Big City Sawmill

Hopefully this evergreen will do better now that the tree is gone. 

   Last week I blogged about a basswood tree we had taken down last winter.   Actually there were three trees felled and this is about another one of those trees that stood next to our house.  This tree was a healthy maple of some sort, but it was just placed too close to our house  for comfort.  I do have some soft maple wood stored in my wood scrap pile, but I wanted a source of hardwood and this was a hardwood tree.  I saved the trunk of this tree just for that purpose.   The trunk is shown in the picture to the left at the bottom of the evergreen tree.   It was cut into two pieces with each piece being 7 to 8 foot long.

Do you need any trees converted into lumber?

   Those two pieces have been laying there for a few months and finally one day this Spring they were loaded up and hauled to the "Big City Sawmill".     This sawmill is located in a small town called St. Benedict, Iowa.   Population - 40.   If you have never seen a sawmill in operation it is kind of interesting to watch.    
   (Let's just say that this is a little bigger production than the process of cutting boards that I blogged about last week.)

Notice everyone is wearing hearing protection but me.   What did you say?

             
We started out with the first log.  The diameter of this log was about 20 inches.   First few cuts are mainly to square the trunk.   In this case the trunk was about 13 inches wide by 16 inches high after all the bumps and lumps were cut off.   The majority of the lumber cut from this log was slightly more than an inch thick.   Most boards were a little over six inches wide.

Watching saw dust fly is better than working 

   I have to say that the sawing process moved along quite quickly.   (I also have to say that the Big City Sawmill's wood scrap pile was a lot larger than my scrap wood pile.  I had a jealous moment there.  You should see the cedar wood.)   

We need to square this trunk up. 

   Log number two was placed in the track.   When cutting up this log I asked for some two inch thick boards.   (Can't you just see the little Christmas presents that will be coming your way in the years to come.?  Either that or the big bond fire the kids will have when I am gone.)

   The third log I had cut up was an evergreen trunk.   This is not the most prized wood for a project, but this came from a tree that I had planted for my mom on Mother's day several years ago (I am guessing slightly over 40 years ago) and lately that tree was taken down to make room for a house remodeling project.

   I always like it if I have a story to tell with the projects that I make.   For example:   The wood used in this project came from a tree that grew next to grandpa's garage.    The wood used in this project came from a tree that I planted near your great-grandma's home a long time ago.     You get the idea.

Yep.    I see a cutting board in my future. 

    I roughly ended up with about 175 board feet of hard maple.   This process costs me about $.60 cents a board foot.   Of course I have the costs of dropping the tree and I will have to wait a couple years for the wood to dry down.   Then I will have to plane the boards smooth and cut out the knots etc.    Hmmm.   Is it worth it?
(Believer me that question does haunt me once in awhile.) 

For now - That's it.   No more boards will be added to the wood scrap pile.   (Wasn't it just about three weeks ago that I blogged about trying to use up my surplus wood scraps?)   

   Oh yeah.   I might as well mention that the third tree taken down last winter was a hackberry tree.   I have never worked with hackberry wood before.      Big City Sawmill - here I come.