Is softwood really that soft?!?

[MCW]

Is there actually any timber left in WA Bob and do the greenies picket your woodyard and house?

 

[tdi-rick]

Been there and done that! It's all in this thread. What I eventually found was it does keep the chain cool and clean, but the water - even just a dribble - still washes too much chain oil off the bar and bar and chain wear is greater and it's not worth it. Also I prefer treading on and being covered in red sawdust than in red mud.

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Bob, I wonder, if this stuff ever became available here, would it help keep the temps down/better wear when milling ?

http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=54060

Actually can't find it anymore on the Euro Oregon site. (it came from Europe) I wonder if it's been killed off ?

 

[tdi-rick]

Is there actually any timber left in WA Bob and do the greenies picket your woodyard and house?

I was going to ask the same about Sth Oz

There was plenty of big timber in the Sth West when I was a kid visiting thirty odd years ago.
Has Bob got it all already ? :monkey:

 

[BobL]

That grain is awesome!..What are the woodworking characteristics of that wood?

Sensational, it's really nice to mill, and really easy to wood work. This is Blue Tipped Leaf Jarrah and millable logs are quite rare timber but it's very closely related cousin (Jarrah) is much more common and almost as nice. Unfortunately the blue tip doesn't stay as burgundy red as when it is first cut. My slabs of the blue tip are still drying.

 

[BobL]

I was going to ask the same about Sth Oz

There was plenty of big timber in the Sth West when I was a kid visiting thirty odd years ago.
Has Bob got it all already ? :monkey:

There's plenty of timber left, but I just hope they leave some for the grandkids. Dieback (fungal root disease) is making a real mess of the jarrah forests and farmers are still clearing although people like my mate Hud is deliberately keeping half of his 250 acres as bush and he is replanting trees.

BTW just about all the logs I mill come from my mate Jeff the Arborist who works the Suburbs around Perth. That blue tipped jarrah log came from a mining area that was being cleared and burned. The area had already been milled and that log was deemed too small to be worth milling!

 

[TreeClimber57]

When softwood and hardwood are wet you can tell a difference, but when they are dry you can tell a big difference. The hardwood seems to turn to iron and the softwood turns to mush or dust unless it turns to fat..

Agreed there...

 

[BobL]

Bob, I wonder, if this stuff ever became available here, would it help keep the temps down/better wear when milling ?

http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=54060

Actually can't find it anymore on the Euro Oregon site. (it came from Europe) I wonder if it's been killed off ?

Interesting. In terms of the science, water has a higher heat capacity than oil so it should remove more heat than oil. There is no doubt that the water cooling I used helps keep the bar and chain cool. On stopping the saw, the chain could be touched immediately and it felt luke warm. It also helped control chain stretch. The problem with my setup was the water cooling washed the oil off the chain and bar so they wore faster than just using oil. there may be other setups that work. I think Matildasmate has a cooling setup that dumps water on the chain just as it leaves the log which is probably better because it then gets reoiled after it goes around t he sprocket.

 

[windthrown]

Gladly. Its about time you provided this, I searched, but couldn't find it. I think its a misprint considering the quantity of contradicting information I've found, but it is a source none the less.

About time? I have been busy with ski patrol this week. We patrol year round on Mt Hood (supposed to snow at Timberline tomorrow...). I have also been busy dropping trees and chipping to pay the rent and all. I am limited to a few posts a day at most these days.

 

[windthrown]

well i live near eugene oregon. and yeah, there definately are more types of tree's than i stated, several types of maples, wild cherry, couple oaks and such, but all that i just stated are really rare where i live, basically 3 types of wood take the market for firewood or lumber here. maple alder and fir. but yes, madrone is very nice and near the hardest wood around. also you're forgetting chinqupin or however you ####en spell it. its rock hard when it dries and burns forever. theres really no white oak near my domain, except on private propert, and i only know of 2 cali black oaks, and private property once again. understand what im saying now? alder, maple and fir are just the most common, cant look around without seeing one or the other.

You are staying too close to the main roads. I lived near Eugene when I was on the sheep ranch and scrunging for firewood. It was 105 acres, with creeks and steep hillsides, 85 acres of which was in trees and the rest in pastures. We had many tree species. Mostly Doug and Grand fir, then red and insence cedar, bigleaf maple, red alder, madrone, white oak, black oak (black oak has pointey leaf tips, and white is has rounded leaves), golden chinkapin, pacific dogwood, vine maple, hazelnut, Oregon ash, and a various species of willow (Pacific, Schoolers, Hooker, and Red). Those were the indiginous species. The place was a homestead, and an apple/pear/plum orchard between the world wars. There was apple, pear, plum, cherry, boxelder, weeping and twisted willow, and black walnut from earlier plantings. The ex also planted 10-20 thousand tress, some being giant sequoias and coastal redwoods, the rest are listed in the species listed above. There is a lot of white alder up there as well as birch and some other species.

I can tell you were there are many trees down there. You just have to know where to look. Or who to ask. I scrounged for a lot of firewood. Most slash pile cull logs there are madrone, maple and some oak, as well as Doug firs. I know where there are slash piles the size of houses. There are BLM areas to cut and also national forest areas to cut, in both the coast range and in the slopes of the Cascades. It also helps to know the guys at those lumber companies. They give permission to cut firewood from slash piles, as well as hunt for elk and deer. Many of the logging roads southwest of Eugene are not gated, like they are up here. Its easy to go get firewood. Of course a lot of mills are shut down now, and there are not a lot of new slash piles to cut from these days. Going to be too late to cut after the 4th though. They will curtail chainsaws and cutting activity soon for fire control out there in the forested areas.

 

[BobL]

. . . do the greenies picket your woodyard and house?

No, but my wife has threatened to do this, just gotta make he another couple of somethings or others 90% of my logs come from street trees or domestic situations so no one really bothers us about what we do. In fact Jeff the arboriste is a master at turning the milling into a "greenie activity.

ACT 1 SCENE1
_________________________
Setting and players:
Home Owner (HO) of multimillion $ property in ritzy suburb thinking about having a nice looking tree in their yard cut down.
Aborist Jeff (AJ) in clean shorts (always keeps a clean pair in the 4WD for the ritzy suburbs) and combs his hair especially because his hair always pokes up like he's just been electrocuted
______________________________
HO: It's such a shame to think about taking it down.

AJ: yes it is Madam, but you can see it's too close to your house and will eventually damage the foundations.

HO: can't you just prune it a little?

AJ: Yes we can but you will have to get us back every two years and eventually you'll have to take it down. by then you'll have big repair bill on your foundation

HO: really!

AJ: Yes madam, I recommend taking it down and planting something smaller a bit further away, something like a Eucalyptus fornicatus or a Mellaluca Expensicus (he just makes these names up - the first one is his nickname for another f...ing gum)

HO: I suppose. . . . ., pity about the tree through . . . I am a bit of a greenie you know . . . .

AJ: No problem madam, you will be pleased to know that leaves and branches are all turned into eco mulch and the wood from the trunk is recycled into useful timber at our milling yard . . . . .

HO: Really. . . how exciting. . . . .well that's just fabo - where do sign!!!
______________________________

Score!

 

[MCW]

Good one Bob Sounds about right too...