Building my inventory of logs

[Todd Burch]

Me thinks you'll get a whole bunch more years than 6.

[Todd Burch]

My load of post oaks is being put together. This will be my first time to buy logs from a logger. Logger said that there should be anywhere from 26-30 tons in a load. There's a good chance the wife is going to mess her pants when she sees these delivered… Say a little prayer for me please.

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[Todd Burch]

I sawed 6 x 6 corner posts out of Post Oak for my veggie garden fence with 4 x 4 braces. I'm hoping to get 10+ years out of them. I coated the ends in the ground with roofing asphalt. I don't know if it will help but it can't hurt.

Me thinks you'll get a whole bunch more years than 6.

I meant to say 10.

Cody, I've read of different solutions for extending life of a white oak post. What you did, plus tar on the sides, and also soaking in used motor oil and soaking in diesel.

A lot of what I have read is also hearsay, so it makes it difficult to get the actual facts on expected life span in the ground.

One thing that I had read, that sounds like it might have merit, would be to char, to the point of it really being burnt on the surface, the portion of the post that goes in the ground.

The no-no's I have read are setting any post in a concrete casing, don't leave any sap wood, and don't use red oak.

For my situation, my biggest fear is termites. But, they have these things now called Pest Control companies, so I reckon I could call one out to treat my holes before setting the posts.

[Cody Colston]

Charring the wood (Shou Sugi Ban) seems to be the rage on ww forums these days. I think people just like to say or write the words cause it sounds cooler than charring.

I'm hoping that roofing tar will keep the termites away, for a while at least. I boxed the heart of the Post Oaks and removed the sap wood so it has a chance of lasting a while. Ten more years and I'll be too old to work a garden or dead so my kids can replace them if they want.

FYI - The nearly new 13 hp Honda engine on my sawmill cratered in November. A bolt backed out of the block, contacted the flywheel and trashed everything in there, including the block. It was repaired under warranty but I just now got it back due to a back-ordered part. I put it back on the mill yesterday and am sawing ERC today!

[Chris Padilla]

Pile foundations may not apply to you, Todd, but they must treat those timber pile logs with something so they'll last. Those suckers can be pile driven 50-100' into the ground. I watched a show where they used pile driven logs as a foundation to a building in the soft mud of Louisiana. Drove 'em all in and then cut them level and off to the races building.

[Todd Burch]

Charring the wood (Shou Sugi Ban) …

FYI - The nearly new 13 hp Honda engine on my sawmill cratered in November. A bolt backed out of the block, contacted the flywheel and trashed everything in there, including the block. It was repaired under warranty but I just now got it back due to a back-ordered part. I put it back on the mill yesterday and am sawing ERC today!

Thanks. I had not seen that term.

Good deal you can still get warranty on your mill. Was it from Logmaster or from Honda?

Pile foundations may not apply to you, Todd, but they must treat those timber pile logs with something so they'll last. Those suckers can be pile driven 50-100' into the ground. I watched a show where they used pile driven logs as a foundation to a building in the soft mud of Louisiana. Drove 'em all in and then cut them level and off to the races building.

I won't use piles. My plan is dig a ~4' 4" to 4' 6" holes, 18-24" diameter, pour a round pad about 4" thick and the diameter of the hole, and set the poles on the pads. This will greatly reduce chances of the poles sinking. And then, as I backfill, tamp the dirt tight as I go.

[Cody Colston]

Good deal you can still get warranty on your mill. Was it from Logmaster or from Honda?

My mill came with a 13 hp Chinese-made, Honda clone engine..Jiang-Dong. I eventually replaced it with a Honda electric start from Northern Tool. It was only about 9 months old when it self-destructed and hadn't been used that much, either. Honda honored the warranty.

Chris, when I worked onshore drilling wells, it was pretty standard practice in South Louisiana to drive pilings for a base over which a board location would be built. In Louisiana, south of I-10, the ground is mostly crawfish poop...not very stable at all.

[Todd Burch]

I received my post oak logs a bit over a week ago. Two days later, I was off to get a fallen Ash tree.

I brought the tractor with me to get this log. It had fallen up the bank from a dry creek bed and need to be pulled out.

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It was a decent sized tree. A friend went with me who wanted the top of the tree for firewood.

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Down by the root ball, I could see there was a ton of embedded fence wire. Alas, I left the bottom 6 feet of trunk - what would have normally been pretty prime wood.

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After cutting above the top fence wire, I could see some pretty wood. In this picture, the log did not lower after the cut - the root ball started trying to stand back up! I figured that would happen and positioned myself to be out of the way.

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We propped the tree up with a couple branches, prior to taking the above cut and photo. You can see the higher root-ball end at the other end of this 18' section of log. I didn't want to barber-chair the log and have it break while I was cutting. It was laying on the ground where I cut it and I didn't feel like digging a hole underneath it for my initial cut. It worked like a charm! Just as we planned. The log ended up being about 21" at the base and 15" at the top.

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Before we left of the day, the home owner asked if I would fell his leaning pecan. so I did. Didn't take any pictures of it down though. If anyone wants any pecan firewood - it's free for the taking.

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[Todd Burch]

Todd,

How fast can you cut a board with your chainsaw mill, say a 24" wide oak log, ten feet long. I have a Stihl 064 with a 36" bar on a 24" Alaskan Mill. Last time I used it, took forever to cut a 10' long board. I'm wondering if it was just my chain, or does a chainsaw mill just take a long time to cut through large boards.

Kim

Kim (if you are still following this thread…)

I've used my slabber multiple times now. To cut a 24" wide oak slab 10' long would take about 10 minutes, give or take depending on if I just sharpened the chain.

[Todd Burch]

Got my first osage orange logs last night. I'll probably slab the trunk for tops and legs, and then make posts out of the two primary limbs. I think I can get a 36" x 66" table top by gluing two slabs together. The two primary limbs are about 8' long and the trunk about 6'. I've never seen slabbed osage before, but I plan on approaching it like walnut as far as orienting the cut to see the crotch figure.

Bodark has some sticky gooey sap! This was a storm fall.

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[Todd Burch]

I went to go fell and pick up 3 post oaks from a land owner near me, and he told me that 4 more post oaks had died and I could take them too. Well, it was really 7 more, plus a couple cedars that had flowed into his property from the rains back in April/May. I ended up dropping 8 trees and delimbing one of the cedars. The 9 trees will make either 15 or 16 saw logs (and I'm counting the 26' 9" cedar as one saw log!).

I took my nephew with me to help and paid him for his labor. He's 18 and I wore him out. I've hauled 8 logs back to the house so far. Will go get more later this week. I still have two more trees to drop too.

My nephew Brian "holding up" the left of 3 standing dead post oaks in a cluster. It was the first one to fall.
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The second tree down, with Brian sitting pretty. I hit metal (old fence wire) while cutting it down. Had to go to a new chain after that.
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We took two trailers to fetch 8 logs. That's one long cedar tree with the red flag on it! 12" at the bottom and 10" across about 21' up. I couldn't get a grip the top middle log in my skinny, 5' wide trailer - it was somewhat wedged between the other two. I wrapped a chain around it and the grapple and lifted it out. Picture was taken from the seat of the skid steer. I love having access to heavy equipment for moving logs! Later in the day, I got all the ends sealed up.
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Here's a video of the twisted post oak falling. This is the middle tree from the first picture above. Watch how the upper limbs disintegrate when it lands. It had a hollow in the middle of that big bulge, and I realized later that while I was cutting it down, I was getting stung by red wasps on my left elbow who had a nest in the hollow.

[Todd Burch]

Here's a better picture of the twisted, bulgy post oak. I got 3 saw logs out of it, but I'm not sure what kind of yield I will get from the bottom piece with the bulge. Might be junk, might be awesome.

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[Todd Burch]

More logs hauled in. I've a couple more trips to make to this post oak mecca before I'm done.

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At another location I travelled to get 3 post oaks. I forgot my parbuckling ramps and cable… so I just dropped & prepared one log for loading later. Hit some metal. Aaaaaargghh.

[Todd Burch]

Got me a new log hauler on Wednesday. Took yesterday off from work to give it a test drive. Hauled the skid steer about 20 minutes to where the logs were. Total time from entering the pasture to leaving with 6 logs loaded was 1 hour, which included positioning trailer, unloading skid steer, rounding up 6 logs from all over the pasture, loading/stacking, tying them down and heading out the gate. Parbuckling would have taken 3 hours+ and required 2 people. But, it did require a second round-trip to fetch the skid steer. Still much faster. 3 big logs and 3 smaller logs. The long log is 18'. All post oaks. I needed a couple more chains - will be getting them this weekend.

Getting the logs off the trailer, however, without the skid steer, required some careful planning. And a tractor. I hadn't planned on the second log to come off at the same time as the first, (so much for careful planning), but I got lucky and a branch nub on the closest log to me (hidden from view) carried the second log around and over. I was pleased. I got the small logs off via a cant hook. They rolled off the other side. I don't like rolling them off like this though. I'll configure some ramps they can roll down.

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[Cody Colston]

Congrats on the new log hauler. That should keep the GVW police at bay.