Milling Lumber

Hemlock Headaches

Just to get to this point of saw milling sometimes a lot of little things have to get done.

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Hemlock timber cant.

Today for us it starts with moving some product around. Finding space for three skids of spruce lumber, a skid of ash, moving machinery and dealing with cranky machinery which in turn makes Jim a cranky person. Sometimes 🙂

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Organizing the lumber.

Once everything is working (more or less) its time to make up time. Grab a few hemlock logs from the pile and get them on the crib next to the saw mill.

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Grappling hemlock logs.

Roll on the log, assess how to cut the log and then let’s open up the log to reveal its secrets.

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16 inch hemlock log.

Unfortunately we’re seeing a lot of low grade hemlock. That means a lot of wastage. Of 6 logs we milled this day, 3 were literally thrown into the scrap pile. (see pallet forks below).

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Wasted hemlock wood.

What we are finding are soft spots within the logs, and some of the logs are suffering from wind shake (ring shake), which compounds the problems.

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Punky hemlock.

Of the six logs we milled, averaging 12- 16 inches in diameter, we could only manage to get twenty seven hemlock 1×4, what I would consider C grade.

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1 x 4 hemlock deck boards.

At the end of it all, there’s the saw dust to clean up. As fine as the sands you see at a beach.

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Ash and hemlock saw dust.

 

A Newfoundland born Canadian with a life long interest in woodworking, baking and anything else that peaks my curiosity.

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