Friday Milling

[Daninvan]

Typical winter's day in Vancouver, about 5 degrees C, low clouds, intermittent drizzle, with a bonus of an atypical east wind to keep fingers and noses cold.

Arranged to do some milling with several friends, but it was one of those days where the wood did not work out, even though we were willing and the saws were working well.

Puzzled over this knobby old growth red cedar stump remnant for a while. Took off a sample piece, it was deeply fissured and stained. We decided it would be a lot of work for probably not very much wood, so left it.

Next we turned our attention to a large maple cookie. It was badly stained/spalted, but we suspected there was quilting in the narrow band of sapwood. We freehanded off a couple chunks for my buddy the turner, but despite the rather excellent quilting, there was too much staining to make much more than a teacup or similar.

A third maple crotch log turned out to be badly rotted, we had to give up it as well. So at the end of a couple hours of chainsawing, one of the guys went home with one half-spherical burl about 7" across and the rest of us got nothing.

"The worst day milling at the beach is better than the best day working in the office" or something like that!

I hope to be back at it again next week, only problem is that I am running out of space to store slabs!

 

[BobL]

"The worst day milling at the beach is better than the best day working in the office" or something like that!

:msp_thumbup:

Thanks for posting.

 

[Hillbilly3995]

Cant rep you again yet, but good post.

 

[RPM]

I hope to be back at it again next week, only problem is that I am running out of space to store slabs!

I'm in Vancouver on Tuesday next week...I'll stop by with the truck and up 'free" up some space for you :msp_smile:

 

[SDB777]

Puzzled over this knobby old growth red cedar stump remnant for a while.

That would make for some pretty nice rustic bench slabs with that nasty looking natural edge!

What was wrong with the test piece to make you bypass it?



Scott

 

[Daninvan]

Scott, it was an old growth red cedar that was probably originally logged in the 1870's. What we had was only part of the stump, so it must have been a truly massive tree. As you can see from the original photo, the surface of it had a lot of deep cracks. 140 years of rain and deep cracks led to a lot of stained and punky wood, even on something as hardy as WRC.

The test piece we cut off had a mix of good wood and punky wood in it. Perhaps if we had gone deeper into it we would have found a higher proportion of solid material. We had initially thought that there was some burl on it too, but that turned out to be incorrect. The other problem was that our 60" bar was way too small, so a lot of trimming would have been required. Plus the thing was covered in dirt and had pebbles embedded in some of the crevasses.

Perhaps it's a bit lame, but we decided that it would be a lot of work for probably pretty gamey and wild slabs that didn't really appeal to any of us. That's ultimately what it came down to.

Instead, most of the crew came over to my place and helped me organize my woodpile so that there is nothing leaning against the garage for my wife to complain about anymore! So the day was not a total loss, for me anyways!

 

[SDB777]

Cant rep you again yet, but good post.

I tried too....but it says I need to spread it around before giving any more to him. That seems wrong some how....





Didn't realize the cedar piece was that big! Gonna need to get you something you can put on a slab/log or whatever to give us a clue. And it's a good thing your stack got some re-working!!!


Scott