Milling Hedge

[bluequill56]

Not to derail Dusty's thread... as I too share his pain of packing the van and heading out to a log somewhere, and after a frustrating day, going home with exactly everything I came with minus some mix and bar oil, and nothing more. As was said though... I enjoy just firing up my saws and milling. Lumber is just the icing on the cake.

To answer your question... there was a recent thread all about how fast a csm will slice through various wood with various combos of chain etc. As to whether it is practical??? Sure is if that's the only way to get the log to your mill. In my case recently, I scored 6 osage orange logs, the pic below (not the two large poplars in middle)...

...but couldn't mill them there so sliced them up into manageable chunks and cants with a csm as you are contemplating, and hauled them a ton at a time in my van to my driveway where I can mill them on my time. To give you an idea... that pile of logs above, about 8000 lbs worth, about 1200 bd ft, took approx 10 hours (not counting transportation time) to get to the pile in the pic below. I bucked about half of it into 5 and 6ft lengths with a few left at 7ft but sliced in half with csm so easier to get them into van. Even then, some of the 7ft halves were over 1000 lbs. each.

Didn't want to completely derail Dustytool's 'Bad Day' thread, so I figured a new one was in order. I'm dang curious about milling hedge. I've been thinking about getting into CSM, and I've got a fair amount of hedge. It was going to become firewood, but if it mills well, I might use it for my first attempts. How does it mill? Is it harder than other wood to cut? Harder on chains and saws? What do you do you do with the lumber? Is it attractive when it dries? Also, I've got a Bur Oak that died a couple of years ago that's still standing. Probably pretty dry. Will dry wood mill OK? Can you recommend any old threads or books I can read so I don't bore you all with the Newb questions?
Thanks,
Shane.

 

[woodshop]

...How does it mill?

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being hardest to mill, I'd give it an 8. Only reason not a 10 is that I found the extremely fine yellow powder it makes when milling seems to lubricate and doesn't leave as much residue on the bar and chain.

...Is it harder than other wood to cut?

Not necessarily harder as in more difficult, but physically harder wood?, you bet, thus yes slower cutting than some less dense wood

Harder on chains and saws?

I found it didn't necessarily dull the chain any faster, but the saw had to work hard milling through this dense stuff, yes.

What do you do you do with the lumber? Is it attractive when it dries?

Well I think it's attractive, but I'm biased as this is one of my favorite woods for many reasons. What can you do with it? It's rock hard, machines well and takes lots of abuse, so I have used it in the past for fences for my jigs and machines, as well as tool handles and almost indestructible knobs. Here are three quick examples. First is a fence on my router table, this one is designed to slide a few inches to fine tune the opening to the vac. Second pic is a fence on a bandsaw resaw jig... the wood rides against that rounded over center piece of osage when resawing on my bandsaw. Third pic is example of a handle, this one has a threaded insert needed to tighten down one of my jig fences. As you can see, after years of light, that bright yellow wood takes on a brownish patina. Another characteristic of osage is that you can polish it smoother than most other hardwoods. I experimented one time seeing how smooth I could get a piece... it was almost like a mirror when I got done polishing and buffing it.

I know what you're thinking... ya don't need a pile of osage the size that's sitting in my driveway at the moment to make knobs for jigs. Truth be told, not sure what I'm going to do with all that osage... I have some ideas, but I've never had that many clear long pieces of it before. Anyway, couldn't turn it down.

Also, I've got a Bur Oak that died a couple of years ago that's still standing. Probably pretty dry.

If it died only few years ago and is still standing, it is not that dry yet. Go for it.

 

[Stihl-in-Ky]

I agree with woodshop mill It i also love it I have some I milled just a few weeks ago and another log waiting in the woodlot to mill and have found some more in the wood that my buddy had dozed down and will get them out as soon as it dries out now has rained for the last 2 days.
I also have some in the shop that a tree trimmer pitched and l scavenged and ran through the band saw and have been using for some small projects.
It is great stuff and pretty to look at.

 

[Matildasmate]

Very nice looking wood

 

[BobL]

Nice jigs and knobs WS - I'd hit ya with a greenie but I need to spread em around a bit more. Nice looking wood too.