Today's milling

[AndyO]

Recently got contacted about buying this Sweet Chestnut stem and went to have a look today. I was interested as we don’t have much Sweet Chestnut in this neck of the woods…
It’s 5.5m long and about 1m at the stump.
There’s a few things putting me off:
-looks like some shake visible which seems to go all the way up.
-some staining from metal further up as well as some rot (presumably why it was felled?)
-access is terrible…

My head says walk away but my heart wants to slab a large, historic, local tree as there’s definitely a few nice burrs in it.

I welcome your thoughts [emoji106]

[AndyO]

[AndyO]

 

Apologies for the terrible photos!

[Big Beech]

24 minutes ago, AndyO said:

 

Apologies for the terrible photos!

Lovely stuff, minimal shake like that you’ll find in all timbers. Even ring shake not to bad if making table tops.

Rot not an issue in this day and age. Very easy to work and stable.

these where air dried for a year and a half to 18% and I kilned them to 6-10%.

see my other posts

Edited April 12, 2022 by Big Beech

[openspaceman]

32 minutes ago, AndyO said:

Recently got contacted about buying this Sweet Chestnut stem and went to have a look today. I was interested as we don’t have much Sweet Chestnut in this neck of the woods…
It’s 5.5m long and about 1m at the stump.
There’s a few things putting me off:
-looks like some shake visible which seems to go all the way up.
-some staining from metal further up as well as some rot (presumably why it was felled?)
-access is terrible…

My head says walk away but my heart wants to slab a large, historic, local tree as there’s definitely a few nice burrs in it.

I welcome your thoughts

Ring shake in old chestnut not at all unusual, often  associated with spiral grain to make the boards somewhat suspect.

 

Sometimes the ring shake is conical and will sound out in a metre or so, we would try and sound it out and cut a disc out of the sounded end then break it  and look for greying in the split grain which indicated the shake was still present.

[GWYNFIL]

wouldnt put me off still get boards out of it. 300 mm12" +  even the resin boys would have it in slabs character lol. if the price was right.

[Squaredy]

2 hours ago, AndyO said:

Recently got contacted about buying this Sweet Chestnut stem and went to have a look today. I was interested as we don’t have much Sweet Chestnut in this neck of the woods…
It’s 5.5m long and about 1m at the stump.
There’s a few things putting me off:
-looks like some shake visible which seems to go all the way up.
-some staining from metal further up as well as some rot (presumably why it was felled?)
-access is terrible…

My head says walk away but my heart wants to slab a large, historic, local tree as there’s definitely a few nice burrs in it.

I welcome your thoughts

Difficult to judge from the one photo of the thick end, but certainly ring shake, and if this goes all the way through this will cause problems.  Best case scenario it will affect a few boards and be a shame, but not too serious.  Worst case scenario the stem will be riddled with shake and give no decent slabs at all, and mainly yield firewood.

 

Good luck if you do mill it - let us know how you get on.

[trigger_andy]

Some nice Larch Sawlogs delivered today. Need about 3t for an order that will cover the cost of the 11t I had delivered. £90 a ton stung! Not used to paying that prices but certainly nice logs. I’ll use the rest for 6” beams for the log cabin and the rest for fencing.

[AndyO]

Thanks for the replies, maybe my heart was right…

I’ll need to do some head scratching about how to get some millable timber out and be very careful of Porsche in the driveway!!!

[Watercourse management]

56 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

Some nice Larch Sawlogs delivered today. Need about 3t for an order that will cover the cost of the 11t I had delivered. £90 a ton stung! Not used to paying that prices but certainly nice logs. I’ll use the rest for 6” beams for the log cabin and the rest for fencing.

90 a ton I wish,got quoted 160 a ton roadside.