Big J

Progress! Rob has very kindly (and very quickly) sent me the new 42 inch bar as a replacement for the 60. It came at about 3pm this afternoon, got it drilled and set up with the mill. Finished loading the timber that I already had for the kiln (only amounting to about 50 cube so far). The milling starts in earnest tomorrow. Travelling 30 miles to this big Oak down near Peebles. It's 27ft long, average 3ft diameter (I'm going to straight edge one side by milling the top and rolling it 90 degrees). It will get cut to 12ft, 8ft and 7ft. I'm anticipating it will take three full days to mill and stack (approx 160 cubic foot). After that, I'll be onto big elm again with any luck, assuming these 4 trees from Holyrood come off. In the mean time, here is a picture of the rather diminutive stack in the kiln so far with some frankly stunning elm on top!

Cracking tree there. Shame for it to be taken down, but if that's what the customer wants.... I had a slightly smaller yew for my last kiln. I paid about £7 a hoppus foot, so on that basis you might be looking at £350 and up for the first 12ft. Yew seems to kiln beautifully too - very easy with no cracking, distortion and it readily gives up it's moisture. Jonathan

Very good!

Congratulations Ad!

Up here (sunny Scotland), you won't get dried walnut of that quality for less than £100 a cube. No exaggeration either. If it were me, I'd try your luck at £60-70 a cube. It will sell, regardless of price. Try Shotgun makers - they are your best customers for walnut.

Having a go myself!

No finer location for milling than with the rugged Berwickshire coast and North Sea in the background. Lifting the log onto the Lumbermate.

Not from today, but a curved Oak bridge beam milled for a friend who is a furniture maker. Took ages to find the right, curved piece of branch wood large enough for the beam. Worth the wait though. It was milled in the normal fashion with the Alaskan, roughly cut out with a 260 following a jig line, and fine finished with a router. Another view, up the steam this time. Big Elm, from North Berwick. Around 32-33 inches across. Fabulous figure throughout.

Thanks guys - it's going to be a beautiful feeling when that kiln door gets closed next weekend with a stack of beautiful, top grade elm and oak stacked to the cloisters! Rob - spirits not dampened at all! It was a tough day but the positives I take from it are that I've found out the limitation of the Alaskan (knowing the limitation is oddly reassuring for me) and I got to have a play with a band saw. Went over to Tom D's yard today over in East Lothian to mill a nice lump of Elm. About 32 inches in diameter on average over a length of 6ft 8". Set up the 088 with the 60 inch Cannon Bar, complete with auxiliary oiler. First time using this set up - spent a good while ensuring it was done right yesterday. Anyway, unfortunately I struggled with the long bar. It's just not possible to avoid a degree of sag in the middle of the bar, which resulted in a small inaccuracy in the slabbing of the Elm (milling at 51mm (two inches) with one side at 51 and the other 60mm). With the stacking of my kiln being in the region of 25-30 boards high, I have to have the boards accurately milled (hasn't been a problem up to now with the 36 inch bar). Anyway, rather than continue to mill on a bad line with the Alaskan, Tom D very VERY kindly offered to slab the remainder of the timber on his Lumbermate Bandsaw. Managed to get the log on (just - with myself and my wife as ballast on the back of the tractor. If you can't say that your wife isn't good ballast, is there really any point being married at all??!), took off a rough top slab to get it through the throat of the saw. The bandsawmilling was quick and efficient, and even with the relatively small motor (13hp), it was blasting through at one cut a minute. Produced some lovely elm slabs, which should be snapped up once the kiln opens. It was nice to have a shot with the bandmill too. For sub 22 inch logs it's absolutely superb, taking far less time. It is however very much limited by it's throat, and that if you push too hard, the band snaps (as evidenced today). A great addition to any milling setup, but I think an Alaskan's ability to mill wide boards is equally invaluable. At this point I want to say a special thankyou to Rob Dyer. After speaking to him at the end of the day regarding the milling, he is taking back the 60 inch bar and associated rails and mill, and resupplying me with a 42 inch bar, several new chains and an additional handle. This is something that I am completely aware that he has no obligation to do, but he does willingly nevertheless. The world needs more retailers and indeed people like him, so thanks Rob!! Pictures will be put up momentarily. Jonathan

Thanks for the feedback guys! Rob - now you come to mention it, it is a bit quick - I'll ask my friend to slow down the picture refresh rate. Tom - thankyou again for spending the entire afternoon helping us with the bandsaw after the mishaps with the chainsawmill. Can't sing your praises enough!! Jonathan

I'm filling my second kiln starting tomorrow and all being well ending on Sunday 26th with the kiln being closed and going on. I have a little bit milled and ready to go in, but really only some fairly small pippy Oak (about 30 cubic foot all in, with lengths of 7-8ft and widths of up to 28 inches, but mostly less). Timber to be milled in the next 7 days include: * Oak - one log, 27ft long, 44 inches at the butt, 30 inches at the top. One branch. Hoppus measure gives me 170 cubic foot from the log. I've sold 20 cubic foot green, 20 cubic foot goes to the owner of the log for airdrying, 40 cubic foot cubic foot goes to the owner of the log for a table and bed, but is being kilned, leaving me with 90 cubic foot. * Elm - one 36 inch x 7ft log to mill tomorrow. 4 trees coming mid week, averaging 39 inches in diameter, lengths unknown. Doubt I'll be able to mill all of that or indeed fit in into the kiln (total capicity 250 cubic foot). Overall breakdown for the stock in the kiln will be: * 30 cubic foot smallish pippy oak. * 130 cubic foot wide, straight oak * 90 cubic foot wide, straight elm. I'll get pictures over the course of the week and keep this thread updated. Jonathan

Hi all - finally got the front page of my website and a stocklist up. A colleague of my wife is excellent with IT, so he's done my website and I'm helping him with a coffee table. Only an imperfect front page so far, stuff to adjust and fine tune, but it's all he had time to do before going on holiday. RSTW Jonathan

It's funny, but Lime used to be used for furniture quite a lot, but not so much now. You could try milling it and marketing it as an alternative to pine for simple furniture? If you price it accordingly, it should sell OK. If it were me, I'd mill the lot (it won't take you long - Lime is as soft as any timber) with a mixture of board thicknesses with the bulk at 1.5-2.5 and then a few at 4 inches as Rob says. Stick it, stack it, advertise it on your local gumtree and forget about it. You should be able to shift it at £12 a cube, which is £906 for the lot (assuming a 10ft log). Shouldn't take you more than a day to do either. Jonathan

That is absolutely insane - genuinely made my legs go weak, even though I was sitting down!

Thanks for that Steve!

I'm now trying to stick to the larger logs. Sub 18 inches diameter isn't worth bothering with unless it's a small tree species like Yew, Cherry or Holly, or high value, like Walnut. Cabinet maker I work with said generally, the goal is boards of over 30 inches in width for Oak and Elm, and to a lesser degree Ash. If you can mill and stock those, you will be fine. Jonathan

Ring round the sawmillers in your area. If it's sound through the main butt, it is worth silly money. My neighbour at my workshop (a cabinet maker) bid on a walnut tree that eventually sold for just over £40 a hoppus foot in the round. For example - a 2ft diameter log 7ft long is worth £690 at that price. It's shotgun makers that pay the most apparently. Just don't burn it! Jonathan

Congratulations mate! Some would say having twins is just lazy - one pregnancy, not two etc etc......some might say that - I fear few would live very long afterwards! The wife and I are hoping to start a family in a few years - I get the impression that nothing really prepares you for that moment when you walk through the door coming home with someone (or two) who is completely dependent on you for everything. Jonathan

It would be a good way from the house and behind the turbine, in terms of prevailing wind. Thanks for the reply Marko. The folk in question are mostly retired but have a teenage son, so no issue regarding labour for harvesting. In my mind they would either let it grow on beyond 3 years and continue to use their Aga, or chip it dry and use it in a wood chip boiler. Would it be as much as 10 acres required? Preliminary research seems to indicate that 8-12 tonnes a year is achievable from 1 hectare (2.7 acres) which seems like a reasonable amount for a household. That's assuming 1kw to 1kg of dry willow (roughly), an 80% burn efficiency creating a total of a minimum of 6400kw a year (27kw a day spread over 8 months). Perhaps I'm off on my calculations though. The estate I live on has a lot of self seeding willow that are a tremendous size for their age. We spent a few days clearing a small glen of trees barely 20 years old that had wide canopies reaching 15-18m in height, and trunks up to 20 inches in diameter. I should try to get a specific identification of the species, but theoretically cuttings from these trees should be suitable? Good luck with your coppice - I'll be very interested to find out how you get on! Jonathan

Friends/customers of mine are very interested in starting a willow coppice. They have a lovely house and a bit of land south of Edinburgh and their aim is energy self sufficiency. This is as much a need and an ideological desire, as they have no mains electricity or water. The wind turbine is going up this week (as far as I'm aware), and they have a good bit of fairly boggy moorland that they can use for coppice. They were very interested in coppicing, and it's something I'm extremely keen to try as it's something I want to do for myself in the future. My questions are: 1) What acreage will be required to sustain a reasonably large (older, and presumably not fantastically insulated) house and a smaller (new, presumably well insulated) holiday cottage. Possible total floor area around 200-250 square meters. 2) Which variety of willow (or indeed any other tree would be considered if advantages were clear) would be best for exposed, reasonably boggy site? The site is at about 200m above sea level too, with a south west aspect, but receives quite sustained cold weather in winter. 3) What would be the best coppicing cycle to use? How often should the willow be harvested? 4) What spacings should be used, and would cuttings suffice, or would whips need to be bought? 5) Best drying methods and best method for converting the coppiced material into heat? Sorry for the multitude of questions, but I want to make sure that I have the full picture before making any recommendations to them! Thankyou in advance for any advice offered! Jonathan

All the best to you mate. I've had mine checked out once for a suspicious lump, but thankfully nothing more than a cyst. It's a brave thread to start, and thankyou for highlighting the issue. Jonathan

Photos from the first kiln, with some photos tagged on the end showing the revised dehumidifier and fan set up. New photos from Robinson Sawmilling | Facebook

No chance of getting it for a song I'm afraid. The estate is managed by: Scottish Woodlands - Forest, estate & land-related services and they are up on the value of good Oak (unfortunately). I would mill it, and extraction is no issue as it is directly by the road side. I would probably mill it in situ actually, though I would have a reasonably large amount of sawdust to get rid of after. My best guess for the log (on the basis of calculating the hoppus footage at 87 cube) is about £350. That's £4 a cube on stuff I can sell for £35. There is no shake at all in the log and little branching. What Scottish Woodlands want to do though is package up all the Oak, which will be difficult for me in terms of storage and affording half a dozen trees at £300-400 each. Jonathan

They've started felling the big stuff these last couple of weeks. First off is all the knackered, rotten beech and sycamore, then onto the (predominantly) Oaks. Nice Oak felled earlier in the week. Quite a clean 20ft length at approximately 30-32 inches in diameter, though touching 3ft at base. Potential to be a bit pippy. What would you guys pay/offer for that? Jonathan

Very positive reception at the Furniture Makers Exhibit. I spoke to around 20 different makers and most of them were very interested to see my stock. Had another timber sale as well yesterday, so I suppose 15% of the kiln is now sold. I've put in my application for ASHS (Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers) too. Speaking to Jim Birley of Scottish Woods, ASHS seem to operate in a very cooperative fashion, doing training days (for instance Kiln Drying at Falkirk Woods) and a lot of good marketing. Only £100 a year too. Similarly, I've been recommended to become accredited with Scottish Working Woods. Looking at their website it seems very straightforward and worth doing. I'm off up the workshop this afternoon complete with camera, so plenty of photos to follow. Jonathan