Saving wood for later sawing

chuckhole · February 07, 2013, 01:48:29 PM

I do not have a mill yet but would like to start saving my trees instead of burning them. I have lots of pine, oak, hickory, holley, elm, dogwood and cedar. I am digging a pond (about 2 acres) and will be clearing a little bit of land (about 6 acres) for pasture with my backhoe. Can I start saving the trees now? And if so, for how long and is there a particular way of stacking them that I should consider?

I was thinking that I need to at least top and limb them and cut off the root ball. I can mulch the small stuff with my chipper/shredder.

Ianab · February 07, 2013, 02:09:40 PM

How long logs last depends on the species, season and how you store them.

Durable woods like Oak and Cedar can last for years in log form. Others will start to stain in days if you don't get them sawn and starting to dry. Holly is bad for that, and pine may start to stain in weeks in the warm weather.

Normal procedure would be to store the logs off the ground with the log ends sealed with some sort of wax sealer. But if you are digging a pond, that gives you anther option. Store the logs in the water. This stops them drying out, and growing fungus etc, and they will last much longer without degrading. In days gone by mills would store their logs in a pond anyway, it made sorting easier without machinery (maybe a boat) and the logs didn't degrade.

Ian

customsawyer · February 07, 2013, 02:11:26 PM

Welcome to the forum. You can cut them to length and then stack them off of the ground on some lower quality logs or some such as that. If it is high quality logs you might want to seal the ends with a end sealer.

Ianab beet me to the answer. I type to slow. ;D

POSTON WIDEHEAD · February 07, 2013, 02:26:08 PM

Take Ian's and Custom Sawyers advice. What they say will be a great advantage in the process of saving a log.
And if you do lose a few logs while trying to save them......it sure beats burning the whole lot.

Good-Luck and keep us updated.

We glad you became a member of the Forum Chuck.

chuckhole · February 07, 2013, 04:04:44 PM

Definitely will take the advice. That is why I ask questions.

Thanks "most interesting man in the world" for the welcome aboard.

ely · February 07, 2013, 05:54:06 PM

cedar, walnut , i have saved forever and lose very little to degrade, the rest of your list is a crap shoot from 6mos. to a year.

drobertson · February 07, 2013, 06:49:27 PM

yep, YEP! everything but the hickory, and maple should be good for over 6 months, a pond would be too sweet. Logs off the ground, end seal, make sure you leave them over length, a foot would not hurt anything. david

Cedarman · February 07, 2013, 06:52:00 PM

Debarking the pine as soon as it hits the ground might be advisable. I know it would with our white pine, but don't know if that is true with your southern pine.

drobertson · February 07, 2013, 07:01:11 PM

cedarman, I thought this too, one of the bigger local mills debarks all their logs, just went by today, and thought how nice that would be. If it were possible, this would be the best case senario in my opinion as well.

justallan1 · February 07, 2013, 08:07:20 PM

One thing I will add is try to figure out now where your mill will be when you get it and put yor logs where it will benifit you the most later. You may be able to save your self having to move every one of them again. Just a thought.
Allan

bandmiller2 · February 07, 2013, 08:18:56 PM

Logs stored in a pond is like meat stored in a freezer, it will last.I would just store the very best, well up off the ground.After pine is stored a wile the bark will loosen thats the time to peel,that will extend its storage life.The sooner you get your mill the better.Oh and welcome. Frank C.

qbilder · February 07, 2013, 10:44:49 PM

One of the best woods we have in the US is dogwood, if you have anything large enough to mill. Very fine textured, hard, beautiful wood. It's like sugar maple heartwood in texture but with cherry color.

Magicman · February 08, 2013, 10:25:51 PM

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, chuckhole.

ayerwood · February 08, 2013, 10:42:45 PM

I was glad to see this post because I had these same questions about Douglas Fir. Any ideas?

5quarter · February 08, 2013, 11:23:58 PM

See if you can sell the holly. It grey stains in days, in some cases hours. ;) Ideally, you pull your mill to the tree, fell it onto the mill, saw it and immediately stack it in the portable kiln that you have brought along for good measure. I know alot of people who would buy snow white holly, but no one who buys grey stained holly.

chuckhole · February 11, 2013, 04:15:39 PM

Thanks all. I can see that the biggest benefit would be for me to get my mill sooner rather than later and leave as many of the best trees in the ground until I am ready for them. I have always considered holly to be a "weed" because of the way the root system shoots accross the ground. I did not know it could be a good lumber to think about.

I see that the way I have approached my clearing and removal has to change. I will definitely have to be better orgainized when considering it as a source of lumber. And it is going to be better than burning it all up.

bandmiller2 · February 14, 2013, 06:56:09 AM

Seems strange to hear folks talk about milling dogwood and holly,up here in the northeast their boath just ornimental shrubs or small trees.Where I live holly will just hang on,drive southeast 60 miles and it does very well on Cape Cod,of course their in a different zone due to the sea. Frank C.

Bogue Chitto · February 14, 2013, 05:05:21 PM

If you have a pond you can store your logs forever. The only bad part is that they will stink when you saw them. The stink will go away when the lumber dries.