26 replies to this topic

[Phil Krankowski]

CTBlacksmith, on 01 September 2010 - 05:14 PM, said:

They have portable sawmills that will com right to your house and cut the logs into whatever size boards you want. i have a big stack of rough sawn oak in my garage waiting to get put in my house parents house in Maine.

I wish I had thought of that and looked up if someone is doing that in my area. One of my maples would have been beautiful for lumber even though it is soft maple. It is now sawn to rounds waiting to be split.

My firewood guy charges $30/hr for splitting on site ($15/hr if you participate (instead of his brother) AND follow instructions AND are physically able to help.) He claims to split about a cord an hour with his machine and his brother, so for my approximate 4 cord stack, that is about the same as renting a machine to split it myself!

Phil

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

After seeing the pic I would have him drop the tree, and buck the limbs off, then have a guy with a portable sawmill come in, and turn it into planks. You should get a ton of great lumber out of that tree. I love working with wood too, and I see a lot of potential projects there with reasonable priced lumber.

Take some to quad state and sell it as handle blanks.

[Bentiron1946]

Thomas, Yeah, we got lots of pecan here, it's all over town. Folk have it in most of the part of town that has flood irrigation. I live about twenty-five miles north of that though. I have found some nice hickory in shipping pallets though. When I go east to see kin folk in Indiana I would stop on the way back a saw mill in Missouri and bring back a load of rough sawn hickory/pecan and black walnut to sell to a cabinet maker friend of mine. It usually paid for trip homes gas. I'd also pick up some over sized chunks for some gunsmiths of the black walnut. I have rescued some Arizona ash for tool handles along with peach/apricot tree wood. Fruit wood seems better suited for tool handles like gouges, chisles and such, not too good for hammers. I haven't tried citrus wood except for some branches for hand tool handles, there used to be a lot of that but most of the groves are homes now.

[Ed Steinkirchner]

ive used a lot of green wood for handles and if it is something like a hammer leave the taper for the head an inch longer green than dry, and as it gets loose knock the head on further, drive in the wedges deeper with a punch, and cut off some of the wood that sticks out. seasoned wood is much nicer to use but if you need it now you can use it. when i started out i made a gouge chisel and used birch wood for the handle, ive had it for almost 5 years now and i have tried to remove it by clamping it in the vice and pulling on the handle, no movement. definately split it green, because it gets harder than chinese algebra when dry!

also take the bark off because if the base of the tree is rotten it probably has termites in it too. also be careful putting it in the trusses of a barn, cause usually seasoned wood gets powder-post bugs in it. our barn is full of tiny piles of dust from them eating the old, seasoned-wood beams.

good luck

Ed Steinkirchner

[arftist]

mis-post.

[dablacksmith]

ime in arizona but i do shows in oregon and washington (as well as a few other states) in the summers and found a good source for handle material ... when doing the oregon state fair i talked to the wood carvers that make walking sticks... just asked if he ever had any short pieces of fairly straight wood to trade .he had a bunch (they collect wood like we collect scrap) an he gave um to me ! i made him a crooked knife blade as a thank you ! so far ive only made a couple handles from um but they hafe turned out great! that tree youve got should keep you in handles for your lifetime! injoy!

[Cross Pein]

dablacksmith, on 24 November 2010 - 10:04 AM, said:

that tree youve got should keep you in handles for your lifetime! injoy!

Yeah, They left everything that didn't go into the chipper. I definitely have more hickory than I'll ever use.

Unfortunately, I haven't found time to make it small enough to move inside. I need to get some of it out of the weather and get the ends shellacked.