Big white Oak

[Kirk Allen]

WOW

That is a whopper of a tree! 

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

Let us know how many nails and bullets you hit, SteveM

[Stephen Wiley]

Well back at it today..........Loc, called the other night to discuss 'the stump' asked if I could reduce some more cookies.
Arrived and found Steve M setting up for the day's milling.  Since I had not taken the time to examine the stump closely the other day .....I did so today

Root rotting disease known as Armillaria spp. aka 'Shoestring Root Rot' was visible by the mass of mycellium and rhizomorphs present.

In addition upon closer examination through hand digging 'stuck' clay soils from trunk exposed numerous boulders, rocks....preventing further bucking.

[Stephen Wiley]

Frank,  you do not want this stump........not with Armillaria present. Oh and since you wanted to know about bullets......... yep Steve M. found them. We also found some serious staining on the butt end; to which Steve M. got outta his 'detector'....guess what?..... I bucked the end of the log to avoid ....chingggggggggggggg..........

Unfortunately it rocked my blade.

John the contractor, showed up later in the afternoon and with his Bobcat we managed to break the stump into submission to move to end of project.

Now in the last pic Steve M. is happy for more than one reason:...............should I let him you tell you why?

Nah..........the neighbor offered several Black Walnuts to him for cutting

Loc, arrived late afternoon having tackled some hard problems himself at work.  Steve is done milling.....Stump done.... now Loc can seal project wood and upon drying maybe show us some handiwork.

Steve's smile says it all................

[Stephen Wiley]

BTW, Kirk

How do you like the muck on Steve's boots..............at one point today I sunk four inches above my knee and took considerable effort to avoid be hit by the Bobcat (John did not realize I was stuck).

[Stevem]

Slabber works ok too.  But had a thought as I finished the first one as it was 2 3/4" thick, 48" wide and 14 1/2' long. what are you going to do now?  Had some help but we cut it in half and put it on top of the cookies in the trailer.  the slabber is slow though. 
Got lucky on nails.  I saw the black stains before I sawed them.  Mostly chain sawed them out, cut one in half with the chain saw though.  Those two were about 20p.  The stain SteveW cut out of the butt squeaked twice within 6" on the metal detector,  Big stain, now fire wood.

The walnuts are right on a paved road with one having a branch overhanging the pavement and another tangled with the tree next to it.  Behind the trees grass seed field just starting to lush up.  The biggest of the three is about 36" a foot above the stump.  One of them splits into two trunks about 6' up Nice slabs.  One just an ordinary tree about 24" dbh.   All of them are about 120' tall.

[Kirk Allen]

120' feet tall?    

You guys are spoiled out in the northwest.  I cant imagine a 120' walnut.  We get 36" diameter but 60' would be the tallest I have seen.

[Stevem]

Well maybe only 100'. 

I have a strange way to estimate lengths.  I envision box car lengths.  A box car is (to me) 50' long, thus the measurement is one, two, or three box car length.  Standing box cars on end might be a little iffy, not their normal position.

[Stephen Wiley]

Yes, Black Walnuts in Oregon can reach heights above 100 feet.........I have climbed them

Loc, sent me pics he took and wanted to share.

The excavator operator in the process of digging to 'fell' tree became focused on the roots and not upon the tree; Loc had to yell at the top of his voice.....in order to get the operator to move the trackhoe from out of the fall of the Oak. Note how close the tree came

[Stephen Wiley]

additional pics from Loc:

1. Excavator operator
2. Downed Tree
3. Steve W.
4. Steve M. and Steve W.
5. Steve W.

[Kirk Allen]

That is one lucky back hoe operator.  I have seen two smashed and killed operators in my day and its not pretty.  Both were from very large pin oaks that squashed them in the cab. 

[locvetter]

I gotta add a comment since it was my tree and I started this thread.  What a wonderful experience this has been. This forum found me Steve Wiley and Steve M.  Both brought great though dissimilar expertise to the project.  The very tense/positive feeling when the tree missed the excavator, Cory, added to the positivity of the experience.

Making cookies nice and flat with parallel sides was cake for Steve M.

Need more advise, if possible:  Current plan: Soak the Cookies in PEG solution, made from the powder PEG purchased from Rockler.  Plan to make a bath using pond liner and let them soak for a couple of months in a 30% solution.  Does that make sense?

On the miriad boards and slabs: plan to seal the ends with wax type sealer and sticker-stack -store in barn.  Does that make sense?

Thanks Sawmill and Timber for making this project such fun.

[julian the woodnut]

Wow. This thread has been quite entertaining. It looks like you'll have a lifetime supply of oak now!

I am glad I referred you to this forum, and it worked out so well for you.

[Kirk Allen]

I would think you could coat the cookies with the wax sealer on both sides and that will slow the drying down quite a bit.  Not familiar with PEG solution.  Is it an alcohol based solution? 

On the slabs, i would put a coat of wax sealer on the surface as well as the ends.  Thick slabs tend to surface check over time more so than standard 4/4 boards.

[locvetter]

Indeed - thank you Julian the woodnut - for refering me here.  Not that the lumberjocks aren't nice - but this is where I found help --


So- Please - It is now suggested that I use my wax based sealer on surfaces and ends -- but how do I get the stuff off?  I have used this wax on bowls for some time - but there you are turning it off after the blanks have aged.  SteveM made such nice smooth surfaces that I'll just need to surface prep the final product -- and don't want to have to deal with a bunch of wax.

What say you???

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

A nice damp cloth, Loc, will do the trick, for removal.

[Stevem]

Loc, your welcome.  So nice to have satisfied customers.  Your thanks here makes my day.  You've taken on a large project.  It might be my imagination but I do believe that is the hardest oak wood I've ever cut.  Might be because of the high ring count.  Good luck.

I might suggest a small fan to blow through the stack of wood as it drys until at least the humidity gets down.  It needs air circulation.  Mold can be a problem and this time of year is prime time for such.

Just for reference a 1" x 8" red oak sells at Lowes for $6.25 per board foot ($6250/thousand) and may be two boards glued together to make the one.  White oak is more expensive but they don't carry it

Kirk, PEG (Poly Ethylene Glycol) is akin to antifreeze which is akin to sugar.  Actually displaces the cellular water.  Mostly used for speciality items like small turning wood to prevent cracking.  Should work in this case but no guarantees.  Good stuff but spendy.

[Gilman]

I've used PEG with good results, no cracking.  I just followed the directions, don't remember if it was a 30% solution.

[julian the woodnut]

So how many boardfeet did you get from that monster?

[Stevem]

Really hard to say.  I contracted the job based on gross log scale.  This was the first time I'd used my slabber and had no idea of time verses recovery, so did it that way to be as fair as I could.

The log scaled at around 1400 feet but half way down we cut off 2 feet to get rid of metal which lost about 100 ft of scale.  I probably left another 100 feet in the bottom slab because of the rush the contractor was in to get me gone.

Also the first half of the log the customer wanted "thick" 4/4 so I cut it 1/8 oversize.  Changed his mind for the bottom half after he saw the thickness

Also cut the center of the log as slabs which increases yield.  Over all very little waste.  My SWAG would be about 1100-1200 feet of finished product.

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

Well, I too get to meet Loc, this weekend.  He and his family are comeing here for a visit.


I got off the cell line with Loc an hour ago and he is planning on being here with the family asbout 2ish, I guess, and it is not even the weekend.

We have had snow, sun hail an heavy rain, thus far this morning. 

[Stephen Wiley]

Frank, make certain to give his kids the 'full story' and show 'road' details of how you met Alice; proposed; married; etc. Although they're young ........will probably make a lasting impression.

Don't forget to show your wood shop for sale (just in case you get busy).

Have fun

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

I did all of those things, plus.  While we were discussing the Logosol, the kids found as small mudddddy puddle out front of the large building opening and boy did they have fun.  Amy (mom) said she was glad they brought Loc's vehicle and not her jeep.

I did tell the story of how I got the tree farm and Alice.  They all seemed to enjoy my remdition.

[Ted79]

Hello! I helped a friend of mine do some storm damage a few weeks ago. a white oak uprooted and smasked a brand new bmw. (quite funny really) i took a few 8" slabs of it to make something out of it. im thinking a clock, some boards to put my deer mounts on, or have my company name milled into it to put on my front porch, etc. my question is, should i have it cut to size before it dries, or let it dry as it is, then have it cut to size? i did a rough count on the rings, the saw marks made it kinda tough to count the really small ones, but i got 220+ years old. its a shame that they are going to use it for firewood. that really erks me.

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

Ted, my suggestion is to not make any kind of finished cutting or sizing until the wood is completely dry.