Metal in wood

[Bluetick]

My neighbor and I were bucking a large log when his saw hit a chunk of metal. His chain didn't break but it was dulled but good. He was about 5 feet from the base of the log and according to him that's where you're most likely to hit metal. Anyone know why this is?

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Because that's where people usually hang stuff, around eye level.

 

[sean donato]

From the base up to around 5-6 feet is pretty normal. I've hit stuff higher up as well. Chains, wire insulators, nails, wire rope, fence. Just depends on who's yard tree or fence row tree your cutting.

 

[Mad Professor]

Line tree. Fence line or property line. Yard trees too.

 

[Captain Bruce]

My neighbor and I were bucking a large log when his saw hit a chunk of metal. His chain didn't break but it was dulled but good. He was about 5 feet from the base of the log and according to him that's where you're most likely to hit metal. Anyone know why this is?

Someone put a T-rail fence post next to the tree, and it was absorbed. I have a collection of logs that demonstrate this. Many still have the fence wire, going in and coming out. Theres an iron post showing at both ends....

 

[kshansen]

I've heard that a saw mill will refuse to mill any tree that is out of a hedge for just this reason.

I know of at least two trees near my property line with sections of barbed wire sticking out of them. These are trees of close to two foot diameter and the wire appears to be going straight through the middle. Also believe one of them has a bit of a ceramic insulator showing!

I've lived here for going on 50 years and don't recall any of these fields being used for pasture during that time.

 

[sean donato]

I've heard that a saw mill will refuse to mill any tree that is out of a hedge for just this reason.

I know of at least two trees near my property line with sections of barbed wire sticking out of them. These are trees of close to two foot diameter and the wire appears to be going straight through the middle. Also believe one of them has a bit of a ceramic insulator showing!

I've lived here for going on 50 years and don't recall any of these fields being used for pasture during that time.

Same here, and if the metal detector finds anything it's a rejected load or mill ban. Hence why I end up with my logging friends yard trees pretty often.

 

[Seachaser]

Cutting up a huge tree after Hurricane Michael. Found big nails halfway in. Used to be a fence row about 75 years ago.

 

[.358 win]

Cutting up a huge tree after Hurricane Michael. Found big nails halfway in. Used to be a fence row about 75 years ago.

I know an older gent that had a scrap with an oak,, up in Connecticut... On the fourth chain finally put the tree on the ground.. Come to find out there was a musket in it.. Someone leaned it up against that tree and it grew around it.. You could tell where the stock and forearm were and the metal was un mistakable.. Would not have believed it if not actually seen..

 

[MudgeHollowBeaver]

I discovered this chain (un)sharpener (electric fence insulator) during splitting. It was grown over deep in the core of the tree. My chain just touched it but that was enough to require a sharpening session.

 

[old CB]

I've run across every kind of metal, as well as ceramic electric fence insulators, when cutting trees. Yes, most sawmills want nothing to do with yard trees. I took some logs to a mill and when the operator learned that some came from residential property he would mill the lumber only if I agreed to cover the repair costs to his outfit if any of my logs had hardware in them.

People nail or screw birdhouses, mailboxes--hell, everything under the sun--to trees. Or they hang a log chain in the tree and then forget about it. Don't be surprised by anything you find inside a tree.

 

[Mad Professor]

I worked a while at a commercial mill. We had the biggest white oak trunk come in I ever saw in the mill, so big the debarker couldn't flip it onto the chain line, had to push it with a loader.

Circle saw took a cut, the we had to finish it with a chainsaw. Flipped it 90 degrees and another cut, and finished with the chainsaw to get 2nd slab off. Two more times then the sawyer started cutting 8/4 off the huge cant.

Then the saw just stopped (300 HP 440 volt 3 phase), lights in the mill dimmed. Carriage would not back out of the cant. We had to get all the guys at the mill to take a log and battering ram the carriage back from the saw. The circular blade was badly damaged, warped like a potato chip and carbide teeth snapped off.

Turns out it was a "line tree". At some point it supported a split rail gate, that was held with 5 horse shoes ground to points, and driven into the tree. The tree grew around those many years before.

The owner was pissed at their loggers who bought the tree in, and they admitted to it being a "line tree". Mill was shut down most of the day when they changed out the saw blade. We were happy as it was ~ 95 oF and we got a paid break all afternoon. We just did clean up instead of stacking 8/4 oak.......

 

[Andy K]

Tree Huggers are also know for "Spiking" Trees! I have seen several different types of spikes driven into the trees at different heights and angles. It makes for a really bad time when trying to saw it up for even firewood!

 

[The Shooters Apprentice]

Tree Huggers are also know for "Spiking" Trees! I have seen several different types of spikes driven into the trees at different heights and angles. It makes for a really bad time when trying to saw it up for even firewood!

My dad used to talk about running into this in south east Alaska when he was a faller. They would fly out these to these job sites back in the 80s to spike trees and do what every else hippies to to stop a logging job.

 

[farfromiowa]

 

[bobjlw]

My neighbor and I were bucking a large log when his saw hit a chunk of metal. His chain didn't break but it was dulled but good. He was about 5 feet from the base of the log and according to him that's where you're most likely to hit metal. Anyone know why this is?

Metal I find is mostly fencing. The top wire might be 5' up I suppose.

Farmers would plant a tree line. Then when a fence was wanted they incorperated the trees, stapled the fence to the tree. That being many decades ago the tree has grown over the fencing and now it is hidden.

 

[sb47]

I find mostly nails in the wood my tree guy brings me. But I have found metal rot iron fence and I even found a whole distributer it the crotch of an oak tree. Most common is the aluminum base from a outdoor vapor light.

 

[lone wolf]

New chain and a base cut almost guarantees hitting junk.

 

[Seachaser]

I know an older gent that had a scrap with an oak,, up in Connecticut... On the fourth chain finally put the tree on the ground.. Come to find out there was a musket in it.. Someone leaned it up against that tree and it grew around it.. You could tell where the stock and forearm were and the metal was un mistakable.. Would not have believed it if not actually seen..

That’s a story you could tell to your grandkids. I would have cut a chunk out to display.

 

[pdqdl]

Just wait till you get some concrete poured down into a tree by an old school "arborist". That's a lot worse than the metal.

Kids with nails, making a tree-house are always fun. They nail boards to the tree, and 30 years later those nails are buried in the wood 15' up a tree. Dulls a chain every time.