I had an excellent portable a sawyer (Bucks Valley Sawmill, LLC, Newport, PA www.bucksvalleysawmill.com/) come to my place to saw up some oak trees from my forest. We did 2,200+ bd-ft of oak, a mixture of white oak, chestnut oak and red oak. It took a solid 6 hrs with no breaks. We grade sawed the lumber, mostly 4/4 with some 6/4 and 8/4. We got a mixture of some really nice, clear boards and some lower quality. We didn't quarter the logs, but we got a couple decent quartersawn pieces from each log. From left to right in the picture are the piles of red white (center back, on stickers) and white oak. Anyone want to swing by and help me stack and sticker the red and white?
Some of the boards came out beautiful, clear and wide: Some other boards were turds and full of knots
Boards look nice 2200bd ft in 6 hrs thats moving and must have been some nice logs also as to stopping by to help sticker boards not anytime soon I have enough stickering to do here already but thanks for offering JB
Great job Mike! Looks like they really knew what they were doing to get that much done and in that fashion.
Since I have so many dead standing trees (mostly chestnut oak) I only bother to harvest the very best logs for milling. So yeah, that was just one red oak, one white oak and 2-3 chestnut oaks total. Even so, the miller really kicked my but offbearing. I started stickering in real-time, but I obviously got way behind so we finished up just deadstacking for now.
as always an extra set of hands helps it takes me a lot longer to mill because I am by myself I went to a job a couple years ago and there was 4 people helping and one just kept the logs coming they were all small logs but we managed 1100 bd ft of black walnut of course these were ugly hedgerow walnuts and I had a few hardware strikes went through 3 blades but I was real pleased with the days work most people do not understand how long it takes to saw and just handle everything Do you have anything planned for lumber or were you just planning ahead JB
Walnut with FOD in it??? Never heard of such a thing. Thankfully, the trees in my woods are very clean of debris. It's on the side of a hill with rock soil, so historically (before the houses went in) it was managed for lumber and hunting, never farmed or fenced. If we hit metal, it's more likely lead and/or copper than steel, so much gentler on the blades. No plans for this whack. I have plenty for myself already. These were just trees that died within the last 1-2 years, so I figured it was better to harvest them for lumber and firewood than let them rot. I have plenty of dead standing and fallen trees for habitat already. We have lots of owls to help keep the mice/Lyme in check. BTW, what mill are you running these days?
Yes I have a lt35 hydro but the next year after mine they upgraded the diesel to a 24hp diesel mine is the 17hp diesel very frugal on fuel but I might consider upgrading the mill for more hp it would be a lot faster but it is fast enough to keep me moving now had I known how the sawmilling would take off for me I probably would have gotton a lt40 or lt50 but at the time I did not know and they were a lot more investment I was originally going to get a manual mill but after watching mills at shows for me the only choice was hydraulic handling JB
Thank for te info. Over the last 10+ yrs, I've worked with several millers, all with fully hydro mills, mostly diesel LT40's Supers. As much as I would like to do my own milling, I'm too spoiled now to ever get a manual mill, especially with my rheumatoid arthritis, and I certainly don't have enough money to get a hydraulic mill. So, I still just hire out milling once or twice a year.
understand arthritis Aleve required on milling days thats for sure a lt40 super would be nice but the budget has been spent this year already on a new splitter and elevator combo from Wolfe ridge so no mill upgrade this year JB
I'd like to sell all of it. I have plenty of lumber for personal use right now. That stack of 4/4 chestnut oak would make gorgeous flooring and if anyone needed more, I can always harvest more trees to match. The 6/4 white oak is perfect for tabletops or outdoor furniture... The wide, 8/4 and 6/4 red oak is just gorgeous for anything. The nice thing is that once it's properly stacked and covered, it will last forever. I also have a nice stack of quartersawn white oak that's been airdrying for 8+ months and is ready to head into a kiln if need be, and some cherry, walnut and poplar that's air-dried for several years in my barn. QS White Oak