Killer scrounge find...need advice on bucking/dismantling!

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jason1238

jason1238

Member
Oct 31, 2006
76
Mason, OH
Hey all, I had a guy respond to a freecycle post I put out for unwanted wood. I went on my lunch hour today and looked at the "huge red oak" that is on the ground at his place.

The tree is pretty friggin' big, and I'm looking for advice about bucking a very large trunk on a downed tree safely. The trunk is right at 36" diameter at the butt end, and stays that size for about 48" up the stem. At that point, there's a "Y" where about an 18" to 20" branch peeled off. The whole thing lays out at 23 feet long, and gradually tapers from about 30" at the top of the "Y" down to about 20" where the tree service cut it off before they dropped it. The tree was cut only about a month and a half ago, and is in perfect shape (no rot, lightning damage, etc.). I think they were afraid of it falling on their house?

The great thing here is that the trunk is laying on perfectly level ground with nothing at all around it, and has already been limbed. There is fairly easy access via his neighbor's driveway, about 25yds away. I get all the limb cuts as well, but only after I chop and remove the trunk. There is a lot of wood here!

I'll have two saws, an 18" poulan (sucks, I know!), and an old Macullogh(sp?) with a 20" bar that my friend will loan me. Any suggestions? I'm thinking of cutting about 3/4 of the way down and splitting that much off with sledge and wedge, and work my way up past the "Y". There's no way to roll it until I get the mass of the butt end gone. I've cut 12-14" diameter ash trees before, but never anything this big!!!

Any advice?

Thanks,

Jason
 
jason1238 said:
I'm thinking of cutting about 3/4 of the way down and splitting that much off with sledge and wedge, and work my way up past the "Y". There's no way to roll it until I get the mass of the butt end gone. Any advice?

Thanks,

Jason
Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan!

Keep your safety stuff on, chains sharp, chain well oiled, bar square, keep your back streight, lift with your legs and cut and split out that monster!

Take your time and have fun!
 
I had a similar gift but a bit smaller 2 oak trees about 30" thick and about 24'. I did not want to groung the chain so I dug a hole under it and used a Roll out car jack and jacked it up and placed 6" logs under it. I also did as you planned to wedge andt sledgehammer it to spit up as I went.
 
If you can get anything underneath a section of what you think you could roll over with a cant-hook do that.
A 2X4 jammed underneath using a sledgehammer then you can make a cut there and not ground the chain. Roll that section and move on to the next section. Take your time and think before every cut. Have a sledge and some wedges too.

I cut a large one down last winter but I was able to drop it so it facilitated the bucking of the main trunk.
 
When in doubt, I've found it best to start from the top and work my way down toward the base of the tree.

If you have them available, you should bring a cant hook or peavey, a hatchet and/or axe (you'll need the blunt end of a hatchet, or a hammer, to pound wedges), and some wedges to keep kerfs from closing on your bar. (You could also cut some wedges from the tree in a pinch.)

Take your time, don't run a saw when winded or fatigued, try to predict how saw kerfs will close (or open) as you cut them, and have fun! Sounds like you'll get a nice load of wood out of this one.
 
Thanks for the replies and suggestions guys.

This forum is so great! I've been reading now for a long time, and have just worked up the courage to head out into the world looking for my own firewood. (I had always bought it before) The saw still scares the hell out of me, but from what I've learned that's a good thing. Kinda' like riding a motorcycle-- the day you're not scared of it at all is the day you should leave it in the garage. I'll have three other friends helping me out, one other fellow wood burner whom I'll split the take with, and two others who just love a good challenge. I'll post the results once we get it done!

I'm guessing my little Ryobi splitter won't do me much good with 36" green red oak rounds, but I'm only cutting 14-15" lengths, so I might give it a try :coolgrin:

BTW, thanks to all who reviewed that, too. It's a nice little machine! After complaining a bit, it did finally bust open a 32" dia red cedar log my boss had in his yard!

Jason
 
jason1238 said:
I'm guessing my little Ryobi splitter won't do me much good with 36" green red oak rounds, but I'm only cutting 14-15" lengths, so I might give it a try :coolgrin:

Jason
Click to expand...

If you go at one of those red oak rounds with a 6lb. splitting maul you will find it splits easy.

Do not try to split in half, thru the center, start on the other edge and take small splits off while working your way around the block. Just keep going round and round.

When you get done with a round you should have splits scattered over a 15 foot area. :)
 
Yes Andre
Whenever I am going at the BEEG rounds of Oak I always think as the pile of splits grows, yeah thats about 2 days worth of wood :)

I used to swing a 6 until Eric Johnson recommended an 8lb.
NIGHT and DAY, feel like Superman with an 8lb
 
another option for the BIG rounds..........
take a couple of wedges with ya and split 'em in half or quarters so they are more manageable.
great score!
 
I'm gonna pick up an 8lb'er and go with that. I like the idea of that much more gravity to help, and I have swung many an 8lb sledge in my day. I'll also have an assortment of wedges, wooden and steel to work with. I think the first hour or so will be spent just figuring out a good system. After we get that figured out, we should make pretty good time.

Jason
 
jason1238 said:
Thanks for the replies and suggestions guys.

This forum is so great! I've been reading now for a long time, and have just worked up the courage to head out into the world looking for my own firewood. (I had always bought it before) The saw still scares the hell out of me, but from what I've learned that's a good thing. Kinda' like riding a motorcycle-- the day you're not scared of it at all is the day you should leave it in the garage.
Click to expand...

Your exactly right. have full respect for the chainsaw.

I'll have three other friends helping me out, one other fellow wood burner whom I'll split the take with, and two others who just love a good challenge. I'll post the results once we get it done!

I'm guessing my little Ryobi splitter won't do me much good with 36" green red oak rounds, but I'm only cutting 14-15" lengths, so I might give it a try :coolgrin:

BTW, thanks to all who reviewed that, too. It's a nice little machine! After complaining a bit, it did finally bust open a 32" dia red cedar log my boss had in his yard!

Jason
Click to expand...

A few good tips here when working with other people is to have a small safty meeting before cutting just to let each other know what your going to do and how your going to do it.

ALWAYS , know where your other cutters / helpers are at in the area you are working.
Always have everybody attention when falling a tree and before you drop it everybody should know its comming down.

Everybody needs to know that is working in the area to STAY-AWAY from the left side of anybody using a chainsaw. when you done cutting normally the chainsaw will go to your left when not cutting.

Take your time , have a game plan , be safe and make sure to have your Personal Protection Equipment. (P.P.E.)
 
The one thing I miss (being a pellet head) is splitting a big batch of wood with a sledge and wedge. (never did have a splittin' machine) Hurts like hell the next day but it makes you feel alive too!

Be careful & have fun!!
 
those big logs are heavy. very heavy. a 24" diameter 8' red oak log is around 1685 lbs or so. when bucking the log, be careful it doesn't roll over you.

a log that large, if it's somewhat clear, is worth $$$$$ for the boards, you could buy 10 to 1 firewood vs quartersawn oak boards.
 
stangds said:
those big logs are heavy. very heavy. a 24" diameter 8' red oak log is around 1685 lbs or so. when bucking the log, be careful it doesn't roll over you.

a log that large, if it's somewhat clear, is worth $$$$$ for the boards, you could buy 10 to 1 firewood vs quartersawn oak boards.
Click to expand...

I had a red oak 30" dia. 9' long and my worn out 60JD with the #45 loader just about did not lift it, and being a narrow front end you did not want to lift it any higher then needed. ;)


The tree the OP is talking about is only 4 feet to where it started branching out so not a deep woods tree but one that grew out in the open. Likely has big wide growth rings, also sounds like it grew in someone's yard (increased possibility of hardware) and being just a single log it's not worth much for boards.
 
stangds said:
those big logs are heavy. very heavy. a 24" diameter 8' red oak log is around 1685 lbs or so. when bucking the log, be careful it doesn't roll over you.

a log that large, if it's somewhat clear, is worth $$$$$ for the boards, you could buy 10 to 1 firewood vs quartersawn oak boards.
Click to expand...


Most mills would not take a chance to mill a log from a backyard so this one is most likely worth more as cordwood.
 
a large sawmill looking for production won't, but many small operators with bandsaws will. a band is about $20 or so, sometimes it's worth the risk.... it's a case by case thing.

sometimes you can cut a notch into the end of the log and put a hydraulic jack in the groove to bust the log too.

safety is the key in working with large chunks of wood. I use my 066 on big wood like that, you'll be there for days with a small saw :)
 
I actually had thought of that. I have a friend that I work with who is a pretty good woodworker, and he came out to have a look for just that reason. He didn't see much worth in the wood for lumber.

I think Andre is right, the tree is an open area type tree. The straightest part of it is that bottom 48". The rest is good old gnarly oak. The stem has a bit of a bow above that first "Y", and there are about 4 or 5 large branch growths along that length.

I'm not sure what "wide" growth rings would be, but these look pretty tight to me, maybe 1/8" average. The housing development it's in is only 3 or 4 years old. Nice homes, prolly $300-$400k.
 
cool deal. I helped haul out a 60" diameter breast height log this past april, they weighed around 10,000 lbs each, that was a lot of fun. the tree was over 200 years old and had blown down in a storm.

1/8 is pretty good. I hate to see veneer logs busted into firewood, which happens more often than people realize.

have fun with it, there should be PLENTY of wood in there. you may have to use your chainsaw to saw up the crotch, it may be too hard to split by hand.
 
That brings up a question...would this be considered a 36"DBH tree? How much wood do you figure is in it? We're all kinda' fuzzy on that one. I've seen the cord/DBH charts, but I'm not so sure I understand :-/

Stangds, how much wood did you get out of those monsters? I realize this is a smaller tree, but I'm curious.

I am just flat excited about tackling this one!
 
i'm not sure what the final count was, they were sawn up. a friend of mine has a Peterson sawmill which is good for breaking down big logs, but it was still a LOT of work. those big logs are pretty much limited to hobby guys or small production fools... i was just the sucker who has a winch and understands pulley's and levers :)

yes, sounds like your log is 36" DBH or so. there are calculators for the cords in a log, that's your best bet there, most of them are charts of diameter and length. you'd need to break it into 3 parts, the trunk and the two forks.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4129208413997408778&q=D.+Shade+oak we're professionals, don't try this at home!
 
LMAO "...oh sh*t....too late now!"

THAT was a huge chunk of wood :gulp:

Thanks for the clip!
 
Cut that up for firewood ! I split the log in the pic of my truck it was about 36" diameter maple eight feet long and I lost count at 100 nails in it when splitting it!!!! It was right out side of the house and must have had fifty cloths lines and bird houses on it over the years even one big iron hook about 12 inches from the bark. It ate two brand new chisel chains but the nails really started showing up when I split it with my splitter, every thing from finish nials to sixteen penny spikes, be careful and have fun, that oak is a good score.
 
If you have been buying your firewood you could buy a nice 300-400 $ saw to cut up this tree with, and call it even. I used a sears saw to clear my lot, cut up some nice size trees but after getting my Stile I saw how much time wasted with that saw saw. Plus it wore out and got thown out.
 
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