Around three years back a storm knocked down a red oak that was diseased at the base and when it went down it took a smaller red oak beside it as well. I decided to go and see if there was any salvageable wood in the trees. There was; any rot was only a bit on the outer edge under the bark and the rest was quite solid wood. Furthermore, the hollow part due to the disease was only about six feet from the base. There was plenty of good solid wood to be had. I use my smaller Echo 330 saw and The Beast (I have nicknamed the Stihl MS290 The Beast) but it was still some work; dried oak is not as easy to cut as green oak. I must say my arms and back are a bit sore. I will need to open a path so I can get the tractor in to haul out the wood. There are some fairly good size rounds and there is a bit more to cut so it will be worth the effort. Of course there are photographs.
Thanks everyone for the kind words. I know that it is just a drop in the bucket compare to some of the wood piles I see on the forum. However, I feel good about it even if it is not that much.
I went back today and finished cutting up the main trunk of the tree. I got 15 more of the rounds you see in the second photo; getting smaller as you go up the tree of course.
Good that you got back to get this wood. You mentioned a little rot on the outer edge under the bark. Let it be known that even when you cut a live tree, it is very common to get a little bit of punk there. Not a lot (an inch or so) but I've seen folks turn down good oak wood because when they saw that they said the wood is going punky; it is too old and I don't want it. Ha! I'll take it! In addition, you did not say why your arms and back are sore. Hopefully that is from handling the wood rather than handling the saw. I've seen many folks with sore arms after bucking up firewood but that is usually because of how they are handling the saw. Keep the chain sharp and then let the saw do the work! Don't think you have to use the saw like a pry bar. Let the chain work its way down through that wood. After all, the reason you bought that saw is so it would save you some work! It reminds me of a couple videos I've seen on youtube of guys using a hydraulic splitter. I swear they were working harder than if they'd just swung an axe or maul...
Yes, there is plenty of good wood in that old tree. When I took my friend to see the tree he told me that it was rotten and not worth the trouble. I am glad that I decided to return to it as that is some good red oak that will burn well once I split it up. Part of my sore arms and back was from carrying some of the wood; I let the large pieces roll down the hill first However, The Beast is a heavy saw but I can handle it. I overworked my back when we set the house up and it has bothered me ever since. I do find working with the saw on a tree that is on the ground hard on my back. Maybe I am not using the saw correctly. My friend told me to stand to the side of the saw so that if the chain comes off it will not hit me in the face. I also worry about kickback of the saw.
Well, there is no doubt running a saw can be dangerous but most people get it out of proportion. Yes, injuries can be very serious and even deaths can and do happen. Usually though you will find someone did something very, well, uneducated. Personally, I don't experience kickback. I am sort of beside the saw as one should be but not to an extreme. In addition, in my lifetime I've known of only one person to ever suffer an injury because of a chain breaking. Chain coming off won't cause harm, it will only lose a little time while you put the chain back on. The best thing you could do would be to work with (but hard to do) a professional. Second best thing would be to be able to simply watch and really observe how that pro works and try to figure out why he does things or how and why did he just to that. Sadly, when people take advice from many who have just ran a saw some, they don't really learn that much or else learn some wrong things. But one has to be wary of some so-called pros too. We even had a case where an old pro came onto our place to cut some firewood. Perhaps I expected too much of him but I just could not even bear to watch him! He knew so little and did so many things wrong, I finally stopped it even though I could have let him cut much more wood at the time as we had it to give away or sell.
Oak is some good stuff and seeing some punk on the outside is not uncommon for fallen oak, but it's a tough tree, doesn't mean the heartwood is any less of a btu producing machine.
One of your other threads had a pic of you "in the cut." You were so stretched out (like my wife does 'cos she's afraid the saw will turn on her and go for her face!) my back and arms got sore just looking at that image. You can tuck in a little closer to the log/ tree, and like Backwoods Savage said- let the saw do the work... With my old back, if blocking the trunk into logs, I sometimes go to one knee to reduce bending. Extends my day tremendously.
Yeah Dave, that's kinda what I meant about "extending" my day. Maybe 4 hours max- especially IF I'm by myself. I do prefer to tag team a decent sized job....
