milling in a walnut orchard

[BlueRider]

here are some pics of my first day out at a walnut orchard that is being removed. Actualy this is the second phase of the project. the trees are english (juglans regia) grafted onto claro (juglans hindsii) root stock. this orchard was planted in the late 40's and the multiple branches were grafted at the top of the bole. There are about 90 trees that have been removed. Its hard to capture what its like to see all the trees laying on their sides, the scale gets lost in a picture. the first two pics are partial shots of the orchard.

here is a pic of one of the trees laying as it fell after being pushed over by a D3. I didn't measure it but it is probably close to 30" in diameter.

this is the log I tackled today. It takes a bit of time to clear out enough of the braches to make enough room to mill the trunk. I bucked a bunch of the larger libs for firewood but the bulk of the prep time was spent on the root ball. I used a trenching spade to dig as much dirt away from the roots as I could so I could see where to cut to maximize being able to mill as much of the root ball as possible. Almost 1/3 of the length of the log you see in the pic was below ground. I put my mill on the log for scale. The saw is an 051 with a 42" bar and the mill has 48" rails.

The log is a hair over 8' long and just under 36" at the widest point. I think you can see why I like to mill these with the root ball atached to the bole, it has some of the most spectacular figure in the whole tree.

here is a shot of the top part of the bole and the graft lines. the graft line is that dark wavy line in the upper right hand part of the slab. there are several other graft lines in this slab but that is the one that is easiest to see in the pic. As it dries the browns will get a bit darker and richer and that black graft line will fade just enough to make it a bit more refined.

for those that have not clicked away in disgust at my good fortune I would just like to add that the high today was 72* with clear and sunny skies. sorry guys but that is the cross we bear for living in California.

 

[AndyR]

Nice work,
Good to see at least some of it is being salvaged. My GF and I want to move back to CA pretty bad. She's from Humboldt Co. on the coast and I spent a year in the Santa Cruz area (and loved it). This winter has been REALLY bad for the cold here. Would love to see more pics as you mill more of these. With those rootballs still attached you could probably get some really nice gunstock blanks from those trees....

Keep at it.
Andy

 

[Gumnuts]

beautiful - thanks for taking and posting pics for us all.

 

[BobL]

That is some gorgeous wood you got there Bluerider! Thanks for sharing.

Under that log photo that looks like a lot of sawdust, what sort of chain are you running?

 

[BlueRider]

I'm using .404 baileys ripping chain. The saw has enough grunt, so much so that I file my rakers down to .035". The .404 makes plenty of saw dust but its only 15% more than .375 woud make and I get a faster chain speed. If my saw didn't have the grunt I would be more inclined to switch. I started milling before I learned about diferent chain and have since thought about changeing but then a friend had a 3/8 chain break on his 090 and it made me rethink the .375 vs .404 thing. I am interested in how that 3/8 holds up long term in wide aussie hard wood.

 

[BobL]

I'm using .404 baileys ripping chain. The saw has enough grunt, so much so that I file my rakers down to .035". The .404 makes plenty of saw dust but its only 15% more than .375 woud make and I get a faster chain speed. If my saw didn't have the grunt I would be more inclined to switch. I started milling before I learned about diferent chain and have since thought about changeing but then a friend had a 3/8 chain break on his 090 and it made me rethink the .375 vs .404 thing. I am interested in how that 3/8 holds up long term in wide aussie hard wood.

I have one 404 chain but rarely use it and all my other chains are 3/8 and they work fine even in the hardest woods I have milled (Rock Oak, Janka hardness 3500 lbs-force) and even on the 60" bar. The disadvantages for hard wood is a 3/8 cutter cannot be filed as short as a 404 cutter, and it stretches more in the first couple of slabs needing more adjustment. It probably makes little difference in something like walnut but I have found 404 is definitely slower than the 3/8 for just about all the stuff I mill.

I think Aggie has even used .325 for bars up to 42"?

 

[woodshop]

Beautiful... wish I wasn't 3000 miles away. A shame that in many cases most of that would just be burned.

 

[excess650]

That is just fabulous wood!

 

[BlueRider]

Beautiful... wish I wasn't 3000 miles away. A shame that in many cases most of that would just be burned.

Phase one of the project involved removing 200 trees. I milled 15 a friend got 20 and another friend got 5. The rest were in a pile that smoldered for two months. it was during the summer and we were hampered a bit by hot weather and my schedule didn't allow me to get out as much as I had hoped.

This time my schedule is a bit more open and the weather is better. on the down side is that this time the trees were pushed over when the ground was wet so they have more dirt attached to the roots. last time I could get 5-6 slabs before having to touch up the chain this time I hit a dirt inclusion on the third cut but even without hitting a dirt clod I would have needed to touch up after 3-4 slabs. when I got home I ordered another loop of chain and a box of files.

 

[bowtechmadman]

Absolutely gorgoues slabs! Keep up the good work thanks for the pics.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

Would a pressure washer help to clean the dirt off?

Phase one of the project involved removing 200 trees. I milled 15 a friend got 20 and another friend got 5. The rest were in a pile that smoldered for two months. it was during the summer and we were hampered a bit by hot weather and my schedule didn't allow me to get out as much as I had hoped.

This time my schedule is a bit more open and the weather is better. on the down side is that this time the trees were pushed over when the ground was wet so they have more dirt attached to the roots. last time I could get 5-6 slabs before having to touch up the chain this time I hit a dirt inclusion on the third cut but even without hitting a dirt clod I would have needed to touch up after 3-4 slabs. when I got home I ordered another loop of chain and a box of files.

Very nice! It's cool that you can get some of those!

Would a pressure washer help to clean the dirt off?

Dan

 

[BlueRider]

Very nice! It's cool that you can get some of those!

Would a pressure washer help to clean the dirt off?

Dan

A pressure washer would probably work, This a dry farmed orchard and there is no water or electricity and I don't have a large water tank on a trailer with a gas powered pressure washer.

 

[BobL]

Very nice! It's cool that you can get some of those!
Would a pressure washer help to clean the dirt off?
Dan

I use a regular hose in the milling yard which is good on surface dirt. I've also used a pressure washer on a root ball covered in gravel. The pressure washer was very effective on the outside but I still hit a couple of embedded rocks - I was using an old skip chain - One stone knocked the cutting edge off one of the cutters. I resharpened the remaining teeth and proceeded to slab the rest of the ball throwing the chain away after that. One good reason to keep some old chains around.

A number of Aussie gum trees drop their bark as they commence to dry out. This turns out to be an optimum time to mill as the resulting lumber moves less during the later drying process and they are not so hard as to be unmillable. I usually buck 2/3" off the starting end which has by then case hardened to a light rock like hardness and murders a newly sharpened chain. The added benefit is the dirt embedded in the bark falls off with it.

When I have no power or water I usually take along and use a wire brush, a dust pan brush, a broom, axe and even a sharpened mattock.

 

[BlueRider]

With all the rain we have been having I have not gotten out to the walnut orchard to mill as much as I would like. It takes 2-3 days after a rain before the ground is firm enough to drive out into the orchard. On the plus side I have had plenty of time to get the 075 back up and running along with fixing the starter on my 038. Here is a pic of the first two logs, some milled on my first trip and the rest milled a week ago.

Here are pics of 2 of the six slabs I milled this past Saturday. You can see a fair amount of occluded dirt near the root end of each slab. As bad as this sounds it really wasn't as hard on the chain as you would think. The small bit of limestone on the left side of the bottom pic however was a bit more of a problem. I milled 3 slabs before I had to resharpen and then it only required 4 file strokes on each tooth.

It rained yesterday and it's raining today with rain forcast through Friday so I'm not sure when I will get back out to get more wood.

 

[dallasm1]

ABSOlutely incredible wood. Thanks for sharing that. One day you will have to post how the wood was ultimately used. I would love to see some finished furniture with that fantastic wood.

 

[Backwoods]

It looks you have had a chance to select some nice pieces for milling.
I got a call today about a pear orchard that is coming out now. Last year I got 15 tons of cherry wood out of the same orchard. I hate to see these pear trees come out as they had good fruit on them. The whole 40 acres will be cleared and turned under this week so I got to strike while the iron is still hot.

 

[BobL]

That Wood is looking purdier the more I look at it!

BTW the inclusion looks too regular to be limestone?

It looks like a bandaid?

 

[BlueRider]

It looks you have had a chance to select some nice pieces for milling.
I got a call today about a pear orchard that is coming out now. Last year I got 15 tons of cherry wood out of the same orchard. I hate to see these pear trees come out as they had good fruit on them. The whole 40 acres will be cleared and turned under this week so I got to strike while the iron is still hot.

I still kick myself over not geting more pear when had a chance. There was 5 acres of pears removed to put in houses near where I used to live and I stoped and grabed a small trunk. It sat for a week before I got to it and found out that it was quilted. by the time I got back up to the orchard the trees had been burned. nothing in the orchard was of significant size but I would have still liked to get more. If any of your pear is significant in size and/or is figured let me know, I have a friend that likes to work with it.

 

[BlueRider]

That Wood is looking purdier the more I look at it!

BTW the inclusion looks too regular to be limestone?

It looks like a bandaid?

one thing I enjoy about miling is that I always meet new people and learn new things. With this project I have had the chance to learn how to graft trees as well as a fair bit about dry farming. the local lime stone is low quality as far as building is concerned. it is riddled with fisures and crumbles easily. but these properties make it perfect for dry farming. That and the fact that the rock is only a few feet below the surface. the roots extend down into the fisures of the limestone and the stone acts lke a sponge to feed the plants with water during our hot arid summer.

The limestone dosen't destroy a chain like one would imagine but it is still stone and is abrasive, probably only slightly softer and less abrasive than some Aussie hardwoods.

 

[Backwoods]

The local walnut orchards are all in the flood plains around here. They seem to like the loose gravel for sending there roods down to water. Stock up while you can there is some nice wood in your stacks.

The pears are all small, around 5”. About half the orchard is already in wind rows. They are driving down the rows with a big excavator and plucking them out with a chain. There was a section of young trees so I had them pluck a couple out and set them aside. I pruned them up and planted them in my orchard. I will just get a truck load of this pear wood for the bowl turners and for smoking wood. There is no milling stock in the bunch.