Oak felling seasoning and milling advice?

[Squaredy]

18 hours ago, Stihl_Ben_UK said:

Cheers gents, especially Andrew, very informative. I don't know a huge amount about the history of the tree but agree it does appear some laterals have been removed in years gone by. 

From the advice above, and seeing as I already have a chainsaw mill and due to work commitments, I'm thinking possibly the following approach to it:

1) Fell tree carefully in Feb, cutting the straight bits into max 12ft lengths (so I can transport it later)

2) Chainsaw mill it in April into 10"x 10" and 8"x8" posts for gate posts which I'll need a few of anyway. 

3) Transport fairer pieces to a mill for band sawing to cladding thickness , retain worse pieces for gate posts etc

 

I've still got a few queries:

>should I do the initial chainsaw milling immediately in Feb or leave it settle / relax whatever first? I'm keen for the latter for the sake of my neighbours / noise, i.e. give them a bit of a break, but understand its better to mill Oak in wet/ cold conditions?

>should I immediately bandsaw mill the better pieces that will be cladding or will a few months / year of initial drying be ok?

>Any recommendations for what to use to seal cut ends?

> for cladding would 20mm be the advisable thinnest to go for? Is feather edge worthwhile with Oak or too prone to warping? Should Oak cladding be treated? I'm using it for outbuildings and a large steel framed gate.

>Can sapwood and bark be used for Oak cladding? I've certainly read a few posts warning of bugs in Oak bark..? Should I remove only bark or bark and sapwood?

>Should I treat Oak gate posts (they will installed green sometime in June?) If so what should I treat them with before I plant them?

 

Thanks to everyone for your help on this!

 

If you need cladding you will have a lot of waste, as the sapwood is really no good for this.  Find a couple of good leylandii stems for cladding, and mill the oak for beams or something else where a bit of sapwood doesn’t matter.

[Rough Hewn]

On 30/11/2022 at 12:56, Stihl_Ben_UK said:

In my garden I have a reasonably large and straight English Oak to fell in February.

 

I'd like to use the wood from it for something other than firewood, hopefully ultimately mill it with a chainsaw mill or hire in someone with a bandsaw mill.

 

So far I understand to take care from shocking the wood during felling and to cushion it on brash or similar. I've also heard its worth leaving the wood to rest / relax for a reasonable period before milling (tree is and has always grown on a lean with weight to one side).

 

I've heard mixed answers regarding to milling. Some say mill immediately on felling, some say season first. Diameter is around 36" on the trunk, possibly a bit more. 

 

In an ideal world I may consider using it for cladding, in that event what's the thinnest sensible thickness that Oak can be milled to without causing issues? 

 

Any advice on this welcome, I just dont want to spoil what could be useful timber. 

 

Thanks

 

 

Sadly I do not think milling this tree is a good idea. Too much lean and heavy canopy will make all the boards split or warp or both.

will be good firewood though👍

[Stihl_Ben_UK]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'll have a look when its down. Perhaps I'll just make a few posts with my chainsaw mill and see how they turn out. 

[Stihl_Ben_UK]

Well the tree is down, actually seemed a bit smaller on the ground, thankfully most of it was just within the milling limits of my 28" bar with a bit of trimming here and there and the Alaskan mill set uncomfortably close to the bar tip on a couple of occasions! The tree had a nice amount of metal content amazingly the Oregon chain went through metal quite a few times without snapping. Made a few decent size gate posts, various slabs and other random shaped bits. Only mystery was one slab the saw refused to cut, after taking the top off and successfully milling 2 slabs with ease on the 3rd slab, about 1/3rd of the way along the saw refused to go any further, no metal present, just stopped progressing, wedges etc all good, no logic to it, saw still sharp. Tried from the other end of the log, got 1/4 way along same issue. Can't understand why on that cut I couldn't milling along it, so gave up and plunge cut it the other direction with an 038 and a granberg mini mill. Cut no problem that way. Thanks to everyone for the advice. 

[Muddy42]

Well done.  Now you need to make the gate! I often use oak immediately if its going to be used outside.

 

On the third mystery cut where you got stuck, could you have maxed out the width of your mill and some part of the saw/mill come in contact with the bark or a branch?  Its easy to do and I have done it a few times.

[AJStrees]

In the past I once had a piece of ash that gave me similar trouble not getting through the wood. I found two things. When the wood has been growing on a lean when cutting through the tension makes it a lot harder to mill through and obviously once milled it will just split and not been any good and won't dry flat either. Secondly I checked my mill and one of the bolts holding the cross piece in place was out by a couple of mm meaning I could not get through the wood as it would not slide and just kept jamming. 

 

Don't know if that helps. 👍