Milling a Beech in April Snow

[Woodsurfer]

My Dad and I went out in the woodlot Friday and picked out a tree to mill. Wanted to try something new, so we picked out a nice beech, actually a bit knarly looking...

Dropped it and limbed it Saturday afternoon. Great to be outside! April in Ontario should be warmish, flowers pushing up, sap running, but there was freakish snow all weekend.

Back Sunday morning with the trusty Gator. This is a perfect chainsaw milling application. Nothing else we have can get down the trail to the woodlot.

Check out the fresh snow. Who knew beech had reddish heartwood? Looks like birch. Has some flecks in it though...

 

[Woodsurfer]

OK, time for fun, I mean business. The old ladder trick worked great. Sagged a bit on the 12 foot section, I'll prop it up next time.

Now I'm slabbin'. Plowing a bit of snow down the face... I have the 660 richened as much as possible, it runs just under 11000 RPM WOT with chain and clean filter, full tank.
I just got a dual port cover, not installed yet, so I will soon need to remove the limiters as per the wise council of Lakeside... This saw runs so well, what a great machine.

My Dad and dear Aunt came by. Look who loves the music of the mighty Stihl.

By Monday morning, we had this stack in the barn. This beech was hard stuff, pretty slow compared to birch. A typical pass in 18" wood was taking about a minute per foot. I filled the tank after every pass. 16 cuts total, went through about 12 liters of mix, half a big jug of Stihl chain oil. The 4" stuff on top was too heavy to move so I cut it down to 4 feet. No time for edging this time, had to come home to Montreal. My Dad will seal the ends.

The grain in this tree is interesting, especially the crotch, but the pics don't show too much. Sure was nice to mill again, nothing huge or unique, but we had fun. The onlookers who came by were mighty impressed by the results!:hmm3grin2orange:

Cheers, Dave

 

[stonykill]

I've milled beech, its slow milling. Make sure you paint the ends, it'll check like crazy. I've also noticed it warps and twists if not weighted down well. I was given a bunch of beech and milled it. I planned on making tables out of the heartwood as its pretty. It turns out beech is a highly unstable wood and not suitable for table tops. Not sure what I'll do with my boards yet. I know the rest of the logs heated the house nice in the owb. Nice pics, enjoy.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

That's one good lookin' beech right there.







:jester:

 

[woodshop]

OK, time for fun, I mean business. The old ladder trick worked great. Sagged a bit on the 12 foot section, I'll prop it up next time.

Great pics, nice write-up, thanks for showing us that. I noticed though that the bark on your beech doesn't look as smooth as what we call beech here on the midatlantic east coast (fagus grandifolia). The whitish sapwood and often dark heartwood in your pics does look like beech though. Bark is just a little different. Bark can vary from region to region. Most older beech here that are the size of yours you milled has bark so smooth for large sections that you could easily write on it with a felt tip marker, almost like leather. In fact here that is often the demise of the tree, as people see that smooth bark and then carve things in it.

 

[MikeInParadise]

Nice looking pictures.

I would get lots of weight on top of that beech.

I have only dried beech once and it was very twisty and knarly and need lots of weight to attempt to keep it straight!

 

[dustytools]

Nice job Woodsurfer! These milling pics are getting me awfully fidgety. Ive got a cedar callin my name but they are giving rain all weekend here. Oh well, all in due time I guess.

 

[lmbeachy]

I have some old 2 x 10 and some wide boards (Beach) out in my barn that my Grandfather had mill for the house he built in 1916. When we tore the old house down I saved some of the wood. It is hard as bricks, but pretty when you get in planed and worked.

 

[Woodsurfer]

Thanks all, I'll be sure to throw some field stones on the stack first chance I get. BTW, I did a ring count on the tree, it was about 100 years old. Hopefully it will dry reasonably and I can make something nice out of it. That's enough for the beech now - there are some nice big maples in those woods...:biggrinbounce2: