Axmen starts with Hendrix playing a Dylan song, and it seems to fit

[ciscoguy01]

Axmen

Biggest thing I'm wondering is why in the heck they called it AXMEN. Most likely it was created by some yuppie puke that was high when he thought of it. I doubt a single one of those guys use an Axe for anything at all. I think most of the guys in here said it right when they said they don't even really use a saw anymore. It's all harvesters and big machines. They were logging a small patch, like 4 or 500 acres that I went to check out last summer, I think I saw one little chainsaw, and that was for some small slash and occasional use trimming and whatnot... Sadly enough, none of those guys are what you'd really consider a logger by old-timey standards, and that's west or east... As far as big wood goes, if anyone has seen the lumberjack sky pilot or a couple other films, then you'd have seen the 10 and 15' dbh logs they used to drag out of here all the time. There's a ton of pics of logs that size if you look around. Here's a site below of what some REAL old-timey loggers did. They did this out west also. I don't know if they floated logs down rivers out west though??? Anybody know about that??? I'm interested in what the differences were like back in the 20's and that era. I know my great grandfather used to use teams of horses to pull out logs to load on RR cars. Paths were made to slide the sleds full of logs... Really interesting stuff. I've never seen the cable stuff like they are showing, so I think that's VERY interesting also...

http://www.adirondackhistory.org/logging/

eh?

How bout enough of the pi55ing eh? Maybe we can find out some different stuff about how things are done there to here eh? opcorn:

 

[MacDaddy]

Yes but a West coast tree has the same board feet as 15 east coast tree's:jawdrop:

 

[Joggerjack]

Oh yea how did a TV show turn this into a eastcoast westcoast fued!!!!!!!

Because I was bored and looking for some fun on my computer while I recover from an injury.

Next it's going to be north vs. south so watch out.

 

[Log Splitter]

Around here in the Gulf coast area, not many saws are used anymore sadly. Loggers down here use tree harvesters. trees aren't even touch by human hands. harvester cuts and lays down, skidder draggs them out. then they go through a machine that tops them with a hydraulic saw. rips the limbs off and loads them. Only saw on the job is probbly in the log truck to trim the limbs that didn't get ripped. Sad ain't it. Oh yea how did a TV show turn this into a eastcoast westcoast fued!!!!!!!

Ain't that the truth, ralawler. I was watching the harvester work across the pond from my camp last spring. A big pine would shake and then start 'walking' through the woods. It's about the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen.

The crew did have a couple of Jred saws, but only for what you were saying, doing some minor cleanup on the logs before they were loaded on the truck. They said they liked my little Stihls, but told me Stihls cost too much money to fix after they 'tear up'. Too funny. I also enjoyed how they came to check on me when I was bucking up hardwood tops. They were worried about me getting hurt, and I was worried about what would happen to the guy driving the harvester if it started to roll on a hillside.

Don't tell the guys on this thread we have forests down south, they will start insulting us too.

 

[.aspx]

Logging in western WA is very much still done with chainsaws. I'll take a picture tomorrow of the hill in my backyard that was heli-logged a couple of years back.

It's about 15 miles from downtown Bellingham.

 

[ralawler]

Things have changed. I don't know that this is true. I was told by our mill management that 60% of the lumber used in U.S construction comes from the southern states now. We take in about 120 log trucks aday. mill almost 1,000,000 board feet in 24 hours. We run 24 hours aday 6 days aweak.

 

[Cedarkerf]

They still ran logs in the rivers in Idaho up till the 80s called the guys who ran the logs river pigs.
Old pic of Grandad with what they used to cut in Roseburg Oregon area late 50's

 

[.aspx]

@ralawler I heard that too. I watched a history of logging program that mentioned 1/4 to 1/3 of harvested lumber comes from the southern states.

Here's the picture of the hill in my backyard that was heli-logged a couple of years back. This picture is from over the winter and I will try to find the better, more detailed pictures later.

But as you can tell, you'd be pretty hard-pressed to get a harvester on that hill safely and effectively.

In case anyone is wondering that is a bat box above one of my woodsheds. There is a lake in front of our house and during the spring & summer we get a ton of flies / mosquitoes. We have pet bats that eat them

 

[Joggerjack]

There is a reason it's called Georgia Pacific and not Pacific Georgia.

It's not like logging in the south is new thing. Newbies started logging in the south at Jamestown Virginia in 1607.

 

[Joggerjack]

As for bunchers vs chainsaws. Come on folks, people use what they have. It costs $100,000 to buy an old beat up feller buncher the highway department threw away. Some dude starts a logging outfit and hires 2 guys, what do you think? He's gonna use a Dodge 4X4 pickup with 4 mud tires and chains as a skidder, because it won't pass inspection and he can't use it on the road anymore and it still runs. His log truck is an old Ford 9 yard dump truck, he can hoist the logs into the truck using a rented excavator because he can't afford to buy one. Hopefully when he has a few good jobs he can afford to buy an old Ford wheel excavator (no tracks!) and use that as a skidder, one guy cuts the tree with a chain saw, another guy pushes it over with the excavator bucket extended way up high, they rent an old beat up bulldozer to make a road, etc.

It's not like everybody can afford a brand new buncher. Get real. People will use chain saws and a team of sled dogs if thats all they have, go to the kennel and adopt 10 big dogs and hook 'em up for loggin' it's cheaper than a friggin buncher. Then move on up to mules.

 

[greenmm]

They still ran logs in the rivers in Idaho up till the 80s called the guys who ran the logs river pigs.
Old pic of Grandad with what they used to cut in Roseburg Oregon area late 50's

Guy up the street from me was in the last river drive on the clearwater river. Tough old SOB! He's got alot of it on film. Even starred in the Disney movie "Charlie the lonesome cougar" (or something like that). Still dumping logs inn the Joe at St.Maries! Just building rafts and tugging to the lake. Still, you don't see much of the anymore!

 

[sILlogger]

Around here in the Gulf coast area, not many saws are used anymore sadly. Loggers down here use tree harvesters. trees aren't even touch by human hands. harvester cuts and lays down, skidder draggs them out. then they go through a machine that tops them with a hydraulic saw. rips the limbs off and loads them. Only saw on the job is probbly in the log truck to trim the limbs that didn't get ripped. Sad ain't it. Oh yea how did a TV show turn this into a eastcoast westcoast fued!!!!!!!

those aren't loggers...they're equipment operators!!

 

[ralawler]

There is a reason it's called Georgia Pacific and not Pacific Georgia.

It's not like logging in the south is new thing. Newbies started logging in the south at Jamestown Virginia in 1607.

I know its not a new thing here but it didn't take off like it is today untiill they started clearing the hard wood and planting yellow pine in the late 60s early 70s. Alot of hard wood forrest are gone now pine is in there place. I hate a pine tree. But they do put food on my table. Theres nothing like going hunting on a fall morning with a frost on the ground and the leaves changing colors in a hard wood stand. fewer and fewer places like that now. here anyway. I got off subject sorry!

 

[Joggerjack]

If heavy equipment can do the work of 100 guys who you gonna hire?

If you need tree removal service and land clearing, tree surgery, commercial or residential, go to this web site and look up Buddy's tree service that is my outfit. Got roughly 1 million dollars worth of heavy equipment and all the Allens you can possibly want to hire. My family has been in the logging business for 200 years and between all the cousins and second cousins etc there are about 40 of us, all loggers.

http://www.townofday.com/businesses.cfm

 

[sILlogger]

Umm...i don't see anything about logging?

This thread is worthless!

 

[.aspx]

It's not like everybody can afford a brand new buncher. Get real. People will use chain saws and a team of sled dogs if thats all they have, go to the kennel and adopt 10 big dogs and hook 'em up for loggin' it's cheaper than a friggin buncher. Then move on up to mules.

I'm trying to be nice but after reading that I'm going to have to say that you're not too bright. I'd like to see your fancy buncher on some of the logging sites around here. Last I heard those weren't supposed to be used on steep slopes.

 

[ciscoguy01]

Ummmm

What's a buncher??? No, I'm not kidding... opcorn:

 

[turnkey4099]

Guy up the street from me was in the last river drive on the clearwater river. Tough old SOB! He's got alot of it on film. Even starred in the Disney movie "Charlie the lonesome cougar" (or something like that). Still dumping logs inn the Joe at St.Maries! Just building rafts and tugging to the lake. Still, you don't see much of the anymore!

Curious. What year was the last drive? My folks lived right on the banks of the N Fork at Ahsahka (moved there after I entered the service) I visited there a couple times back in the mid/late 50s but missed the drives.

Harry K

 

[Joggerjack]

What's a buncher??? No, I'm not kidding... opcorn:

It's "feller buncher" just punch feller buncher into your google. You are the only guy I like around here cause you are from NY.

Some people use the term harvester but that's wrong, a harvester is part feller buncher and also delimbs and cuts. Feller buncher cuts the tree and lays it down. Harvester cuts the tree, turns it horizontal, delimbs 16 feet of it, cuts, delimbs 16 more feet, cuts, etc. We don't have them around here, seen one on TV and it blew my mind.

 

[slowp]

Well, some of us on here are like the environmental groups. We take what info we like from some little area and then apply it to the entire world. Tsk tsk. That's all on that.

Way back, there was a question about protecting soils after clearcutting. Well, there's different ways. You can take the big cull logs off and leave the branches on the unit, and not burn. You can burn and the buffer at the bottom of the unit will protect the creeks. You might lose a bit of soil but then we have strict forest practice laws and you have to replant the clearcut or lose your tax break. There's always leaves blowing and where the show is logging, on the coast, brush grows so fast you can sit and have a beer and actually see it grow! It is a rainforest afterall.

A buncher is short for feller-buncher. It is a machine that grabs a tree and holds it while a saw of some sort..chain or round, cuts it off, then it grabs another, and if they aren't to heavy grabs another then piles them in a "bunch" so they can be grabbed in a bunch by (ideally) a grapple skidder or cat, or helicopter or choked onto a skyline. The first time they tried to use a feller buncher here, they grabbed onto a tree, cut it, and the machine had to let go or tip over. Tooo heavy. That's another thing, tree weight changes with location or season. Yeah, in the show they're doing tree length, but they have good sized yarders, even the 071 can pull respectable loads, and it is fall. The trees are heavier in the early summer when the sap is flowing. Or they'll be heavier down in the bottoms. But not enough to make much of a difference. You should have seen the logs that they dragged up hills in the 70s and 80s. Those yarders are now sitting along I-5. They were powerful machines.

Oh, a "harvester" is called a processor here. Processors usually sit on the landing because it is too wet or too steep for them to work in the units. But there are exceptions.

We work in snow too. Just depends on how much your crew can handle. Last winter they were wallowing in 3 feet hooking logs. This is at a low elevation of 2500'. Up higher, you couldn't work because of the snow depths. I marked skyline corridors while wearing snowshoes. The cutters had to dig out the trees so they'd get stumps low enough. This year with the bad market it didn't pay to have to plow in and then fight the snow. Everybody pulled out.

I'm a native of out here, born on the wet side, raised on the dry side now living on the wet side. You can't find very much similarity in the two different sides. We've had some real humongus fires rip through here in the past, and will in the future. Along comes August and we get dry east winds. They dry everything out quickly. The moss is no longer damp, and we start having to use skin moisturizers. When that happens, we go into hootowl for a few days and if the winds keep up, the woods get shut down--no logging. The big fires have occurred during east winds. Much of this area was burned in the early 1900s.


Any other questions? Don't make me compare you with tree huggers ever again!:greenchainsaw: