Anyone ever milled limbs?

[oakiemac]

I've entered into an agreement with a tree service guy and he brought me about five Red Oak limbs. They are absolutely enormous at 10'  long and 34" DIB, very straight. I thought they were butt logs! :DThe tree they came from was over
5 feet in diameter.
Is limb wood any good? Anyone had any experience milling it?  The pith is centered in most of the logs, but on one it is way off center. These logs seem too good to pass up. Any comments?

[beenthere]

Sounds like you have some good-sized limbs. I'll be real interested in what your experiences are when (and after) you saw into them. Keep us posted please. I would expect you will find a lot of tension wood on the "top side" that will expose itself during sawing. Do you expect the pith to be centered all the way through the log? I'd be curious if that is what you find out.

Have fun.

[woodmills1]

Limbs that big just cut them and sticker.  If they cup some, rip them in half again later. or hey quarter them they are bigger than most of my butt logs.

[Ianab]

I have a couple of similar logs here, they are Macrocarpa Cypruss. The tree had blown over to about a 70 deg angle with it's top branches holding the trunk off the ground. Once we got it cut up it looks like this happend about 40 years ago when the tree was about 6" dia. The logs about 24" dia and the pith is approx 3 inches from the top of the log!!! 'Felling' and bucking it was a mission with lots of tension and working out what was holding things off the ground, and where things were going to fall and roll :P
I'm going to cut it up anyway just to see what happens, although I suspect I'll end up with some banana boards :D
It might work as heavy garden landscaping timbers, 4x8 or similar.Or some nice curved garden seats maybe... Or firewood.....  :
Got about 8 more trees to take down and the rest are good ones, 2-3 ft diameter and some straight and branchless for 40 ft.

ian

[DanG]

By all means, saw them up! If nothing else, it will be a great course of study on tension wood.  If you can, keep the boards in some sort of order so you can tell where they came from, and see how they behave. Worst case scenario? You could find yourself in the rocking chair bidness. ;D

[Kirk_Allen]

I salvaged anything over 6" in diameter from the walnuts off my grandparents place.  Most of the small stuff was cut to 50" lengths and it worked great.  

One tree was 38" base with several branches about 12".

The big branches did have considerable stress but after cutting it out they seem to be doing fine last time I looked at them.  

They have been air drying for about a year now and it looks like it was well worth the time to save them .

I have cut a few cherry branches that were 10" and they seemed to be just like cutting the main beams of the tree.  Not sure if thats because of the type tree or the size and angle of the branches.

Bottom line, I cut anything I can 8) 8)

Who can resist when you love your hobby!!!!

[oakiemac]

I'm definately going to mill them. The size of these log is fathominal, and to think they are limbs. is therr any swing blades SW Michigan? The main trunk would be great for a swing mill. I let every one know how the lumber turns out.
Oakie.

[Tom]

I cut limbs a lot when they are big enough to dog on the machine.  
Some produce decent lumber and some don't  Most make good dunnage.
Waste not, want not. :D

Jeff, of historic trees, talking to a reporter.  
That is the limb from a Tulip Poplar that he
got from Mount Vernon.


Here's one on the mill.  Terry is the one at
Historic Trees that inventories, warehouses,
finishes pieces to be sent to manufacturers and
soon-to-be sawyer shows off the limb and makes
the first cuts.