Milled an OLD Hemlock

[Woodsurfer]

Got some milling done this weekend. This old hemlock lost its top third over the winter and had to come down.

First time I have felled a tree using my milling saw. Takes some effort to cut at chest hight! I have a lot of respect for guys who cut all day with a 066. Whew!
Look at that concentration! I look like a brain surgeon cutting open a cranium.

This tree had issues, look at the rot down the center. You can see a big crack that opened down the side when the holding wood broke.

After cutting 6 feet off the bottom and top ends, I was left with some reasonable wood for milling, about 25 feet total. Hemlock mills pretty fast. Nice to stand up tall for the start of the cut, but by the end I was in full "miller's stoop" mode, someone call the massage therapist!

Here's my payoff. Some soft spots and a few streaks of rot, but mostly nice wood. Cut mostly 5/4, a few 9/4 for fun.

I counted the rings, over 200 years old and that was about ten feet from the stump. Some real old growth!

It will look nice as wall boards in my gazebo project.

 

[sloth9669]

nice

Good days work there. looks like a great location as well. Keep us posted as to what the wood ends up as.

 

[dustytools]

Very nice! I envy your milling location, Is this your property?

 

[fordtruckf100]

Nice pictures!

I really enjoy seeing the landscape of Canada. I like the water. Is that
a lake, river?? It seems like all of the pictures that I see of canada there
is water in the background. Nice. Thanks for the pictures. Duane in VA.

 

[wdchuck]

It's always a joy to see another dust lover having fun, :greenchainsaw:

Post some pics of the gazebo project when you include the hemlock.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Nice work!

 

[BobL]

Thanks for the pics woodsurfer. Millin by water has that special something about it, not all that common here in Australia.

Nice looking boards too!

 

[OZDOG]

cool pics thanks for the post

 

[tawilson]

Nice pics. Hemlock will warp something fierce so make sure to get some weight on it while it dries.

 

[Woodsurfer]

Thanks for the comments. Yes, it is a great spot to mill. With the fresh wind off the water, I can get by without using a dust mask. The location is our family cottage, built by my Dad in 1967. It is on Lake Simon in Quebec, not far from Ottawa. We have 2/3 of an acre, with plenty of nice old trees...

Thanks for the drying advise, I'll get that wood strapped down in my shelter ASAP! I brought home some yellow birch boards from my first milling session last year. They dried great and I can't wait to make something with them. I'll post the results in the "What you built from your milled wood" post.

Here is a view of our bay. The tree colors are great this time of year. The lake is about 8 miles long, over 300 feet deep. Good swimming and fishing. Cheers!

 

[woodshop]

Nice pics. Hemlock will warp something fierce so make sure to get some weight on it while it dries.

Nice job, I too love to see some body having fun milling. I agree with tawilson here though. I've never been able to air dry hemlock without issues the several times I've tried. It will dry alright... pretty quickly... but I got a lot of twisting and cupping even with weight on the stack, and a whole lot of ring shake, where the boards cracked right along the ring line, especially the quartersawn and riftsawn stuff. The first time I thought I just had a bad log, I've had ring shake in oak also. But the next hemlock did same thing, and the third hemlock I milled had a bit of ring shake also. Three strikes your out! I only mill hemlock now if there is no other pine around and I need some.

Thanks for the pics.

 

[Matildasmate]

Is Hemlock a breed of pine

Got some milling done this weekend. This old hemlock lost its top third over the winter and had to come down.

First time I have felled a tree using my milling saw. Takes some effort to cut at chest hight! I have a lot of respect for guys who cut all day with a 066. Whew!
Look at that concentration! I look like a brain surgeon cutting open a cranium.

This tree had issues, look at the rot down the center. You can see a big crack that opened down the side when the holding wood broke.

After cutting 6 feet off the bottom and top ends, I was left with some reasonable wood for milling, about 25 feet total. Hemlock mills pretty fast. Nice to stand up tall for the start of the cut, but by the end I was in full "miller's stoop" mode, someone call the massage therapist!

Here's my payoff. Some soft spots and a few streaks of rot, but mostly nice wood. Cut mostly 5/4, a few 9/4 for fun.

I counted the rings, over 200 years old and that was about ten feet from the stump. Some real old growth!

It will look nice as wall boards in my gazebo project.

Nice pics Woodsurfer is Hemlock a breed of pine . cheers MM

 

[Pacific]

I have cut enough hemlock and let me tell you I hate it :bang:

With Hemlock you gotta sticker it right away or it does twist also Hemlock molds up fast so never leave cut wet boards together. Your stickers should be dry too.

Sticker'd a bunch of hemlock 2x4s for a guy I told him to use them with in 6 months he waited too long now they are so hard you can't drive a nail through them.

Don't ya just love the smell off Hemlock sawdust people think you had a accident in your pants

 

[woodshop]

Nice pics Woodsurfer is Hemlock a breed of pine . cheers MM

Yes hemlock is a softwood. Although technically not a pine, it is very similar.

 

[Woodsurfer]

Hey Woodshop, is there any wood you haven't milled?! Except for those Aussie exotics ... :biggrinbounce2: Anyway, thanks for the heads up. I will (maybe) use short lengths on a 3 foot wall in the gazebo, non-structural, so I can handle some cups and splits.

Why is it that all the wood I mill lately turns out to be notoriously difficult to dry and work with?

 

[Pacific]

If your going to use the hemlock paint it good with a oil base paint because just like the tree you chopped down Hemlock rots.

 

[woodshop]

Hey Woodshop, is there any wood you haven't milled?!

... location, location, location. Here on the east coast we have pretty diverse Appalachian forests with all kinds of hardwoods and softwoods, and climate that allows all the yuppies in the burbs around here to plant all kinds of trees in their yards, even if that tree is not native to this area. Combine that with the fact that after you've been milling for years, and people know you do, everybody with a tree coming down, and anybody THEY know that has a tree coming down, gives you a call and asked if you want it. Thus I've gotten to sample many kinds of trees around here. Once in a while I actually do pay for logs if they are something I really want and don't have much of. Example, just scored this few weeks ago:

Ignore the two poplars (the center two big logs)... the other 6 logs, 4 of them 10 ft long and 3 of them fairly large, are osage orange. It's hard to get strait large osage logs around here, so I jumped when the yard operator offered them all for $100. SOLD...WHERE DO I SIGN!! There is a good 800 bd ft of osage there. If I wouldn't have stumbled on them at the right time they would've ended up on that huge chipper pile behind the log truck. Only catch is I have to have them milled by end of October. That's only 4 weekends away, so what I will do is mill them into cants that I can manhandle into my van with the csm, and drop the lot onto my driveway to mill into boards later. Point here is when you come across a stash you really want, beg borrow or steal a way to procure it if you have the means.

 

[cantcutter]

I noticed the osage as soon as I saw the picture.... to bad there is not much demand for bow blanks...you would have alot of them there..... 100.00 is a bargin and you don't even have to mess with the thorns.