Deadtrees,
I was hoping Doug could display clip #3, it shows me bucking the first cut. The top of the log was over 6’ above my head. The trees on the clips were so big that extra caution was required to make sure the cuts were square with the tree. It takes a lot of experience to match up the cuts when sawing from both sides with a 7’ bar. The first log on both trees was 16’ with 6” trim allowance. The rest were 20’ with 6” trim allowance. The very top logs were whatever length came out. Starting at the minimum of 16’ (i.e., 16’, 20’, 24’, 32’ etc.). The company didn’t want odd length logs (i.e., 22’, 26’ 28’ for example) since they could only handle 24’ logs on the carriage in the mill. When the log lengths were 32’, the 1 ½’ was added for trim.
The logging crew came in and used dozers and what they called “wheel cats” to remove the logs from where they were felled and skidded to the landing for loading onto to trucks. The company had private roads and their trucks had 14’ bunks to carry out these enormous loads.
When falling large Douglas Fir trees, they were to be bucked in 8’ increments starting with 16’, 24’, 32’, 40’, plus trim, etc. When the log was 40’, then you had to add 4’ trim making it 44’ since that much was needed at the plyboard mill. There they were reduced to 8’ lengths to fit their lathes and made into veneer.
The big mill in Fort Bragg used large band saws. These band saws blades were really wide, at least a foot or more, and had teeth on both sides so the saws cut going forward and backward on the carriage.
Art Martin
