Urban logging 2 - Woodworking Talk

**Daren** · 06-01-2008, 12:27 PM

There is already a discussion of urban logging in the general woodworking section. I posted on it this morning 3 white oak logs I got Friday. As I was posting the phone rang, some guy who has brought me several free logs in the past. Real nice guy and knows what I like, he saves crotches and burls for me when he finds them.

So anyway he asks if I am going to be home, his son had a walnut blow down in a storm Friday and they where cleaning it up yesterday and he saved me what he could. The storm tore it up pretty bad, but he dropped of some 4' and 5' ers (kinda short, but I'll take it

) and some 8' and 9' ers, and a couple pretty cool crotches (if you are not familiar with it, it sure is pretty sawn out) One of the crotches is partially busted, but not into the good part there is alot of meat left there. The logs are about 20" and the lengths mentioned...not bad for free walnut

.

If you do not live in hardwood country you would freak at what gets split for firewood around here after a big storm. This would have been if the guy had not met me last year.

I will post pictures of some of my "urban logged" lumber I mill out this week. I have a feeling more will be showing up

.

woodchip · 06-01-2008, 05:29 PM

Hey darren, Would you happen to have any pictures of crotch cherry? I have a tree that branches off close to the ground and was wondering if it's worth the effot to dig it up by hand. I know crotch in general is real nice but have not seen any cherry. Thanks

**Daren** · 06-01-2008, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by woodchip

Would you happen to have any pictures of crotch cherry?

Here is just a little piece (more of the same one in my gallery). I have some in the shed...but it is storming right now. Cherry crotch is pretty. My favorites are walnut, white oak and cherry, but have sawn some pretty awesome ones from other species too like maple and honeylocust.

dirtclod · 06-01-2008, 08:55 PM

WTG Daren!

You can't beat walnut [except when it's free!]

Nice thin sapwood on that. I'm sure you know how to employ the best sawing methods on them.

I''m a little confused about how long/around those are in the pictures. Come on, what's the score? [Since when is a foot a foot? :lol Mine is THAT long. :wink)]

**Daren** · 06-01-2008, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirtclod

Well I'm a little confused about how long/around those are in the pictures. Come on, what's the tally?

They are all right at 20" on the small end. Some shorts and a couple decent lengths, 8-9 feet....(tornado took it down, lucky it left even that intact

) Not a huge tally, 300 bft on the logs and "loggets" plus the crotches. But hey, it was delivered for free, I'll take what I can get I know you can relate. I little Sunday morning gift.
I have not even had my feelers out but I know we had alot of blowdowns over the weekend, bad storms really tore through here Friday night. I reckon the phone will be ringing plenty this week.
I can't quite figure this "gift logger" out, he has brought several trailer loads (lots bigger than this little blowdown). Felling/bucking/loading/hauling is the hard part of this business, as you well know. Milling is a cake walk. The dude is willing to work his butt off (older farmer, not scared of a little work) and wont take even gas money ? He has just seen my stuff, brought people around and even drummed up business. I first met him when I repaired/refinished a piece of furniture for his wife, she was happy with the job and he has been bringing me every decent stick that hits the ground since then.

**Daren** · 06-01-2008, 09:37 PM

And I can see the confusion with the shoe picture, sorry. That crotch was from another blowdown from the same storm he just "happened upon"...they already had it split and piled for firewood

but the little splitter could not handle this crotch piece. He brought some smaller crotches from his sons. Yea, I would have liked to have the butt log off that bottom of the crotch with my foot on it. He saw the broken stump and said "2 men could not get their arms around it", what a shame

dirtclod · 06-01-2008, 10:53 PM

We live in a world of waste. It's great that some have the forethought and are considerate enough to see these treasures for what they are and get them into the right hands. They are doing a service to all who live in this world... and not just the recipient. But I don't know how to repay your neighbor, not only his selfless behavior, but for having that kind of wisdom. I don't envy your situation in having to figure out how to repay him.

ecologito · 06-01-2008, 11:53 PM

I've been following your threads and read a little about urban logging. I wish this practices were more popular. Last week I saw 2 big pines taken down from a front yard. and I thought about urban logging and how these trees were not going to be used the way they could. Two days later I was a crew chopping the wood, turning the branches into mulch and the trunk being cut into smaller pieces.

I wih I had the money or room for a sawmill and try to use what can be used instead of wasting resources.

jeffreythree · 06-02-2008, 04:55 PM

If I could get delivery to my door, I would need a bigger sawmill. Of course all I have found so far has already been cut to firewood size. Do you have any tricks for keeping crotches from checking, cracking, and warping when you cut them into boards other than entirely coating thick pieces in anchorseal? I can get lots of short white oak crotches since they don't split easy, and they sure make nice box lids.

**Daren** · 06-02-2008, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffreythree

Do you have any tricks for keeping crotches from checking, cracking, and warping when you cut them into boards other than entirely coating thick pieces in anchorseal?

This is my way ,not saying it is the right way even. I saw them thick (2-3" depending on what I have to work with) and let them dry then resaw them later.

frankp · 06-03-2008, 12:03 PM

I had a blow down a few weeks ago that I was trying to kill the poison ivy vines on before cutting it into some logs. Someone came and took the whole damn tree from my yard. I think it was the city/county, who had originally cleared from the road (I was not home) but damn, they could have asked me about it! I know it was hardwood, but I'm not sure what type of tree. (I'm still trying to learn about tree identification.)

**Daren** · 06-05-2008, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daren

I will post pictures of some of my "urban logged" lumber I mill out this week. .

It's not been a very pretty week, many severe storms. Not today...but the wind is right in my face, uncool sawmilling

. I milled some this morning anyway.
I started on a couple oaks. I have never seen anything like this, maybe someone else has ? It is a white oak species, but I can't id it. Pretty weird looking, and the hardest oak I have ever milled. I think it will go in my "stash". A small pile of 12"-13" wide boards mixed 4/4", 5/4", 6/4" and 8/4"

**Daren** · 06-05-2008, 02:08 PM

And I milled a walnut crotch this morning too. I rarely mill something to final dimension without "a plan", like what I am going to use it for. But I did this one. I milled it 1/2" thick, 4/4" and 5/4" (all the sizes bookmatched of course) The pictures don't really do the figure justice, it is "rough saw" but it gives you the basic idea. Sanded and finished it should look killer.

jeffreythree · 06-05-2008, 02:23 PM

I have some oak that looks like yours, but without the worm holes. It kind of looks like oak when you do a quick wipe of stain to highlight the grain only. Example pic, it only has wipe on poly as a finish.

**Daren** · 06-05-2008, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffreythree

I have some oak that looks like yours, but without the worm holes.

Those aren't worm holes, just dark "pips", not even knots just dark swirls of grain ? There are the obvious knots, they are about the size of a nickel and intact/tight. You can kinda see the different colors in this piece of end grain I bucked off one of the logs (it was wetted for the picture)

frankp · 06-05-2008, 02:59 PM

Damn, that's some pretty wood, Daren. If I'm ever in your area with a truck I'm going to have to swing by and raid your stash. (With an appropriate amount of cash in trade, of course.)

jeffreythree · 06-05-2008, 06:35 PM

I wonder if it is some kind of mineral staining. Did this tree come from somewhere they were fertilizing, ie minerals from the fertilizer were taken up by the tree seasonally? Could the pips be a sign of epicormics that did not form branches and the small knots were the epicormics that did? Can you tell I have been reading up on my forestry and trees

? 3 more books just came in today, but nothing shows your 'defective' oak other than mentioning those 2 conditions above with no pics. I guess in 1924 they did not put to many photos in books

.

**Daren** · 06-05-2008, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffreythree

Can you tell I have been reading up on my forestry and trees

?

I can, good for you

. Epicormics, mighty fancy word

. I think that is for sure that what the pips are, they where more frequent in the second log. The butt log had fewer, but the same odd coloration.

dirtclod · 06-05-2008, 07:09 PM

The two thing that came to mind was epicormic budding and sapsucker activity. I'm leaning heavily toward the latter. If you look at the pictures as a mosaic (did I spell that right?) you can see some alignment that is indicitive of their activity. Some of them line up in kind of a loose row which, if you've ever noticed sapsucker holes in trees, looks like they visited this tree many times as it grew.

For those of you who haven't heard this before, sapsuckers visit the same area every year, generation after generation. Take a look at this hickory:

That was q-sawn - so they've been visiting it since it was a sapling.

And this cherry:

Both came from 100' of each other on the same hillside.