Harvesting wood from a Large fallen tree

J

Justin W

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Jul 30, 2019
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Just a hypothetical question since this is not my tree. How do you harvest wood from large fallen trees?

This one is huge, probably 8ft diameter at the skinniest part of the old white oak trunk. It is full of crotch and burl and the root ball came up with it when a huge wind storm came through over the summer (it didn't break, just uprooted). It grew along the road under power lines and was aggressively trimmed by utility workers, so there are probably 10 Y crotches at the top of the trunk. The root ball is easily 10-12 ft diameter after being trimmed and moved away from the road.

Just curious because this thing grabs my attention when I drive by.
 
How much space do you have?

If you're just doing knives; cut the burls/other good bits out and seal them with anchor seal. You may just be able to trim the burls off with a chainsaw, i've never tried that.
For wood turning I cut into chunks about as large as i can move, and seal the ends. Then stack them where they can dry.
People who do slabs seem to slab them with a sawmill, then stack for drying. I don't know anything about that.

Knife handle timber needs to be dryer than wood turning, so you'll have to leave for quite a while.

For a decent sized tree I would see if there's anyone else around who might help. There might be someone with a sawmill or big chainsaw who will swap smaller bits like burl to you in exchange for slabs ect that you won't use.

Anchor seal seems to be the generally recommended product for sealing wood for drying. You will probably still get some cracking so cut 5-10cm or so oversized (i have no experience with oak, but that's the case for everything i have sitting around)
 
My honest opinion is, it's probably not what you want for knives.

Oak wood just doesn't behave very well when figured. The crotch and burl and curly areas are prone to cracks and checks much more than other domestic woods like maple, birch, walnut and even ash. In my experience, the areas with figure dense enough for knife handles was just too unstable.

IMO Figured oak works better in furniture, turning or other uses where working around cracks/ voids is much easier. Knives require very high quality, figured wood and its just difficult to successfully get that from most oak trees.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
My honest opinion is, it's probably not what you want for knives.

Oak wood just doesn't behave very well when figured. The crotch and burl and curly areas are prone to cracks and checks much more than other domestic woods like maple, birch, walnut and even ash. In my experience, the areas with figure dense enough for knife handles was just too unstable.

IMO Figured oak works better in furniture, turning or other uses where working around cracks/ voids is much easier. Knives require very high quality, figured wood and its just difficult to successfully get that from most oak trees.
Click to expand...

Milling a BIG tree is also a lot of work. The slabs can weigh thousands of pounds. It usually requires a full mobile sawmill to safely cut such a large log of dense and if figured unstable wood.
 
Yes, this isn't a project I am going to tackle right now. At least not with this tree. It is way too big to learn on, and oak isn't really worth the effort as Ben pointed out. I just want to hear some advice for the future if something better turns up.

Seems like a good chainsaw and the ability to get it to a mill are critical. It would have to be quartered at least to fit any mill I have seen on YouTube. Small blocks are probably more realistic.
 
Hi J Justin W
I have had very little experience, having cut up but one big tree, a three foot spalted silver maple, but here is what I found. I used a Stihl MS181 with 14” bar, which wasn’t really enough power or length. Even attacking from both sides I could not cut through the full log width, frustrating! Used a regular cross cut chain and cannot but think a ripping chain would have helped a lot of cuts. Used a 14” upright bandsaw to slice chunks into slabs and blocks. Would not have wanted less saw.
Silver maple is pretty soft, and spalted is even softer, but it was heavy wet. Was a bit too rotted to get max yield but if I had got to it sooner there was a lot of wood that didn’t have enough figure to be knife handles. Jewellery boxes, yes. As such, getting equipment for milling the whole log would have been over kill if the aim was just knife blanks.
 
I did tree work when younger. One thing people don't realize on a large, uprooted tree is that when you cut the main trunk from the root ball the root usually falls back into its hole rapidly and violently. People have been killed this way.
A tree the size you describe is not a project for anyone who isn't a professional wood cutter. It will require cranes and LARGE saws. A mobile sawmill would also be wise. Expect to spend thousands of dollars to get a large amount of oak lumber and crotch blocks that will have to dry for 3 to 10 years. The burls and crotches may be valuable for furniture, but not likely for knives.
 
"IF" you're just wanting to play with the wood to get a little experience you might take a chainsaw and cut off a couple of the big burls and perhaps a couple of the "Y" crotch sections where the biggest cut would only be 12" to 18" max. Of course, you might need permission from somebody to do any cutting on a tree by the roadside.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I did tree work when younger. One thing people don't realize on a large, uprooted tree is that when you cut the main trunk from the root ball the root usually falls back into its hole rapidly and violently. People have been killed this way.
A tree the size you describe is not a project for anyone who isn't a professional wood cutter. It will require cranes and LARGE saws. A mobile sawmill would also be wise. Expect to spend thousands of dollars to get a large amount of oak lumber and crotch blocks that will have to dry for 3 to 10 years. The burls and crotches may be valuable for furniture, but not likely for knives.
Click to expand...
Yep, I have cut enough firewood to know not to play around. This one is so big I just keep thinking to myself "how the heck ..." I won't touch this. There is a big Pecan tree that broke up which I could likely play with if I see some nice grain.
 
Justin W said:
Yep, I have cut enough firewood to know not to play around. This one is so big I just keep thinking to myself "how the heck ..." I won't touch this. There is a big Pecan tree that broke up which I could likely play with if I see some nice grain.
Click to expand...
You might find Matt Cremona's youtube channel interesting. He's into "urban logging" and has built a bunch of his own equipment for it.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
My honest opinion is, it's probably not what you want for knives.

Oak wood just doesn't behave very well when figured. The crotch and burl and curly areas are prone to cracks and checks much more than other domestic woods like maple, birch, walnut and even ash. In my experience, the areas with figure dense enough for knife handles was just too unstable.

IMO Figured oak works better in furniture, turning or other uses where working around cracks/ voids is much easier. Knives require very high quality, figured wood and its just difficult to successfully get that from most oak trees.
Click to expand...
The piece I have is beautiful, but it is far from being a good wood for a knife. You are exactly right.

I have another house knife.
 
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