New to forum and milling

[Philbo]

I've been reading on this site for a couple months now and finally took the time to join.  What a great group of folks and knowledge shared! 

I'm working with a small company that does a healthy amount of horse logging with Suffolks, custom saw milling, firewood production, sometimes carpentry/construction (involved with wood we sawed) and sometimes farming/working the horses. Really learning a lot and just been at it part-time since beginning of the year, but getting into it several times a week here recently and thought I'd join to see what I can learn from all you good folk.

We have a manual push mill (built locally) w/ 13hp Honda motor, ~20 ft deck.  Been using Cooks blades recently, which I find to be great.  Seems better on the 1st re-sharpen, actually.

We are small, low production, niche market kinda operation compared to some of y'all on here, but we're a 2 or 3 person team and not always logging everyday.  It's a good, long day to get 1000+ bd ft/day of sawing in unless they are some pretty long logs with big dimension lumber/timbers.

So far, I've sawed a good bit of white pine (mostly for outside buildings, barns, decks, etc.) Hickory, beech, oak (flooring), locust, tulip poplar has been mixed in, but I'm still a bit green on some of the techniques and ways to maximize efficiency and economy of movement.  We load the mill with a 60hp tractor w/ pallet forks.

Here's some white pine pics from last month or so to give you an idea.  The landing pic was from an afternoon of felling and skidding with 3 of us working, well really 2 and me getting some hands on training. 

Really looking forward to joining in here and learning all I can!



 


 


 


 

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Philbo.   8)

[justallan1]

Welcome to the Forestry forum, Philbo. Great pictures.
You'll find that you can learn anything you want from these folks here.

Allan

[hardtailjohn]

Welcome to the forum!  Let's see more pics of those Suffolks! 
John

[pine]

Welcome to the forum.  Try to post more pictures of your horse logging operations

[customsawyer]

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for the pics.

[Seaman]

Welcome Philbo! I am in McDowell co.  you anywhere close?
Frank

[dgdrls]

Welcome Philbo,  great photos,  thanks for posting them.

Best
DGDrls

[Chuck White]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Philbo!

[thecfarm]

Philbo,welcome to the forum. Pictures look good.

[dukndog]

Welcome to the FF Philbo!! ....and we love pictures!!!

[slider]

Welcome Philbo nice set up.

[nk14zp]

Welcome to the site.

[Hale87]

Welcome.....

[WellandportRob]

Welcome Philbo. It appears as though we have the same mill.  Look forward to chatting with you.

[MAI]

Hi Philbo,   Welcome to the FF.  Nice pics!

[JohnM]

Welcome to the forum, Philbo.

[SawyerBrown]

Greetings, Philbo, and welcome welcome welcome to the Forestry Forum!

[Ocklawahaboy]

Nice to see horse logging still happening.  Welcome to the forum.  Great looking timber there.

[kczbest]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Philbo!

[mad murdock]

Welcome philbo, nice pics there!!

[Philbo]

Just getting back to this thread...thanks everyone for the warm welcome.  I'll try and post some more pics of what I've been doing the past couple days.   Got an order for locust 6x6 timbers and up the hillside we go.  Loading at the landing and firing up the sawmill tomorrow so I may get some pics of that.

It's a challenge in these woods to find locust that is solid, straight, and big enough to make it worth your while for 6x6 + size timbers, but it's been fun.

There are many times working that I wish I had my phone more accessible/in my pocket, but it's either down in the truck or underneath my chaps and too much to dig it out quickly.  I do manage to snap some shots in the woods from time to time.  Hope y'all enjoy

Seaman:  We are in Ashe/Watauga co mostly.

WellandportRob:  You have the exact same mill?  These were made very locally and I didn't think they made too many of them before the business folded, but maybe they made more than I thought?  Very cool.  Great, solid machine from my experience, just forces you to go at a steady pace and not rush it too much, bc it's all manual. 



 


 


 


 


 

[buzywoodliff]

Welcome and keep the pictures coming!!

[Philbo]

Some pics from today in case anyone is interested.   Still figuring out the efficient way to load the sloped landing for easy loading with tractor forks.  Just going a couple miles down the road with the logs today. 

Pretty hot out today, but got some good experience on the mill sawing some fresh locust.  I pulled some decent decking boards out of some of the logs on the way to 6x6's.  I should have edged some of the boards while I was cutting my way to the cants, but didn't have the extra time and thought about it sorta late in the day after they started piling up.



 


 


 

[thecfarm]

Those flitches can be slow to cut. Usally the way I try to do it,is after each log. That way they are kinda the same size and I can remember what needs to be done to get the most lumber from them. But I only saw for myself too.