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Question about downed tops?

Started by bmill, December 30, 2007, 01:51:13 PM

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bmill

 Here's the short version...

  I bought 70 acres last year that had some walnut and oak harvested a year before that. There are some really big tops lying around various places. A lot of them actually. So far I've cut and split 5 cords of firewood. From my very unscientific survey, I haven't touched 98% of the wood yet.  A lot of this stuff is big and looks to be in good shape.  Many over 30" in diameter. It seems big to me anyway.

  I'm wondering if I should cut come of the bigger stuff and store it in case I get a hankering to buy a small mill down the road. I have no illusions that this is worth much money, I just don't really know what to do with it. Would somebody out here be able to give me an idea if I went out and took some pictures? I'm in northwest Iowa if it makes any difference.

  If it's worth keeping some for playing on a sawmill in a year or two, how should I cut it? Just between limbs, or can I trim limbs off the main piece to make longer boards later.

  A rookie looking for any advice. If this is a dumb question, I'll take my beating on this forum!

Thanks,
Brian
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Furby

Yup, get some pics and you'll get some ideas here! ;)


bmill

 I'm off to the ranch to take some pictures. I should have some postings this evening.
1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 13 - 21 - 34 - 55 - 89 - 144 - 233 - 377 - 610 - 987 - 1597 - 2584    Kubota L3400, Loader, Backhoe, 3 point tiller, Stihl MS 390, Very hard working wife!

Kelvin

my first thought would be that loggers tend not to leave things of value lay in the woods, but there may be logs left in the tops that are undersized for the market, but okay for you to cut out.  I've left quite a lot of volume of wood in the woods when i've cut some trees as brances tend not to make very good lumber as they are full of reaction wood from leaning.  However, if were still pretty straight i don't see why they might not work.  Loggers tend to ship them out anyhow.  The way you can tell about reaction wood is to see where the pith of the log is.  If its 2" from one edge and 25" from the other, you know it has reaction wood in it and will cause you trouble on down the road when machining.
I have looked at some places where people felt there was unnecessary amount of tops left in the woods, but on further inspection there wasn't much in the way of valuable wood.  Production sawmills keep their profit margins by running high grade logs of uniform size through their mill.  After having milled a few years, i too leave logs lie that i would have hauled all over town before as i can tell i'm going to get a bunch of No. 2c and no.3c lumber that i can't sell for the gas money to move it around.  Just some ideas.  Its mostly good for firewood unless you do unusual pieces like crotch wood, bowl turning, and other short pieces.
Good luck.  It would be good to practice on if you buy a mill, but the value will probably be low in whats left i bet.
KP

bmill

Any thoughts as to just cut it up for firewood or to save some for sawmill practice down the road?  I've got a lot more photos if you need to see something else. I know there isn't a "right" answer, just looking for ideas.

Thanks

1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 13 - 21 - 34 - 55 - 89 - 144 - 233 - 377 - 610 - 987 - 1597 - 2584    Kubota L3400, Loader, Backhoe, 3 point tiller, Stihl MS 390, Very hard working wife!

bmill

I forgot to say thanks  Kelvin for your reply earlier.

A very small sample of what I've split for firewood.

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dad2nine

Kelvin gave you some really good advice. Don't know how much you have there but a tractor and a firewood processor might be worth looking at. It seems cold there (snow) so I suspect firewood might sell. Check around and see what the firewood market brings, it might be worth your while you never know till you put your feelers out.

Kelvin also mentioned some of it may be worth sawing up for lumber, I agree with him and really can't add anything to what he said.

Thanks

WDH

It would be nice if you could salvage some of the walnut for lumber that you could use yourself.  You might think about recovering some of the larger logs and having it custom sawn.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Furby

I think I see some good practice logs there.
If anything, it will teach you how low grade saws out, so that when you get some better logs you'll have some fun.
If you can get them out, I'd save at least a few of the better logs.
Try to get some of the straightest and clearest ones you can, but I'd stick with 8'-12' lengths for the most part even if you have to leave some ugly ends on, you can trim the boards later.
Anything shorter then about 8'4" tends to be a little hard to mill on most mills.
4' is about the minimum that can be done and even that takes some real effort sometimes.
I wouldn't keep anything shorter then 4' unless it was a nice crotch piece.
Walnut crotch wood can be very pretty hobby type wood and worth keeping some if you have them.

You can always turn what you save into firewood later. ;)

ErikC

 Don't Forget--If you bought 70 acres of woods there will be a sawmill on the place eventually! Probably better make all further decisions with this in mind. Heck just get it over with now and save all that worrying!!
Peterson 8" with 33' tracks, JCB 1550 4x4 loader backhoe, several stihl chainsaws

thecfarm

Lots of wood there by the looks.If you do plan on keeping the logs for a sawmill lay down some logs,like 2 and put what you want on top of this.I would not have any logs touching each other except for the ones you layed on the ground for bed pieces.Make sure air can get all around the logs.I suppose you have a tractor,4 wheeler?I haul out tree lenght for a friend and he saws it up and tells me how much he took.This does require trust on my part.I don't know about walnut or the oak you have,but the red oak that I have will last quite a while in the woods up in the air.The bark will get punky,but the wood is still fine for burning.Good luck.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Hi-Country Orange

bmill:  i would take some of the crotch pcs. slab them about 4 or 5" & make some small walnut coffee tables  8)

wesdor

What part of Iowa is your location? 

My mother logged off 155 mbf of lumber in 1996 and we had the tops of trees like you can only imagine.  Our boys were just 14 and 11 at the time and I used it as a good way to teach them to work hard.  We cut and split firewood and sold it for three years - even then didn't get everything cleaned up.

I believe others have given you some good thoughts about the quality of wood - loggers don't leave much good wood behind.  Look for that good wood that might be in crotches.  You might want to consider offering some of the better wood to turners and carvers. 

I imagine you have more firewood than anything else.

Thanks for the photos


beenthere

wesdor
Go to his bio, and you will see where he is from the map with his pin in it.
Do you have one too?  (a pin, that is  :) )
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

ely

imo the loggers left alot of good log in that tree. if that is typical of your tops the i would say you have a good numbers of logs worth sawing and alot of firewoood from the limbs.

cantcutter

From what I see in the pics I would say it was a veneer operation, they took all the butt logs and left the rest. I think a firewood processor is a good idea, but a manual sawmill may be worth your while as well.


olyman

in the one pic, by the looks of the bark, it looks like cottonwood. which is fine for milling, as its as good for sheeting boards and the like, at least as good as 2x4 studs-------

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