The Logging Thread

[chris_girard]

Sweet.

 

[stig]

We're clear cutting an area of nice size beech.
Big enough to make some fine saw logs, not so big that they take too much work to limb and buck.
Trick is to get them all on the ground without crushing the next generation of trees.
That takes some planning.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Any way to escape the cold during the day?

 

[stig]

Just work hard
I love logging in the cold.

We have auxillary oil heaters in the trucks, we set them to start about 15 minutes before lunch break, then the truck is nice and toasty.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

How do you file your chains when you are cutting buttress roots like that? Typical or a little different angle?

 

[stig]

No different from what I normally do.

 

[Jed]

Sean: Were you thinking of a flatter angle, as with ripping chain?

 

[treebilly]

Looks nice Stig. Doesn't look to be cluttered with a lot of underbrush. Beech around here seem to hollow out by the time they reach that size. I know you've probably mentioned it before, but are those shims made from cutting boards?

 

[Jed]

Rich: That's what I did. Just sent the little lady out to IKEA with the rather odd request: "Four cutting-boards, please." $1.99 a piece... hard to beat. They're just Nylon, so you don't want to beat on em', but I dare say that the compression on Nylon is a darn-sight better than Oak.

 

[treebilly]

I think my wife might have lost a cutting board tonight somewhere

 

[MasterBlaster]

Plenty more at walmart!!!

 

[stig]

Cutting board works fine.
I like mine a bit thicker, so I buy a sheet of nylon at a local plastic manufacturer every 4-5 years or so, then cut it up.

Thereason it doesn't look cluttered with under brush is that I'm standing on one of the skidder trails the apprentice cut before we started felling.
Then we put all the trees on the trais and make a huge mess for the forwarder to deal with, but avoid crushing the next generation of beech trees.
Since everything is forwarded out, he can just start in one end and take it apart.

Saw logs, 9 foot logs for flooring, firewood and then the tops are taken out for bio mass chipping.

Everything but the squeal, as they say.

 

[cory]

Everything but the squeal, as they say.

 

[Gypo]

Interesting use of the nylon. Most guys I've seen out here just double up their wedges. In rare cases we use a chunk of wood we call a "glut." Same as your nylon except sawed from a handy chunk of wood.

I see you're using a maul (it looks like) to drive wedges, so I'm assuming that wooden gluts would not hold up and hence the nylon?

Interesting to see how things are done differently in different areas. Thanks for posting.

 

[Jed]

Stick around Gyp... I stand to learn a great deal from you, brother. We arbs have a ton to learn from the cutter-folk. I've already nagged Stig, Burnham and Beranek on here till they're sick of me.

 

[treebilly]

I don't think they're sick of you Jed. I read through a bunch of the recently bumped threads and it seems you ( like me) have learned a lot over the years from these guys. I bet they're proud of you

 

[Jed]

Nice of you to say, anyway, Rich.

 

[treebilly]

Seriously Jed. In those old threads you asked a lot of questions on felling. Now I stare at my stumps and ask if they would meet your approval.

 

[sawman]

A Jed approved stump is a wonderful thing

 

[Jed]

The real fallers on here would be laughing out loud at you guys right now. But it's good to know, Rich, that at least I'm not the only neurotic on here.

No, I don't even know, but it does seem like the true stump-sculptor is kind of a weird bread. I can remember about 14 years ago when there was really no internet where I lived, and I thought that I already knew how to fall trees, and then I got my hands on Beranek's Fundamentals.... man... I couldn't even believe it... seemed to me like he was sculpting a stump every bit as much as he was falling a tree... such beautiful symmetry... but there I go again...

Any psychologist I'm sure, would doubltless say that in all this obsession to cut well, it's really just a pathetic attempt to deal with some inferiority complex, or some such rot... I've never really placed much stock in Psychology... and God only knows. But I can remember how much fun I started having when the tree would actually start kinda going where I kinda wanted it. Then as you got better, you could just start fitting bigger and bigger stuff into tighter and tighter shots and it started getting really fun. Man, you'd love the Northwest where we have the luxury of such tall, straight stems with clear wood grain. Up there really high, when you're just flopping logs out... man, you get really geeked on cutting, because it seems like the tiniest little manipulations on the holding-wood make such a huge difference in how the log rotates off the stem... getting it to rotate faster or slower or whatever. There I go again... I better shut up or I'll never get to work on time.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

And pro cutters get the chance to swing trees and all that, too.

What we tend to largely do in tight quarters is more than the tip of the iceberg, but just a component of what is possible.

Doug-fir is almost like cheating sometimes.

Maple, et al, on the other hand...

 

[cory]

We don't get much D fir out here, but sure enough it does hinge well when we get the opportunity.

White Oak hinges like a door!

 

[Jed]

That's cool, Cory. We don't get any White Oak up here, but Willie's got tons of em down there. Maple doesn't suck like Alder, though Sean. Worst is Cottonwood.

 

[Burnham]

 

[cory]

You have any white pine? That has to be among our poorest hingers.