Milling guide

[wilde]

[wilde]

Finally got down there today and took some pics of a good variety of the trees that reflect the better sized ones as obviously no point taking pics of the smaller ones, are these  sizes/quality worth milling? The poles ae 4m tall and trunks on average are 2-2.5ft diameter with bigger sizes. I included a few extras to reflect/show its not all plain sailing, it would be sad imo to see them go as logs if they're worth the effort of milling because there is a greater supply of logs than millable timber

[Rough Hewn]

There’s probably dozens worth milling. There’s no quick money in this game though.
Be worth getting an Alaskan style mill and doing a bit here and there.
Practice on the sycamore and willow. [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

[openspaceman]

10 hours ago, wilde said:

Finally got down there today and took some pics of a good variety of the trees that reflect the better sized ones as obviously no point taking pics of the smaller ones, are these  sizes/quality worth milling? The poles ae 4m tall and trunks on average are 2-2.5ft diameter with bigger sizes. I included a few extras to reflect/show its not all plain sailing, it would be sad imo to see them go as logs if they're worth the effort of milling because there is a greater supply of logs than millable timber

Picture 11 looks like a nice clean bit of cherry which may produce nice boards

[Johnsond]

11 hours ago, wilde said:

That looks a cool place to work, it’s got history written all over it, type of place as kids back before play stations etc you would’ve had a ball in amongst all that. 

[wilde]

Its got quite a variety of trees and geography, including a gully/abandoned track bed with embankments covered in trees ideal for a good sized rope swing and I guess a zipline, or in WW2  it was used to hide a military gun to shoot down the Germans. Military bunker remains are there too as during the wars a potential invasion was planned for so in the knees they built a military camp as it made for a good vantage point to see the mainline rail line which they thought the Germans would use to get further inland. Whilst you cant see it just behind the mobile/temporary building is a massive concrete water storage tank, about 5x the size of the mobile at least used to supply the engines to the railway during the steam era

Edited September 20, 2020 by wilde

[wilde]

Took down one of the larger Oak trees today, plenty of damage from a Beefsteak fungi growing at the base, timber is still quite solid so the big question lol, any idea what its worth/what it'll be best suited for (without seeing or feeling it I appreciate) And hey... no rate my hinge otherwise I might rate your winge lol

[Rough Hewn]

Have you milled anything before?
As that is a rather nice looking trunk of brown oak.
Practice milling on some crap stuff first is my advice.
[emoji106]

[trigger_andy]

5 minutes ago, Rough Hewn said:

Have you milled anything before?
As that is a rather nice looking trunk of brown oak.
Practice milling on some crap stuff first is my advice.

You said before brown oak is oak that’s started to rot. That oak looks good to me. Looks like regular English Oak. Or am I missing something? 

[openspaceman]

43 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

You said before brown oak is oak that’s started to rot. That oak looks good to me. Looks like regular English Oak. Or am I missing something? 

It is incipient decay and it will have lost some tensile strength  but as its main use is joinery or veneer this is not such a problem as if it were for beams or rafters.

 

If you look closely at the butt the deeper reddish chocolate brown seems to extend beyond the heartwood.

 

I put a piece onto a Carl Danzer lorry in about 1985 which I got paid £15/hoppus ft for (at a time when oak planking butts were selling for £5-8Hft) but I had to cross cut the butt and roll it aside to be inspected both ends and all round before he would give me the purchase order, it was also 3 metres long, which is significant as the premium market was for veneering boardrooms in city offices and one butt had to produce enough veneer to do the complete room.

 

I suspect the rot pocket from the first branch will extend into the length and it looks like the butt is less than 8ft but still definitely worth milling.

 

Often the brown will be alternated with unaffected heartwood to give a tiger stripe which is also attractive, a friend of mine milled some for his house flooring but it sits in stick under some plastic sheets and I fear it will have deteriorated before it finds a use.