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Log Peeler for Cabin "D" Logs

Started by kantuckid, October 28, 2017, 05:04:31 PM

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kantuckid

I've looked online at Log wizards, Baker Peeler , Lahzit D220 and Timber Tuff. Most of the chansaw bar end mtd tools look very similar and I suppose all use hand power planer blades. Amazon reviews for Timber Tuff (which is cheaper than wizard) are not so great. I can't tell much difference in the ones made to use that way but seems they won't be that smooth like the pricey Lahzit/Euro peeler-also sold by Bosworth here in USA.
Tightwad me doesn't want to spend $500 for that peeler...
I also don't want to drawknife them either- ;D
Ideas?
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

red

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kantuckid

OK, I did so and what I saw was-
draw knifed logs and Log Wizard logs? I own 3 draw knifes and already asked about Log Wizard style tools.

:-\ What was I supposed to see???
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

red

Most log cabins built by the homeowner are hand peeled !
Honor the Fallen Thank the Living

kantuckid

Gee thanks. I peeled over 300 logs for the house I'm sitting in, I think I know that choice fairly well, now back to my question...
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

MbfVA

Did you see the Google find regarding choice of seasons for felling trees with the most vulnerable bark for easy removal?  Kind of like softshell crabs.   I'll save you the trouble:  Spring time, when the  trees are generally actively growing their next layer.  You still have to use a spud, but apparently the job is much easier.
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Savannahdan

Being one of those that's Been there n Done That, I'd probably get the Log Wizard vs the Timber Tuff.  Reason is I feel you can get cutters and parts for it.  The TT may be the same but I'm not willing to put out that amount just to find out it isn't.  I use a short handled axe and/or a long-handled mutt type tool for peeling my logs.  But, I'm not peeling a whole Cabin worth of logs.  I agree that the Lahzit is pricey.  I got tired of searching for the Baker Peeler, so I can't comment on it.
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kantuckid

mbfVA -I'm a lifelong woodfreak! At the expense of sounding like a know it all-I sure don't need google to know when to peel a tree. Like said above-been there done that...

Baker comes right up on google?

I am leaning toward oak logs and prefer to harvest when saps down as weather & retirement activities/travel  allows.
I read an Amazon review comment that planer blades fit the Tuff. Right now I'm exploring a peeler that replaced the bar on chainsaw and runs off a small belt/pulley arrangement. I asked them for a picture of the tools log finish left behind?  If the peeled log surface is pleasing to my eye I'll buy that one.
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

kantuckid

I have a peeler on order from ebay via Russia. it fits in place of chainsaw bar. You Tube videos if you google Log peeler, you'll see it. Seems to me a better tool than a Log Wizard, etc.. and plan is to put it on one of my smaller saws. We'll see how it performs this winter.
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

starmac

I have never peeled a log, that said I have a very good friend that has built natural log houses for a living for many years. he has 3 log wizards, but does not use them for peeling, that is done by hand.
I deliver house logs to other contractors, and they also peel by hand.
The logger I haul for that deals in house logs,  cuts in winter and sells them with the bark on, except for for the logs that don't sell by spring. There is a window there that the bark slips right off of the spruce we have, he has one guy come out and he will peel all the logs, which is up 10 semi loads, with an old just an old wore out busted draw knife (one handle is broken off) to start it, then uses of all things a clam shovel. The bark off of the whole log comes off in one piece and looks like a leather carpet under the log.

Like I said this is our white spruce, and probably easy compared to other species, and the peeling has to be done in a short time window, maybe 2 weeks or a little longer, but has to be done or the bark sets and in another few weeks will get worms, that ruins them for house logs. It is no problem keeping the logs 3 years before selling them if peeled.
Old LT40HD, old log truck, old MM forklift, and several huskies.

kantuckid

Everyday I live in a house with my hand peeled logs "looking back at me". I would not consider a machine peeler for a pine, spruce etc.. I was glad my drawknife was razor sharp and not the worn out busted up, one handled version yer buddy uses! Mine happens to be inherited from my Grandfather and has a laminated edge and was made by a blacksmith years ago. You don't soon forget the experience of hand peeling over 300 pcs of 16' logs. Here in Ky, if the weather is anytime other than winter the window to handle cut pine logs is narrow. They get buggy quickly and even post logs are unsaleable once buggy. Spruce we don't have as it's found further north or at elevation not found here.
I got my Ukranian log peeler but haven't mounted it to a saw yet. it appears well designed and i like the idea of it not being fixed to a bar. 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

Chop Shop

Peel them with a pressure washer and dont even touch the bark with your hand or tools.

starmac

Keep us posted on how you like your new peeler, what kind of finish it leaves and how easy it is to use.
The gut that uses the junk draw knofe and clam shovel, is just doing the initial peeling, in other words getting the bark off, so the bugs will not attack it. The builders (contractors) that buy them still have to do the finish peeling.
I was talking to one contractor I delivered logs to with the bark still on, he uses several people and pays by the foot for this, he said some people struggle to make 10 bucks an hour while others will easily make 25 bucks or more.

I can't imagine peeling 300 logs, the contractors here order the length logs they need  and are very particular, the logger knows most standard and over the course of the logging season keeps his eye out for house logs. Any he thinks will make a house log is hand falled and limbed instead of dropped with a feller buncher and run through a delimber. He generally shovel logs, but house logs will get skidded instead cut to popular lengths, with the lengths marked on the ends and stacked separately. Towards the end of the logging season, right before breakup I will haul them to a yard in town.  If he has orders for them, I will usually deliver them with the bark on, as soon as weight restrictions go off in the spring, any that are not sold he has peeled.
I think the shortest house log I have ever ordered is 37 foot. A typical load for a house will have 37's, 41's 45's 50's 55's and usually a 60, sometimes a 65. I guess if they need anything shorter they cut them from the longer ones they have ordered.

I do know these guys are super picky and the one logger has been supplying house logs for the last 20 or more years. He retired last year and was the last one I or the contractors knew of in this area that would fool with house logs to suit them, I have had a few calls asking who they can buy logs from now, as they usually line up their logs before they bid a house.
Old LT40HD, old log truck, old MM forklift, and several huskies.

kantuckid

Interesting!
My house logs have their own story. They are SYP, planted in a plantation by one of the area CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps camps. My house is "stack log" style, thus I could use various lengths but most are 16', a few 20' and 10 through14's too. I specified minimum of 8.5" @ small end and ~ 12" @ big end.
The man who sawed mine to 6" thick, bark in & out was the dean of sawyers in our area. He also had a sideline of hammering circle saws which came to him from miles around, to include out of state.
SYP, is seen in my area but not common in quantity like deep south. Part of the deal I made with the logger was to but a bunch of nice eastern white pine that he had no market to sell as a favor of sorts for getting the prime pine house logs. I made the white pine into T&G 2x6 ceilings, 2x12,etc floor joists and 4x6 rafters plus ~ 4-5k' of interior trim material-walls, window trim, etc..
Now the market here for eastern white pine is more developed and goes to a log kit company that saws them to replicate hewed style wall logs, borate dipped, dovetail corners.
The 300 log number is the "equivalent" number of logs in my pattern.
I have three drawknifes, one I inherited, two others I cherry picked from sellers of old tools. I build hickory bark bottom chairs and use them to peel the outer layer of bark from the trees, done in early spring when sap comes up. Then the inner layer is peeled away in slabs ~ 5-6" wide and I cut it into narrow strips on a homemade machine and roll up, store until soaked and woven into a bottom.
Anyone that thinks peeling a pine is hard work, try a hickory that requires far more caution to maintain the thickness of the desired inner layer for the bottoms. No wonder I'm seeing a hand doc soon-again.
An Alaska story:
My Uncle Paul, now dead, went from my/his native KS to AK right after WWII, when I was ~ 4-5 yrs old. He had been an electrician in the Navy-his civilian occupation too. I remember him loading a black Pontiac -with the Indian head ornament on the hood- to leave for the then romantic AK Highway trip. He had jerry cans of gas strapped all over the bumpers. His job in AK was power lines related and I remember he got hazardous pay (height & wind as I recall?) for climbing them to replace the red caution lights, repair wires.
He married a girl who was the sort of Miss Alaska, as wasn't a state yet-I think she won in 1949. I need to google that & see if she comes up?
I went to San Bernadino,CA with my Grandma in 1954 at age 11 on a Greyhound bus and "Miss AK" showed me her mink coat she won-yes she was a looker! Short marriage too. My uncle looked exactly!!! like the famous actor from Gone With the Wind, Clark Gable.
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

kantuckid

On the bark peeler:
Currently I have a new thread here in "chainsaws", toward finding a used chainsaw powerhead to run the bark peeler. My other saws get regular use so I need a lightweight cheap powerhead to mount this gizmo onto & leave it. It is said by the Ukraine seller to go on a Stihl170,230,250 or Husky 240 or I'm thinking an Echo 303, 310 352 will be OK?
Ideas are welcome but I do want as it light as possible, I'm not the man I used to be...
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

bigred1951

Your gonna have to post some pics. Be neat to see.

kantuckid

I have ~ a hundred chainsaws on a watch/see on ebay right now, trying to decide what powers this peeler best for less. Meantime I'm in the shop making wood chips on the lathe, with a stove fire & fighting a virus!
I'll give you a pic someday?
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

customcutter01

Any updates on this log peeler?  I'm about to find myself in the same predicament.  Except I've never peeled any logs, by hand or other wise.  I really don't want to think about peeling logs for a 3000 sq ft log home.
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kantuckid

Nope. Looked at a bunch of ebay saws to dedicate to this peeler but stopped looking for now.  I bought it based on thinking I had too few pine logs left on my land for my new cabin project. Since then I've cruised the woods and pasture edges and decided I have enough pine after all! My home I'm sitting in now has the equivalent of 300 ea., 16' pine wall logs in the walls. They vary in actual length and all were hand peeled with a draw knife by yours truly. Given that they are my interior and exterior walls, I would not consider this peeler for that "look"! With oak I was making a compromise as I'm building with (sawing myself) "D" logs this time. Hand peeling a log goes really fast and should be winter cut anyway so the bark will be tight and bug count low too.
I ordered a set of brackets yesterday (Amazon) to put together two sawhorses that area supposed to hold 2,000 pounds! Easier/faster than building from scratch and they will be assembled with white oak, not SPF 2X yard lumber. I will set my pine logs on them with FEL forks as my backs not as young as when I peeled them before! Not the bad job one might think. Last time I was having my logs sawed by another person and they moved them around for me on sticks much like a rough lumber pile so I'd do them a layer at a time then truck them to my build site as I needed them after peeling ahead.
If I run a few pine logs short I'll just buy a couple from my neighbor down the road-a commercial saw mill/logging company.
Thus I'm going to sell the peeler I bought. It's a very well made tool but I haven't used it. PM me for a phone number to discuss over the phone.

I will buy a 2nd small chainsaw anyway as I am building a jig to cut dovetail corners thus I'll need one saw with a bare bar at hand and the other with jig guides for corners.

Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

starmac

I keep seeing this and keep thinking I need to ask my friend who has built many full scribe houses what he uses the log wizards for. I know he has 2 of them and know he doesn't use them to peel, but even though I talked to him today I keep forgetting to ask him what it is he does with them.
Old LT40HD, old log truck, old MM forklift, and several huskies.

dgrover13

Quote from: customcutter01 on January 02, 2018, 11:59:05 AM
Any updates on this log peeler?  I'm about to find myself in the same predicament.  Except I've never peeled any logs, by hand or other wise.  I really don't want to think about peeling logs for a 3000 sq ft log home.

I have peeled half the logs for my 2000 sqft cabin and I myself researched for a log peeler before going with the drawknife/ice scraper. 

From various forums it became apparent that the log wizards would be much slower for bulk peeling.  It seems the log wizards are for those that are milling.  If logs are dirty with mud- the log wizard can strip it easily and keep other blades from dulling. 

I think if you can physically handle the drawknife, thats probably what's most efficient.
-Darren

kantuckid

I keep a double bit axe hanging behind me at my sawmill for blade paths, actually pretty fast to use in a narrow pathway on a locked down log.
Actually there are videos of various peelers showing them as effective for uses aside from milled logs.
I spent my money given I made an earlier decision to use oak which is not drawknife friendly to peel!
I do believe my tools design is better overall as not hanging out there at bar tip and closer to the powerhead plus a much heavier tool overall.
I use the outer bark on slick bark hickorys for chair bottoms. That involves carefully removing the outer bark leaving whats just below for use. It's even harder than an oak trees bark!
After a serious tally I find I have enough pine for my cabin project, all to be peeled with a knife not power peeled, so once the temps warm up, I'm taking some pics and selling it new & unused.
See the classifieds soon! 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

bugpeople


kantuckid

I used winter cut logs with tight bark on my home and will do the same this time too! Way less bug issues when weather warms up. That cambium mostly all comes off along with a smooth surface on the branch bases. It's more work but wouldn't work with a bark spud on winter cut in my experience.
I'm going to sit the "logs", actually "D" log cants in my case up on a set of stands so peeling is easier on my worn out back. FEL with pallet forks maybe couple at a time, then over to a pile on sticks to avoid mildew & mold and probably spray them too.
I wish I had those pine trees to work with!
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

starmac

The logger that retired was the only one in the area that would supply the quality of logs the custom builders wanted. His were all winter cut and if didn't sell before spring would have them peeled during the window of time the bark slips fairly easy and before the bugs became a concern. His log racks hold the logs close to waist high, which helps too.

Since he retired, we have been getting calls lately from some builders that think that they are interested in some cut last year and not peeled. I am not sure how well this will work out. The ones that have expressed a desire has to have them delivered with a self load truck, so, so far it has not been a doable deal.
Old LT40HD, old log truck, old MM forklift, and several huskies.

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