I've been working in the village this week and where I've been working they've had a mobile saw mill in to cut up a collection of fallen trees they've got.
One is a massive seqouyah they had to fell last year as it had died and was becoming unsafe. The tree is huge so they had to first cut it up with a chainsaw mill before moving on to the diesel driven bandsaw mill. The boards don't make very good structural timber but it does make great stable cladding.
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| A Slab of Sequoyah |
It's interesting to see how they approach milling these trees and how much wood they can get out of each one. After three days they've pretty much got through the large number of trees they had collected over the last few years on the estate, such a better use than logging it for fire wood.
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| Milling some larch |
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| Some of the timber stored drying. |
I'm quite jealous of their stack of timber and what they can do with it all, in fact I'm planning on buying some Sequoyah from them to use as cladding on a project I'm planning.
Seeing these guys in operation makes me think that many more people should re evaluate what they do with fallen trees and they shouldn't just see it as fire wood. It means a long term investment as you have to pay to mill the wood years before you can use it, store it for years to dry it and then process it the other end, but you gain a much higher value product for your efforts.
Who else has milled their fallen trees instead of cutting it up for firewood?
One of those large Sequoya slabs would make a nice counter top. An Alaskan mil, essentially a plank cutting bar guide for your chainsaw might be a cheaper alternative for those not really needing to have 7 grand tied up in one of those nice portable band-saw mills.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a bit soft for that but it'll look good on the side of my shed! My brother has got a chainsaw mill, I've got no trees to mill up unfortunately.
DeleteLovely interesting post, you sound green with envy, I love wood and always have to touch, it's a very special material, such a shame to burn it.
ReplyDeleteBeing a carpenter I've always had a love for the material, so long as it;s good stuff - nothing worse than working with rubbish wood!
DeleteLumber is mighty cheap here. We have two saw mills so we have two big lumber yards where you can go and get what you need for not much. You can also go there and get "end bits" for free out of a pile which make good firewood once seasoned
ReplyDeleteThe investment in equipment would probably be too much for people here to afford, but I admire the self reliance of those guys with their own gear.
I wish it was cheap here, costs a fortune and comes from everywhere except the UK!
DeleteThe guys in the photos go from job to job milling the timber, a nice living but a big investment to start up I think.
I was going to recommend an Alaskan mill, but Michael beat me to it, so I'll second the motion! lol
ReplyDeleteMy brother Dave has got one http://www.davidalviti.com/2011/02/chainsaw-mill.html and he;s used it quite a bit. He had a mobile mill at one time as well, shame he got rid of it really.
DeleteSix years ago friends up in the Charente region of France bought a house which had land and woodland attached to it. The felled one of the oaks in the woodland, had a saw mill put it into planks, and she is now in the middle of building herself a kitchen which is going to have some of those planks as work surfaces. With the remainder of the wood they built a veranda. I don't think we shall be doing anything similar with any of the trees in our woodland......because we don't have the necessary skills to do anything other than cut up the wood for firewood!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to build with wood from here but there's no trees I want down at the the moment! Maybe if one falls I could build a kitchen with it! Mind you I need to make ours way before it would have time to season!
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