But typically guys put the wood up on the table by hand? Just seems I'd have to chainsaw all the wood into manageable pieces anyway before using that saw to cut them further?
It depends how you bring your wood out of the woods. The old way was to cut the wood into 4 foot sections in the woods and then haul it out on a trailer. In my case I already cut my wood into 8 foot sections so I would just make a set of rolls to help roll the log sideways by 16 inches.
Ah ok, makes sense. That works if you're cutting stuff that size...no way I could lift most of the logs I cut onto that!
It's excellent for the wood people put in sawhorses. 12" and down . You load all the long stuff in/on your truck/trailer needing only a couple of straps and a red flag on the end to hold more than you could if cut. 2 guys pull off the log, put it on the table and cut. Guy 3's job is to hold the end of the log as it is cut and as it drops off you follow through with the motion and toss it to the right. The 3rd guy is positioned so even if he tries he can't get close to the blade. Once you get the hang of it it's a very fluid process.
We had one of those it was good for the limb wood any thing up to 8". Ours was mounted on the front of a John Deere B and driven by a flat belt.
Yeah on the bigger stuff it is easier to take the chainsaw to the wood, but on the smaller stuff it is easier to take the wood to the saw. Two different approaches to get the job done.
My wood adventure started on my 9th birthday when we moved to the country. My Dad gave me a hatchet for my birthday. That was opening the door on the rest of my life. !! As I had 3 older brothers I didn't get to start working in the woods with my dad till I was 11. But , the next year a neighbor gave us a 4' and a 5' peg and raker cross cut falling saws. I would Beg one brother or other to pull the other end and Dad had an area for me to cut anything but merch trees. Then after school and weekends was spent pitching pulp. I was 4 months shy of my 13th birthday when I started working alone in the woods falling , limbing , bucking and riking 4' balsom fir and spruce pulp . Running one of Dad's Super 2-10 McCullough chain saws. 16" roller nose bar. I think I was making $20.00 a cord. We also sold white cedar to a fence company in Pittsfield Me. And in the summer would log and sell pople and bamagiliade( similar to cottonwood). Logging with a jitter bug, converted 1 1/4 ton truck and or our Minneapolis Moline RT narrow front end farm tractor pulling a trailer or sled. Of course we heated with wood in an old coal/wood furnace. At least 15 cord per year . green hardwood. When I got out of the service in Ketchikan, Alaska. I already had a pre commercial tree thinning contract. The next year I started settin chockers, tower loggin on Revillagigado Is. Soon was chasing( working the landing under towers ) then pulling riggin. And some hook tending. Mainly because I had started climbing and topping when I was still thinning trees. Spent a year and a half working on the boom and tugs at the pulp mill in Sitka. But went back out in the brush. Finally I got the chance to break in falling timber professionally and stuck with mostly falling timber till the industry died on the coast. Never cut for the helicopters. Just wasn't my thing. I like cutting yarder ground for the pulp mills. Lot less head scratching over making export logs. Now I live in the Interior and have reverted back to similar to when I was a kid. Falling small poplar , loading my trailer or sled with a pulp hook and loading truck by hand with a pulp hook. Some guys go to the gym. I go to the woods. Funny thing tho. A few days ago a coworker and I went and picked up some barrels of used hydraulic fluid from Tolsona #1 drillsite. In my prime, for about 15 years I could pick up a 55 gal drum of gas or bar oil and load it in the back of a 3/4 or 1 ton pickup. Done it lots . I wasn't truly a strong man . I knew plenty of men stronger than me. I always considered myself fairly normal for a timber faller. Could do it when I weighed 180 lbs. I can't do that now tho. Anyway , the guy I was working with is 9 years my junior , eats healthy, all natural , ect. I don't even think he can stand a barrel up by hand. Having lifted stuff with all the guys at work, I'm disappointed to find I'm the strongest guy on the crew. And I'm 9- 22 years older than they are. They all can out walk me, which is GREAT! I hate walking just for walking sake. Hate it ! Anyway. It seems The Lord put my roots down in good soil to be a woodsman as its been 49 years since I started. And I'm still most at home In The Woods.
What a great life story! Fortunate that you could do the work that you love in your prime, before the logging industry faded away. And live to tell the tale!
I don't know if physically I'm half the man I used to be. But, I sure can't do some of the things I used to. Oddly enough tho. On good ground I can put as much wood on the ground as ever. Steep ground , not even close!
Oh no, not that, just comprehending all that work in my head..... Sorry for the wrong impression, mighty impressive resume you have.
It's funny how time and injuries changes things. I used to work as hard as I possibly could each day. Now a days I just try to make it thru the week most of the time.
By the use of the word 'funny', I assume that's dripping with as much sarcasm as a nice stack of pancakes with syrup. Getting older may not be fun, but I don't know that the alternative is much better. Chaz
