Logging Tools for the Non Lumberjack
What tools do you keep in the car for those opportunistic roadside stops to grab a fallen tree or some choice turning blanks? How about choosing a wood species for making wooden hand planes? Both of these topics and several other detours discussed in this episode.
Industry News
More trees now than 35 years ago? Check out this article for some good news. But let's not get too excited, more work to be done for our forests.
Feedback
- David chimed in about the sap heavy Walnut and says English Walnut specifically is known to have a lot of sapwood.
- Ash is salvaging lumber now from the Dr. Oppenheimer estate
- Michael teaches us about the difference between Ukraine and "the Ukraine"
emails
- Richard wants to make wooden hand planes
- Kevin wonders about the shelf life of logs that came down on their own
- Sean asks about logging tools he can use for harvesting roadside logs.
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It bears pointing out that when cutting up trees there’s a risk of unexpected movement, especially if they’re storm felled.
Addition for the car ‘harvesting’ kit, ratch straps. Or heavy duty rope, to help with moving and securing of bits. And a tape measure.
If trees are being brought down by professionals, and you can find them, you can ask them for permission. Sometimes they’ll even be willing to transport them for you or cut them to a specific length.
Thanks for emphasizing that a battery chainsaw can do a lot these days. Safety gear and first aid kit should be present, regardless of the saw’s power source. My kit includes a combat dressing that can be applied with one hand.
Count me as another endorsement of ratchet straps. Don’t use the little ones though, get long ones with heavy mechanisms. And treat them well: clean them after dragging them through the mud.
Also, two notched sections of 8×8 can serve as massive joiner’s saddles. The cant hook you mentioned (or peavey in my case) allows for getting the log onto the saddles. This is in the nice-to-have category, but is often better than chasing a log while driving gluts.
If you don’t have an open bed on your ride, a tarp is good to limit the damage to the upholstery. A change of old clothes is a good idea, too.
A big wind storm swept through Detroit in the summer, tearing down all sorts of potential lumber.
…I think I’m at around 3/16 Cremona now. I know to never go full Cremona, but I’m worried that I may get to half Cremona at some point.
My focus was on the tree-sized Sycamore limb in my side lot, but I kept driving past half of a black locust tree on my commute to work.
Luckily, (in this case anyway) this city can be a little slow to take care of things of this nature. Three weeks or so later, I finally remembered to throw my electric chain saw in the jeep.
While going to town on it, the owner (?) of the barber shop behind the tree came out and thanked me, and said to take as much as I wanted.
Long story.. even longer…
Electric chainsaw is my list for opportunity logging tools. Granted, probably 14″ diameter pieces, so cutting to 4-5′ pieces was all that was needed.
Gonna have to grab a cant hook after listening to this.
Thanks!