Daninvan
ArboristSite Operative
Down to the city log dump with a friend today. My daughter took my camera for a school project so I only have crappy phone pictures.
We've had a mini heat wave recently, it was probably over 20 degrees C today. By far the warmest milling day so far. Unfortunately the heat wave also trapped a lot of pollution over the city. The haze to the east was so bad that it obscured the downtown core.
The prevailing winds blow onshore (to the east) so all the pollution heads overland, while out west towards the ocean it was a gorgeous day.
I neglected to take a before shot of the cypress, but we got 5 slabs that were 2 1/2" thick out of it. I was really happy with the slabs, they were mostly pretty clear and the colour was perfect, just a touch of pink in them and they also have a delicious smell to them. The saw cut through the cpress like butter, I was very happy with the performance.
The cherry bark was a lot of work to get off before milling. Luckily my friend did most of the hard work on it.
The cherry was a lot harder going with the mill than the cypress was. No surprise there I guess. While the mill moved smoothly down the cypress log, it kept grabbing on the cherry log. A sharpening helped somewhat, but it was still grabby. This chain is at its end of life, the teeth are down to maybe 1/4" long, so it is now officially retired.
We wound up with four cherry slabs, we milled them a tiny bit thicker at 3" as my friend is going to use the cherry for turning bowls and platters. He will cut it up into bowl blanks at home. The grain was surprisingly good and clear despite the log being gnarly and having some rot on one side.
It remained a beautiful day the whole time, we were done in about three hours. The tide went out and lots of people were out there with their dogs and kids.
One lady decided to set up her chair for sunbathing quite close to us. Not sure why with the beach being a couple miles long she set up so close to the guys with chainsaws. This picture also shows the haze over downtown.
The city closes the log dump to chainsawing in May, as there are too many other people using the beach as the weather gets better. So this will probably be my last time until the city reopens it to milling in the fall. This was my second most active milling year, I have slabs drying in my backyard from 20 logs that I milled this season. I actualy milled more logs than that, but some I don't take any wood for myself, like today's cherry. I probably milled close to 30 logs since the middle of September.
We've had a mini heat wave recently, it was probably over 20 degrees C today. By far the warmest milling day so far. Unfortunately the heat wave also trapped a lot of pollution over the city. The haze to the east was so bad that it obscured the downtown core.
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/669/669e1500d4fe53f046978d73a3998d58.jpg)
The prevailing winds blow onshore (to the east) so all the pollution heads overland, while out west towards the ocean it was a gorgeous day.
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/eb4/eb4150e4bc251973d5b906b64b7dcaaf.jpg)
I neglected to take a before shot of the cypress, but we got 5 slabs that were 2 1/2" thick out of it. I was really happy with the slabs, they were mostly pretty clear and the colour was perfect, just a touch of pink in them and they also have a delicious smell to them. The saw cut through the cpress like butter, I was very happy with the performance.
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/c71/c71f228f78de084293460bd6bc4536fc.jpg)
The cherry bark was a lot of work to get off before milling. Luckily my friend did most of the hard work on it.
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/0a7/0a7bcea7a36d3f8de34c15f022501ef4.jpg)
The cherry was a lot harder going with the mill than the cypress was. No surprise there I guess. While the mill moved smoothly down the cypress log, it kept grabbing on the cherry log. A sharpening helped somewhat, but it was still grabby. This chain is at its end of life, the teeth are down to maybe 1/4" long, so it is now officially retired.
We wound up with four cherry slabs, we milled them a tiny bit thicker at 3" as my friend is going to use the cherry for turning bowls and platters. He will cut it up into bowl blanks at home. The grain was surprisingly good and clear despite the log being gnarly and having some rot on one side.
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/90e/90ec4da14d9e7cf9d10bb5e0a445ed0a.jpg)
It remained a beautiful day the whole time, we were done in about three hours. The tide went out and lots of people were out there with their dogs and kids.
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/52c/52ca475fb4b5cc9ba318a747bff4abaf.jpg)
One lady decided to set up her chair for sunbathing quite close to us. Not sure why with the beach being a couple miles long she set up so close to the guys with chainsaws. This picture also shows the haze over downtown.
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/bd0/bd07865eeb089bc57b8896c26eb80e26.jpg)
The city closes the log dump to chainsawing in May, as there are too many other people using the beach as the weather gets better. So this will probably be my last time until the city reopens it to milling in the fall. This was my second most active milling year, I have slabs drying in my backyard from 20 logs that I milled this season. I actualy milled more logs than that, but some I don't take any wood for myself, like today's cherry. I probably milled close to 30 logs since the middle of September.