I found another old giant while my saw is at the doctor!

[cityslicker]

After my last post about having trouble starting my saw http://www.arboristsite.com/milling-saw-mills/219748.htm I have decided to send it off to the arboristsite saw doctor Mastermind to get a check up. I think it may have the flu? I have been climbing the walls wanting to mill more slabs. I have even been looking for a back up saw head. So to keep my restless mitts occupied I have been scouring the land for trees to salvage. This is what I came up with. The whole tree fell over from a recent wind storm, the tree is atleast 100 years old and has heavy decay. Lots of rot which of course is why it went over. I am hoping to be able to find some solid wood in some of the limbs and the massive 4+ foot diameter trunk. There was even a 12' fir tree growing out of a crotch! This is certainly a big hot mess of work which will take many weekends to complete. I will continue to post progress as it happens. Any one want to guess the species?

View attachment 275805View attachment 275808View attachment 275809View attachment 275810

 

[qbilder]

Lots of rot but nice score!!! Looks like some type of walnut, possibly an elm. If I were forced to guess, i'd say English walnut. I have only milled a little bit of E. Walnut but the stuff I cut looks pretty much exactly like that. I have seen elm with dark heart & bark that looks like that, too.

 

[john taliaferro]

Yes +1 for e walnut . Looks like a really dangerous mess ,move them around and clean up before you start .

 

[SDB777]

Jumping right in with the easy to access blowdown you could find?

Seriously, with all the rot, moss, and whatever else you have there. You will spend a LOT of time digging that stuff off before you can even get to milling. (JMHO, but I wouldn't run even my nasty stump through the dirt chain through this piece). There is nothing else available, anywhere?




Scott (I'm about saving your equipment) B

 

[qbilder]

I agree about the mess. It's kinda nasty & could be more work & effort than it's worth. On the other hand, that butt log likely has no rot in heart (if it's actually walnut), and given that it's short & stubby with a big heavy crown, there's fair potential for curly figure. The crotches would be interesting, too. The work may provide nothing of value or it may be something special. No way to know without milling. First thing i'd do is remove the log from the root to inspect for rot, and if solid then cut a 4" cookie off the butt log. Break the cookie in half. If the grain is wrinkled in the break like ripples, then that log is worth milling.

 

[Burlhunter13]

Try removing the bark too. You can see compression figure right underneath. And sometime with the bark on, if it has heavy curl. Easy to do when the log has rot, or has been down for a short while. It comes right off.

 

[cityslicker]

Well you were all exactly right with english walnut. There is a ton of work as stated to be done. I am still in the investigative phase, slowly dissasembling the tree to see exactly whats there. I just hope all my work pays off!

 

[qbilder]

Well keep the pics coming. Looks like potential for some good wood in there. Just like people, big fat old trees get wrinkles.

 

[excess650]

If that is truly English walnut, it will be well worth dealing with. Gunstock blanks from English walnut are ridiculously expensive, and particularly if quarter sawn. Short slabs can make 2-piece stocks, but grain flow is important when laying out the stocks.

 

[cityslicker]

Day two-

I was able to talk my dad into coming along and helping with this project. We got alot more work done than I expected! We started by dragging out some of the bigger limbs to a an open area. Though some of the branches are rotten many of the big ones are still solid. We found a mouse nest with mice in one crotch! Once we got most of the branches cleared for a pathway we started to check the trunk for integrity. There was a very rotten branch base facing up that was full of termites, potato bugs, and a large water pocket. I saw it off flush with the log to see how far down the rot went and it seemed to stop at the exterior of the trunk thankfully. Then we took out a section from each end of the trunk (basically a 1/3 of a cookie) to verify that the center is solid, which it was! There is also some really nice spalting in two big branches and part of the trunk. I have not seen evidence of any figure yet.

 

[cityslicker]

While we were on our way out to the tree we found this maple trunk in a state park that was in the middle of being taken down. They seem limb the trees then leave the trunks as a momento as there were many others like this throughout the park. This trunk was hollow on the inside and big enough to camp in! This tree is remarkable!
View attachment 277102

And lastly a quick shot of the old pro mac 10-10 on the log and the house once again.
View attachment 277103View attachment 277105

 

[excess650]

That is a neat old house!

Is that really spalting, or just the smoky black lines so often seen in English walnut? Any good solid wood removed from that tree is a major score!

 

[bowtechmadman]

Great pictures there is some gorgeous wood there...nice work! The house is amazing wife and I both commented on what a cool old house!

 

[qbilder]

Beautiful wood!!! Nice job. That maple looks to have lots of burl, too!!!!

 

[cityslicker]

Well my dad and I made it out again yesterday and we made alot more progress. This job has been nothing but great experiences at every single turn. The weather each time has been excellent, the owner is very patient and understanding, he has neighbors that would literally give you the shirts off their backs. I am so grateful that so many things are coming together the way they are! We started out by skidding a few more logs to our landing site to make way for access to the main section. The main crotch right above the trunk has many large branches going every which way and many of them have rot spots. I slowly pieced out a number of really nice bowl turning chunks then started freehand slabbing a few bolts of feathered crotch wood all while working through and around the rot. I will get pics of these later.

Nearing the end of the day one of the neighbors came over with his mini excavator and helped clear one large trunk branch out of the slash, then I had him put one end up on a log to assist in future milling.( just for BobL!!) We then bucked off the giant crotch knuckle from the top of the trunk log, he also rolled the stump and trunk over for a moment while the scrappy little stihl 032 with a 24" bar and skip tooth chisel chain finished the seperation cut. He then rolled the now free log back over and we cribbed it up into place. I must have forgot to mention that the tree fell right onto his well cistern that is 4' x 12' and 8' deep! So the blue little tank in the ground shows the proximity of the hole we have been carefully treading on!

So by this point I was all smiles seeing how much critical heavy lifting just got done with the excavator. Earlier in the day before we knew the machine would be here, my dad and I loaded two branch logs into the truck with the come-along and then as the super hero neighbor was leaving he put one more on the truck. I am going to have all the small stuff milled with a BSM as it is so much more time efficient.

Does anyone have any ideas what to do with the root ball? Should I chunk it up into turning stock or try to freehand slab some small billets out of it? We will be using a pressure washer to clean it and the trunk we are slabbing.

View attachment 278431View attachment 278435View attachment 278437View attachment 278438

 

[cityslicker]

Here are a few more pictures. View attachment 278439View attachment 278440View attachment 278441

Also while we were on our way out to the site we spotted the park ranger at the park with the crazy maple stump. As I unrolled my window to talk to him the first words out of his mouth were "the answer is NO" afterwards we spoke for a moment and he told us the reason they leave the stumps is because they don't have a saw big enough to cut through them. I said I may know a guy that has a saw that would cut through that trunk like a hot knife sliding through butter. He said "not a chance"! Well I guess it is best to leave some of them as a memory of what used to be. I am glad we atleast tried, we should always atleast try-

 

[qbilder]

I really like the truck.

 

[excess650]

I would suggest salvaging as much of the wood as possible. Small bits can be made into pen blanks, knife scales, etc.

 

[mikeb1079]

nice nice nice!

i may have missed it but who's land is this?

 

[cityslicker]

Sorry MikeB I missed your question, It is someone I have met through craigslist. My dad and I got out to the tree again today to haul off more of the small logs to my local bandsaw mill. If I have a log that is 28" diameter or less I always bring it to a bandsaw mill because they can zip through them much quicker than I can with my CSM. We managed to get two loads over to him today which just about wraps up the branch wood. We are heading back out there tomorrow with a pressure washer to blast clean the root ball so I can cut cut off the protruding roots enough to fit it in the truck. We will also pressure wash the trunk and the one branch that is too big to have band sawn.

I have only one picture from today showing the simple 2x10 with angle iron bolted to it log ramp with the first load in the truck. We used a come-along and the ramp to make this load. The next load was done by the super hero neighbor and his mini excavator, Thankfully!

Lots more to come tomorrow!

View attachment 281114