampDonkey]

Well now, that brings up a few threads......
Some people ride'm and milk the cows.  ;D :D

Something Cheesy

Moose Ride

Tommie the Moose

Tommie the Moose

:D ;D

[Ed_K]

 They may smell bad, but they taste good  :D. And at one of my logging jobs, he's doing real good at ruining the softmaple  ;D.

[Deadwood]

Okay, but is a clearcut a Moose Pasture or a Swamp Donkey Pasture, and if one Goose is a Goose, and two Goose are called Geese then shouldn't one Moose be a Moose and two Moose be called Meese? ;D

[SwampDonkey]

no, it's mooses ;D :D :D ;)