Jummywood trees...

[Silvan]

The pine trees the previous owners planted along the edge of my property are starting to annoy me. My neighbor's power and cable feeds run over my yard and across that border, and I have to trim the trees constantly. Last winter, there ice problems in spite of my trimming, and one of the trees was so badly mangled that I went ahead and took it down. I cleaned out a corridor for the lines, and while that works, it looks stupid.

I want to get rid of them and plant something interesting there. Roses of sharon, lilacs, crab apples, redbuds... There are plenty of *good* things to plant under power lines that will also be much prettier.

I don't have a sawmill, obviously. I don't even have a chainsaw. I got the first one down by limbing what was left of it with a bow saw, kerfing the trunk all the way around with my Skil saw, then beating the hell out of it with a sledge hammer until it broke off.

So what can I do with Jummywood trunks about 10" in diameter and about 8' long?

I guess the first question is whether or not there's enough usable lumber in the trees to make it worth the effort of doing anything with them at all. Is pine heartwood any good? I'd expect these things are at least half heartwood.

If it's worthwhile, how can a man without so much as a chainsaw make lumber out of a fallen tree? Maybe I could cut them up with my Skil saw? Flatten one side with a shop made adz and use that as a stable base for kerfing, then split off the kerfed bits or something?

Any clever Wreck wisdom here?

I guess as to the question of "worthwhile" I realize that I'd be looking at a lot of work for very little return here. This is more of a project I'd like to do just to see if I can do it without buying anything expensive, because I like silly little challenges like this.

[Phil Crow]

I read a book on timber framing (It's the well-known one with two authors--that helps, right?) that details pretty well the process of making posts and/or beams from felled trees by hand. Depending on how many you have, you may have enough timbers for, say, a small shed? I think, however, that it may be prohibitive in terms of labor vs. yield.

OTOH, this could be an invaluable experience (it would for me as I intend to build myself a P&B home when I retire, ) for learning about timber framing.

Remember, advice is worth what you pay for it.

-Phil Crow

[Fred the Red Shirt]

Resinous woods are often avoided for firewood as they tend to gum up the chimney faster than hardwoods.

I suggest investing in an axe. A good axe will make short work of chopping down and de-limbing pine trees.

You can split one log down the middle to get an idea as to what the lumber will look like. Probably it will be pretty knotty. You CAN turn the wood or resaw it into lumber. I'd be inclined to just cut the trunks to length and use them for landscaping. Got any kids? Would they like a little log cabin or a fort?

A frame saw like this:

cut through green pine like butter. JOAT can probably find plans for you on the web but you can see enough in that picture to design your own. You can buy a metal framed one like this:

pretty cheap or just buy a replacement blade and make your own wooden-framed saw. I did that with a 4' blade and find that the wooden frame keeps the tension on the blade better than the metal frame.

Here are plans to make a frame saw for resawing:

here is a small fancy version for cutting curved pieces:

who make frame saws for fine woodworking typically use band-saw blades rather than bucking blades.

[Silvan]

That's an interesting idea...

[Silvan]

It would indeed, and I even know how to use one. I just don't own one, and, well, I'm reluctant to buy any of the seriously crappy axes I've seen for sale, even though I'm only going to use it for a short while.

I should try to scrounge up an old axe made at a time when people would actually be expected to do more with the thing than hang it on a peg in the shed to show their friends how woodsy they are, right before they grab the extra bright deer hunting light.

Yeah, I never thought about the knotty factor. It's probably extremely knotty. Isn't knotty pine a material of choice for floor boards? :)

They're a bit big for making a small cabin I think, but maybe if I split them into quarters... How would I go about splitting an entire, uninterrupted tree anyway? I've never split anything much beyond 2' long.

admit after thinking about this for awhile, the idea of sawing them into maybe 4' lengths, splitting them, and building some kind of outrageous fort for the kids seems like the best use.

[Norman D. Crow]

Sledge hammer & @ least 2 good steel wedges. "Before" chainsaws made cutting firewood so handy, lived on Uncles' dairy farm, helped fell & cut up mucho wood for kitchen cookstove. Double-bitted axe, two man crosscut saw for felling, axe for limbing & cutting small stuff. Up to about 6-8" was left whole in 6-8' lengths to be cut on buzz saw. Larger stuff was still 8', but wedged to fence post size, then cut to stove length on the buzz saw. How do you think "Honest Abe" made all those split rail fences? Nahmie

[Silvan]

Hey, that's a thought. I still have some Minwhacks red oak stain in the cupboard somewhere.

[Silvan]

You think "Honest Abe" ever did a day of actual physical labor in his life?

Anyway, duh, duh, duh, you're right of course. Wedge it from the *side*. Why didn't I think of that?

[George]

That would be a second wedge, or as they used when Abe was making fences, "glut."

First goes into the end, so the split will follow the natural run of the grain instead of trying to beat it into submission.

[Gregory C. Lewin]

Sobon and Schroeder.

[Norman D. Crow]

Never knew it had an actual name! You're right, start in the end, put the next in the side, retrieve the one from the end and move farther down the side.

'Nother tip I learned under Unc's tutelage: A dull axe is MUCH better for splitting than a sharp axe. Sharp cuts through the wood fibers, dull one wedges them apart, which is what you're trying to do. Nahmie