Logs for Resawing, bowls, who knows?

[cpowell]

We recently cleared around 500 acres of hardwoods from company land. I drove through the area today and looked at some of the logs, etc left behind. There is a great deal of red/white oak of varying diameters and a bunch of walnut. Plenty of poplar. I don't mean a few logs, I mean a WHOLE bunch of wood.

I am interested in picking up some of this stock and cutting down to size with a chainsaw then resawing. Some of the pieces are just too large for me to think about tackling.

Question: What stuff is worth getting? I don't use a lathe but wondered if some of the walnut/oak would be appropriate for rough cutting for bowl stock. I could cut the straight walnut logs in slices then rough out bowl blanks on my soon-to-be-delivered tool gloat!

I believe a few of the pieces that were left may exhibit some interesting grain characteristics because they are at the area where several large branches met.

Likely a bunch of it is good for firewood, which I don't want to fool with.

I see this as a source of FREE wood but don't know how to differentiate quality. Any ideas are appreciated.

We have machinery on hand to move/load up the logs and a few of my coworkers apparently have chainsaws and know how to use them (I don't) and have offered to help.

 

[sapwood]

Chuck you are talking about a lot of wood!

I would love to get some of the walnut and can always use firewood. I have a couple of chainsaws and a small pickup with a trailer. If you need some assistance in exchange for a little wood--I'm your guy :mrgreen:

I have a bandsaw and 13 planer that I use to "repurpose" some of my firewood. Of course, the largest log I can manage on bandsaw is less than 12" high and about 3 ft in length.

You can be 100 percent sure some of the turners would like some too:icon_thum
And I would be glad to assist others cut up some for their use.

Sapwood

 

[cskipper]

wood, did I hear wood??

 

[Bernhard]

Chuck,
How big are the logs? Is the diameter greater10" and length greater than 8'?...Just curiousif it be worthwhile to get someone with a portable mill up there.

Bernhard

 

[JRD]

Chuck,

Go for the pieces where branches joined together on the tree. You'll find some fantastic grain in those places. It's interesting that most firewood cutters don't want those pieces because they are so hard to split.

Jim

 

[DaveO]

Yes!! contact NCWood, Kyle or Handturnedbowls I am sure that they will either be extremely interested in the wood or can turn you on to someone who will. If anything start cutting bowl blanks out of the better grained stuff i.e. crotches and burls and start selling those. Sound like you have a potential gold mine if so inclined to make some value added products.
Dave

 

[cpowell]

Sapwood,

I re-read my post and don't want to give the impression that 500 acres of hardwood trees were felled and left laying. That would be a whole lotta wood. We sold 99 percent and made a pile of money. But, a large number of logs were left behind by the sawmill or whoever cut them down and are ours for the getting.

The cutting in one area ended about two weeks ago according to the guy who coordinated the cutting. I believe some of these were left because they were crotch wood, short lengths, etc. I will also see if I can locate a metal detector from work that we can use to scan the wood. I don't know of any metal but it would probably not be good for a saw blade to find any by accident. :eusa_doh:

I have a truck and I believe I could borrow a trailer from a friend/neighbor.

Bernhard, all of the logs are greater than 10 inch and of varying length. Most are well over two foot in diameter. I am not certain why some were left behind because they look pretty good to me. I worry about liability if we get too big of a production going on. What if someone gets hurt? And I don't want to raise any flags. I believe the key is to think and act small scale so we can milk it pretty good.

That's not to say some of this wood couldn't be loaded onto a trailer and hauled offsite for sawing. Once offsite the liability is gone. If that seems like a viable option let me try to get a better count of logs in the area and we can see if it's feasible. I can try to get some pics of a few as well.

I will put some feelers out at work and see what the best approach would be. Again, while the company could care less about giving away the wood at this point, there is certainly concern about someone getting hurt. I'll check things out tomorrow morning and see what makes sense.

Chuck

 

[sapwood]

Thanks Chuck. And I appreciate your concern about liability. As a habitual firewood scrounger I find housing developers increasingly and understandably reluctant to allow someone on their property with a chainsaw. It's the most dangerous tool in my shop :!:

The suggestion to haul it away, then work up seems like an excellent solution. Keep us posted. I would love to have some of the walnut. And my schedule as a retiree is--well flexible :lol:

Sapwood

 

[cpowell]

The guy who coordinates wood cutting on the property was out today. I'll talk to him tomorrow and see what scenario will work best. I'm gonna put my camera in the truck so if I remember I'll drive around and take some pics.

Sapwood, I like your "retired" sentiment. I have a very good friend who signs every email to me, "From your Retired Friend, Billy". Gave me a good chuckle to read your line.

My own schedule says this coming weekend is open. I have plans next weekend and the following weekend Saturday is locked up. I guess the wood will be okay for a while but want to get it off the ground, cut, stacked, etc as soon as possible. We can play it by ear, I don't think the wood's going anywhere.

Chuck

 

[cpowell]

I spoke with our wood cutting coordinator (actually more like an agronomist) and he supports the covert approach to wood gathering. No problem coming in with trailers and getting logs loaded up and I can likely enlist the help of a coworker if we want to slice the logs into shorter, more manageable pieces. I believe we would have a tractor to help load up. We could then drive to my house and do what we please with the wood such as cut up and split up. Firewood is another option if interested.

I am wondering if the best approach is to select wood for potential turning blanks and have them split then use the bandsaw to cut blanks. I don't have a clue how the blanks should be cut. Can anyone provide guidance? ie, if we were considering a 10 x 10 x 4 inch blank, would the grain be running in the 4 inch direction or would the 4 inch direction be cross-grain?

I have seen a few walnut logs that would be appropriate for resaw and was thinking of cutting 8/4 stock. I am not sure about walnut density. A Google search says up to 60 lbs/ft3. That puts a 14 inch diameter 6 foot long log at roughly 380 lbs...kinda heavy, huh?

FWIW I got an email today saying a truck was headed my way with a delivery from Texas. May be here Friday. That'd be just-in-time delivery, huh?

Chuck

 

[DaveO]

Chuck, check out this tutorial by Handturnedbowls on cutting logs into bowl blanks. It is extremely well done, as are all of his posted information

http://ncwoodworker.net/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=117

The blanks can be cut with the grain running either way, they will just give you different results on the lathe, and some orientations are better for some applications then others.
Dave

 

[clowman]

Oh poo Dave... you beat me. I'll second that how to article by Cad..