Calling all wood cutters, loggers and chainsaw enthusiasts

[Spots]

Just wanted to started a discussion thread after being in the chat room last night and having a good conversation with a few others here. Who else enjoys running a saw and doing logging, small time or big? 2hat kind of equipment do you have, preffered saws, etc.

Ill start. I've been cutting since I was young, learned from my dad. He has a lot of experince on a saw, including building both his house and my sisters house. And I mean dropping the logs, sawmilling, building the doors and cabinets, the whole shebam. Plus Ive helped him build several small out buildings from logs we dropped and skidded. We both climb, and drop trees from the top if necessary.

We use draft horses to skid the logs, since its much easier on the land. Our saws range from a Stihl 026 and a top handle husky arborist saw to a Husky 371xp and a Husky 3120 xp. The big husky wore a 36" bar and chain when we run it with the alaskain mill, but right now it wears a 20" bar and a .404 full chiesel chain for around home dutys. Really considering having it ported, and an unlimited coil and tuneable carb added. Its 8.5 hp right now, but that would bump it considerablely. Anyways heres some pics, feel free to share info and pictures and discussion.

Here is me climbing a small maple





Saw rack before adding the Husky arborist saw.



Log skidder




The big saw






Tapatalk ate my spelling.

Edited August 15, 2013 by Spots

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Spots I like your log skidder.

 

When you rip logs, do you just rip em on the ground, bending and kneeling, or do you lift em up on some kind of stand to make it easier on yer back? If you put em on a stand for ripping, how do you lift em up?

[Spots]

Spots I like your log skidder.

When you rip logs, do you just rip em on the ground, bending and kneeling, or do you lift em up on some kind of stand to make it easier on yer back? If you put em on a stand for ripping, how do you lift em up?

We built v notch stands to hold the logs. We would use cant hooks and ramps and roll them up into the stands. Then turn them with the cant hooks as we milled then out. Its still bending, we never built anything super high, its just to much to get a 24" or bigger diameter log thats 30 plus ft long into a high stand.

Tapatalk ate my spelling.

[Garufa]

I'm hell around my 1/3 acre estate with an electric Craftsman chainsaw.  :D

[leroy]

I love the great "log skidder"... .   The lady who kept me as a small boy wuz married to an old time logger.  Mr Bohanan and his son ran a little two man logging operation back in the late forties and early fifties.  I well remember when he put his team into honored retirement and started using a small John Deer crawler to do the skidding.  

 

Thanks for posting these great pictures!!.

leroy

[Currently]

When the tornado hit Apison a couple years ago, I bought a couple saws and did over a couple hundred hours volunteering clearing land helping those folks out. I never saw devastation like that in my entire life.

Never thought I'd handle a saw again till that happened. Worked in the woods several years in my late teens and early twenties and got out of it when I saw my relatives retire as cripples working in the woods their whole life.

I still got them and put them to use a couple months ago felling a 34 inch oak that was ailing and dropping large limbs on my lawn.

I remember helping my uncles twitch wood with horses when I was younger. Interesting to watch them load logs on a truck with horses. Indirectly gave me a fascination with physics which led to my choosing engineering as a career.

You can do a lot with a good horse.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

We built v notch stands to hold the logs. We would use cant hooks and ramps and roll them up into the stands. Then turn them with the cant hooks as we milled then out. Its still bending, we never built anything super high, its just to much to get a 24" or bigger diameter log thats 30 plus ft long into a high stand.

 

Thanks Spots. The ramps sound good, specially since you have that nice skidder to bring the log to the ramp. I don't have a horse or even an ATV.

 

I am less ambitious, just "batting at geese with a rake" trying to learn how to rip 6 or 8 foot, 12" diameter logs into lumber for starters. Extra points if I can keep from hurting myself. :) Even a 12" log is purt heavy for an old guy working alone.

 

Maybe it is not a good plan, but was kinda thinking, bring the stand to the log rather than vice-versa. So as an experiment I built these stands out of pressure treated 2X4, screws and subfloor adhesive. They are approx 2 foot cubes, with the ends sticking up about 1 inch to resist a log rolling off once it is up on the stands.

 

I didn't have a cant hook and those tools seem to sell for about $100 locally, so I got that Woodchuck from BaileysOnline for IIRC about $140 that will cant hook in addition to a couple of other tricks. It seems real nice so far.

 

 

Have used the stands to rip a couple of about 12" diameter black maple and a couple of about the same size red oak. Put the stands beside the log, then lift one end up on one stand, then lift the other end up on the other stand, and roll it up against those 1 inch stubs. Then used blocks of scrap 3/4" plywood, screwed to the side of the top boards, sticking up to hold the back side of the log steady. After making the top and bottom slice, unscrew the scrap plywood blocks, rotate the log with one flat against the 1" stubs, and screw on the scrap plywood pieces against the back flat to hold it steady for squaring and cutting into boards. If the chainsaw happens to trim off parts of the scrap plywood braces, ain't no big problem, because the screws are down below the level of the log.

 

That plan seemed kinda workable so far.

 

So anyway if it won't rain for a couple of days, the next log is about a 14 foot holly log, about 15" diameter at the base. It is too heavy to lift up on the stands, so am gonna cut it into two 7 footers and maybe I can pick up the smaller pieces and get em on the stands.

 

 

After that, there is a big old white oak that fell in the woods I'm gonna try to rip "where it lies". Hoping to start on the skinny end, cut off about 8 foot pieces, maybe luck up and drop the log down on the stands so I don't have to lift em up onto the stands.

 

Maybe some kind of portable ramps would be good to build, that I could temporarily clamp to the stands for rolling a log up. If I built ramps onto the stands they would get too heavy to tote around very easily.

 

Was asking the feller at Mill and Mine the safest way to lift heavy stuff if you don't have a forklift and he suggested maybe a chain hoist. He had some 1 ton kawasaki chain hoists not too spensive so I got one to maybe play with sometime. If I can build a fairly portable hoist tripod out of pressure treated wood or whatever, maybe that would be a good way to get a log up on the stand, if its "just a little too heavy" to lift up manually.

[RichardR]

Very impressive Spots, seriously I'm kind of depressed that you're on the other side of the state, I'd really like to be your neighbor man!

Is there any land for sale near ya? LOL, I'd hate leaving the Hatchie & Mississippi rivers behind but I could seriously get into some pioneer mountaineering, I have got to have a decently sized fresh-water source nearby though, I'm always going to be a river-rat at heart.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

How big a deal is anti-kickback chain for limbing and bucking?

 

They set me up with full-chisel (non anti-kickback) 3/8" chain on that stihl 461 I got for ripping, and it cuts great. But in the ripping task, kickback "ought not" to happen, and the main hazards to watch for seem to be when beginning and ending a rip cut.

 

I've not used the 461 for anything except ripping, been using a small 33cc makita (wife got for me a few years ago) for cutting logs into 7 or 8 foot pieces and knocking off small limbs and sucker growth. The Makita sprays "too much" oil and gets real filthy, a pain to clean, but has done the job so far. I spend a lot more time ripping than bucking. Was kinda thinking about a 60 cc stihl saw with a 3/8" chain might be less trouble, easier to clean and not as much an oily mess.

 

My 461, the oiler is adjusted to max and uses a tank of oil about as fast as a tank of gas, but it doesn't fill up the inside of the chain cover with oily wood paste like the little makita. Make just a few cuts with the makita and it is covered everywhere in oil, but it seems designed thataway, because it consumes oil and gas at about equal ratios. I figger if the makita oiler was over-performing past the design, then it would be using more oil than gas.

 

I'm a klutz, but a careful klutz. For bucking and taking off limbs, would I need to put anti-kickback chain on a 60 cc stihl to keep me out of trouble?

Edited December 31, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[Spots]

I don't use one, but its personal preference. They are much slower about bucking. I use a semi-chiesel chain on everything except ripping with the alaskan mill. Here is why. Quoted from wiki Full chisel chain has a square cornered tooth, splitting wood fibers easily in the cut for fast, efficient cutting in clean softwood. Semi-chisel chain has a rounded working corner formed by a radius between the top and side plates. While slower than full chisel in softwood, it retains an acceptable cutting sharpness longer, making it the preferred choice for dirtier wood, hard or dry wood, frozen wood or stump work, all of which would rapidly degrade full chisel chain. Tapatalk ate my spelling.

[bigtruuck]

my big saw is my husky 385 xp with a 36" bar, but most of the time it wears a 24". love cutting mostly for time in spent in the woods.

[Spots]

[quote name="bigtruuck" post="1087021" timestamp="1388524771"]my big saw is my husky 385 xp with a 36" bar, but most of the time it wears a 24". love cutting mostly for time in spent in the woods.[/quote] My 3120 xp wears a 20" 98% of the time anymore. We have a 36" just don't run into much need for it. Tapatalk ate my spelling.

[bigtruuck]

I really dont have a need for the 36" either but every now and than it really come in handy. 20" on a 3120 i bet that chews though wood like a hot knife thru butter.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I don't use one, but its personal preference. They are much slower about bucking. I use a semi-chiesel chain on everything except ripping with the alaskan mill. Here is why. Quoted from wiki Full chisel chain has a square cornered tooth, splitting wood fibers easily in the cut for fast, efficient cutting in clean softwood. Semi-chisel chain has a rounded working corner formed by a radius between the top and side plates. While slower than full chisel in softwood, it retains an acceptable cutting sharpness longer, making it the preferred choice for dirtier wood, hard or dry wood, frozen wood or stump work, all of which would rapidly degrade full chisel chain. Tapatalk ate my spelling.

 

Thanks for the tips, Spots. That does make good argument for the semi-chisel for all except ripping. I don't know if I even have any softwood in my little woods. They all look like hardwoods anyway though I'm not good at identifying them. I definitely don't have any pine or cedar. I can purt well identify those anyway.

 

Had been looking at some of the stihls in the 55 to 65 cc range because as far as I can tell, a few of them would be bar and chain compatible with the 461. Which seemed maybe a little bit of advantage having two saws that would hold the same bars and chains. But maybe in practice it makes no nevermind.

[enfield]

I cut only by necessity, but I have a Stihl saw, a timberjack and a cant hook, along with a pickaroon.  Outside of saws, good logging tools are getting hard to find.  Getting too old for this crap!

[Spots]

If your looking for a slightly smaller saw I would reccomend the Husky 365 xp or the 550 xp. Both are great saws and professional grade. For a home owner saw I love the Husky 455 and 460 Ranchers. Plenty of power, and not stupid heavy. But I am a huge Husqvarna fan anyways so that helps lol. Id say for what you do a semi-chiesel chain would be the ticket. They just perform better in overall conditions and all you give up is a little speed to a full chiesel. A safety chain is never gonna cut like a good sharp semi or full chiesel. Tapatalk ate my spelling.

[Spots]

[quote name="enfield" post="1087067" timestamp="1388532878"]I cut only by necessity, but I have a Stihl saw, a timberjack and a cant hook, along with a pickaroon. Outside of saws, good logging tools are getting hard to find. Getting too old for this crap![/quote] You ain't kidding. My old mans got several god canthooks, log tongs, etc. You can't find decent ones anymore for less than an arm and a leg. Hell, you can't find a decent axe for less than $100 anymore Tapatalk ate my spelling.

[Sam1]

The reason you can't find a good axe anymore for less than $100 is because humanity got smart and attached an engine to it and call them chainsaws now  :rofl:

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I only go to the chatt northern tools about once per year. Dunno if they have always stocked a good bit of logging stuff, or I never looked it over before, or they stock more now than before. Anyway last Sunday they had a fairly decent assortment of can't hooks, peaveys, several sizes of logging grapples, quite a few Oregon bars and chains, etc. Even had husky chaps and helmets and a couple of Alaskan small log mill attachments.

I went in there to get an electric chain sharpener that is a lookalike clone of an Oregon model for $109. The usual price was $129 but they matched their web price. Tried it out on a chain and seemed to work OK. That model you have to use with care because it isn't as solid as spensive sharpeners, but looks like it will work awhile if used with care. Watched YouTube demos of the twice as spensive Oregon model, and they look identical down to the screws, fittings, even the grinding wheels and gauge looks identical. Edited January 1, 2014 by Lester Weevils

[Sam1]

I don't use one, but its personal preference. They are much slower about bucking. I use a semi-chiesel chain on everything except ripping with the alaskan mill. Here is why. Quoted from wiki Full chisel chain has a square cornered tooth, splitting wood fibers easily in the cut for fast, efficient cutting in clean softwood. Semi-chisel chain has a rounded working corner formed by a radius between the top and side plates. While slower than full chisel in softwood, it retains an acceptable cutting sharpness longer, making it the preferred choice for dirtier wood, hard or dry wood, frozen wood or stump work, all of which would rapidly degrade full chisel chain. Tapatalk ate my spelling.

 

Yeah semi-chisels are the way to go on everything.  We had a lot of issues running full chisels during fires wearing them out and having to sharpen them a heck of a lot more often, not sure why but burnt out trees and ash just ate those full chisel chains up.

[Lumber_Jack]

In the US Forest Service we used semi-chisel and don't use those anti-kickback chains. They work for their purpose but render the tip and upper tip of the bar useless. Plunge cutting is a useful skill in cutting. When you use big saws, kick back is a concern. But if you keep a firm grip on the saw it's very difficult to actually cut yourself. It's when you start being dumb and using a loose grip or take your left(non trigger) hand off the saw that it can hurt you bad.

[Sam1]

mispost

Edited January 1, 2014 by Sam1

[56FordGuy]

Our property is 4/5ths wooded. I cut firewood to heat the house, along with doing necessary maintenance and clearing downed trees. Have a Stihl 361, and an 064. Split the firewood by hand, and use the tractor or Gator for getting around and moving heavy stuff as needed. 

[10-Ring]

I spent 2 winters heating my house solely with wood.  I cut and split every bit of it myself, the first year I split it all by hand as well.  Never got a good saw, just used a cheap Poulan and wore it out.  I enjoyed the work, being out in the woods, running the saw, even the back breaking hauling, and stacking.  I enjoyed the fires as well.  I've since moved and no longer have a fireplace.  I miss it like crazy, I feel like a cheating yuppy flipping a switch for heat.

[jtmaze]

I have about 7 acres of woods that are mostly hardwood. I cut a couple of trees a year for the fire pit. I use a cheap Poulan and it is a good saw for playing around the house. I hand split all of mine with a 6 lb maul. I have a 8 pounder but rarely use it. I enjoy splitting wood more than any other "chore" JTM We the People of the United States, in order to form a more Perfect Union......