Lumber Question.

[poker]

Get your log on a trailer and take it to a mill somewhere. Im sure there are sawmills either circular or band pretty much everywhere. They will cut it up for you much cheaper than investing in an alaskan mill. Unless you wanted to do that as a hobby. Dont bother with the limbs as they would give nothing but grief. Any lumber from them would have tension and thats not desirable in any way.

 

[excess650]

A 30"+ log with any length to it weighs multiple tons, so no easy task to drag one out of the woods and load onto a suitable traier.

 

[rafterob]

May want to reach out and see if anyone locally has a portable mill they would trade some of the wood to cut you what you want. Remember, for gunstocks you want quarter sawn slabs.

 

[excess650]

Quartersawn lumber makes for a weak wrist in a longrifle, so flat sawn is preferred.

 

[springfield art]

I have a parcel of land about 50 acres. Last winter a storm blew over a massive sugar maple. Right now it’s laying on its side in the woods with half the root ball exposed and it’s still alive. It leafed out etc but I know it’s dead. And I do believe that there is a lot of curly flames figure in the trunk as the barks is twisted and gnarled. I’ve seen this in other maples i had cut up. and they usually had some nice figure in the wood. Any utility in getting a chain saw sawmill and slab cutting it up in place? The tree is massive. Probably 30” in diameter at least maybe closer to 4’ at the very base. There’s limbs 20” in diameter that are 15’ long. A shame. It was a beautiful tree and very old.

Man, I'd look into that!

 

[ZUG]

Most people that have a portable saw mill or a lumber mill will shy away from most people bring their logs for cutting into planks unless they know where it came from OR that the owner of the log agrees to pay for a damaged blade caused by some metal / foreign object in the log.

 

[Valkyrie]

So far no dice with the local mills I’ve called.
Have a timber guy that was slightly interested but wanted me to run a metal detector around the tree to make sure it was clear of nails etc. I have a Garrett AT Pro and a big NeL coil so I’ll give it a go and see what happens.

 

[deerstalkert]

i used to buy my bands by the dozen. breaking a band happened daily or even hourly.
i cut into every metal object known to man i think. musket balls galore. ax heads. spikes, horseshoes by the bucket.
breaking a band gets a si$$ and a yawn.

 

[n3wyu]

Get your log on a trailer and take it to a mill somewhere. Im sure there are sawmills either circular or band pretty much everywhere. They will cut it up for you much cheaper than investing in an alaskan mill. Unless you wanted to do that as a hobby. Dont bother with the limbs as they would give nothing but grief. Any lumber from them would have tension and thats not desirable in any way.

I have an Alaskan mill.oh it works and so do you. You will need a good saw,a long bar and a ripping chain. After using it I bought a hydraulic mill. I use to do a lot of custom sawing in my younger days. So if you have just a few logs I would suggest finding a local mill. If someone has a band mill they can bring the mill to you, cut your logs and you will have the the slab s ,the outer part of the logs for fire wood. And make sure you get the straightest logs cause if you have a bend in the log it will be cut away. The same goes with the ends everything on the big get cut away.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Where the limbs exit the trunk the grain will bend and give you perfect pistol blanks. The kind you can't find any other way.

I knocked down a tree a few years ago and came back the next year to chain saw out the limb wood for some pistols. One thing I noticed was that the ants and critters had set up shop in the softer heart wood, but left the sap wood alone.

 

[n3wyu]

Where the limbs exit the trunk the grain will bend and give you perfect pistol blanks. The kind you can't find any other way.

I knocked down a tree a few years ago and came back the next year to chain saw out the limb wood for some pistols. One thing I noticed was that the ants and critters had set up shop in the softer heart wood, but left the sap wood alone.

Trees don't seem to last to long once they are on the ground. They start to deteroate fairly quick. Best if you can cut them up or get them up off the ground. Another thing you can do, is to seal the ends. It slows down the moisture leaving the wood and helps with keeping the wood from warping. Now it needs to be dry you just want to control how fast the moisture leaves. Best if you can kiln dry it and set the sap

 

[Robby]

We had a bit of a wind last week and this ancient maple, 300-400 years old, gave up the ghost. It saw the birth of a nation and the settlement of this beautiful valley. I will try to get some stock wood from it so that it might live on a bit longer. It also took down a sizable black cherry on its way to earth and I will try for some stock wood in that as well. Black cherry makes a very sweet, raspy turkey box call so if the stock doesn't work out I'll get a gazillion of them anyway.
Gravity and time have taken their toll on me as well, so this will take some time, hah!
Good luck Valkyrie!!!!
Robby

 

[Col. Batguano]

If you dig down and get at the root ball the roots are where the grain will change direction and be perfect for LR wrists. Best to take out if you have some heavy equipment to do your digging for you. But you can do it with a shovel too, (if you have all summer to do it).

When you are chain sawing the limbs for pistol blanks leave yourself a goodly amount of "overage". The wood has been under a fair amount of tension its' whole life and will probably move on you as it is released. Do it in 2 stages; first the big old slab (about 2 1/2"-3" thick) and let it cure a couple of years (paint the ends) and then the pistol blanks themselves (give them a couple of years too).

 

[LAD]

there have been instances of a tree like that being up-righted with a crane and living. but those to my knowledge were trees of historical importance.
if your tree has branches 20" around it is a money tree. i had a portable mill for years and made some serious money cutting trees like that on shares.
I would find someone with knowledge of milling for gun stock material and go shares with him.
find someone that looks at the root wad potential also. some of the best figure comes from the root wad. pressure washed it mills just like any other part of the tree.
makes me twitch thinking what the next cut might expose!!!.

great advice. Here in Southwestern Oregon many a young fellow has a mill, chain saw or full up blade mill they take to site of tree and mill it up. Of course the secret there is patience. You looking to put the wood in stock blanks or even for lumber it needs to be kept out of the weather and stacked with sticks between the layers to age good. Many years to make them usable.

 

[James Kibler]

If you're concerned about this being a logical project, I would suggest checking to make sure there is sufficient curly to justify the cost and time. You can do this several ways. If you can pull some of the bark off, the outside of the log should have a washboard appearance if the wood is curly. You can also take a slice off of the small end of the log and split this. If it's curly, it will again have a washboard appearance. Don't do this on the butt end as curl can sometimes be there due to compression, but nowhere else.

No, you don't need to quarter saw it to have a good gunstock. No, you don't need to kiln dry it to have a good gunstock. No, you don't want a stock from the roots. A stump cut stock comes from the base flare directly above the ground.

Odds are, the tree doesn't have sufficient curl to justify the time and expense. These can be fun projects though.

 

[Many Klatch]

Although no one else has mentioned it here, bowmakers are always looking for good straight wood. Check out what a 7' long, year old straight grained split is worth. Make sure to paint the ends and back.

 

[godutch]

Great thread! Valkyrie, 'all excellent advice here from these guys. I've done this with a huge blow over cherry years ago with an Allis Chalmers tractor, chalk lines, and a 14" Poulon Pro chainsaw. '28"-30" tree ! Do NOT follow my lead on that one...but I was determined (chuckle). The only thing I might add is to prepare yourself to watch an awful lot of pretty stuff go by the wayside as you make your cuts for stock blanks. If it's pretty stuff it can be a bit of a heartbreak not being able to include it all. Go for it anyway ! Good luck!

 

[Valkyrie]

No joy with anyone local. Not enough of a deal to come get it.
I measured it this past weekend. Approximately 27” diameter and 15” of clear trunk that’s straight. Smaller than I had thought but the base is stilll really large. Over 3’. Gorgeous tree. It’s leafed out but getting swallowed by multiflora rose and wild grape vines already.

 

[SOLANCO]

Quartersawn lumber makes for a weak wrist in a longrifle, so flat sawn is preferred.

I have wondered about that.

 

[user 48679]

With a tree that large, would respectfully suggest first cutting the thick trunk/branches to a useable length - say 6' long (still very heavy) for long guns, and the crotch area of smaller branches 2" long for slicing into pistol stock blanks.

IMO, dragging the whole/un-trimmed tree could very well introduce internal stress that leads to un-detected cracking/etc.

Your lack of success with getting a lumber mill on board is disheartening.

Can you find a source that would want it for peeling into veneer ( saving you a couple of stock blanks) - which could make a viable condition for their acceptance ?