Winter is for - Wood

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milius2

Maker
Jun 8, 2009
989
7
Lithuania
When you get to know bushcraft, you get to know many things. As one like above - winter is an ideal time to get your timber sorted :) And I have been waiting looooong for this! In these days it's hard to wait for 6 months or more, just to do what you had in mind, but I like playing by natures rules as it makes me rest a bit more and wait a little longer then I expected.
First of all, I like wood! I like carving spoons, kuksas and I like constructing different things too. I have a few bushcrafty building projects under way and for all this ''WOOD NEEDED!...'' so I started my wood quest in an early January. I was sure that I need to get fresh cut timbers, then get it cut up in my back yard and sort it out myself at home. It is a lot of trouble, but well worth it as you can keep all the remaining bits and bobs as well as saw dust for mulch (great value for the money too)... so lets get some wood!

Took me a while, as we live in forestless area, where farmers made sure to get rid of all the obstacles in their way. But about 3 weeks ago I got a call and they finally found some freshly cut pine tree's. And late evening a huge truck came my way delivering 25 cubic meters of wood. 62 pieces in count.



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Was proud like a child so took a pic of myself there too :)

Called a company that has this huge mobile band saw and in a few days we had a sawmill set up just there on the spot.
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In two days time almost nothing left to be cut.

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Unsorted boards and timber with a lot of different dimensions there.

When the sawmill had left we spent another two days sorting out the boards by dimensions into different piles. I kept some of the timber thick for large building projects and some boards thin for small stuff. You need all kind, but it's a lot of work to sort it out properly, a lot of quality could be lost if that's not done right.

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I followed an old tradition and kept a lot of boards ''once cut''. That means that you do not square up the board but leave it natural as it is.
You can see a pile of them growing on right side in the picture on top. They need extra work to clean the bark, but you do not loose a bit of wood.
And they can be made square any time anyway... in the background you can see and old neighbours barn that's falling apart but has been build from this kind of ''left overs'' - once cut boards.

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And the best tool to clean the board is a draw knife or a shovel :) MAKE SURE IT'S SHARP.

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I've been spending a few quiet evenings there just making the best of the rest remaining left overs and still some construction materials are coming up :)

And from scrap we build this to keep the wood dry:
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I kept all the very heavy stuff and most of the ''once cut boards'' outdoors and stacked the nice square boards inside.

And for framing I bought up some round timber at about 3 meters long and 14-18cm in width. They come as second hand from transportation of other timber and cost at ,,,,,,,
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,,,,,,,,, 1,5 pounds each :D :D

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hehe, that should keep me busy during summer :D

what do you recon?

Andy
 
More and more is shipped to China every year too. And they don't even bargain for the price, in that case it's becoming more expensive locally. But still a great investment compared to sawmill price,,,
 
Cheers mate :) An alien pen tray :D :D We made a few more of them since that one and they have proved to be a desired birthday gift. One still available at the moment.
 
Asweome work there Andy - interesting to see a spade used for de-barking! Do you not have log spuds over there?

Great seeing people rip their own planks! I am toying with getting a small chainsaw mill for that very purpose at some point
 
Aahh. The smell of freshly cut timber.
reminds me of my summer days as a young boy at my grandparents place, when my grandfather still used his saw mill.
Good memories and a nice pile of wood.
 
Lucky man!

What are you going to build?

My outdoor kitchen needs a roof and I started constructing a cob house/studio/workshop in my "Unknown" forest garden, where I need a place to live during the summer with my missus. So it's going to be a wee house with 2 rooms and a wood store. I started with the base for the house, but I can see now, that before I start moving any wood there I need a permanent shelter there too. So I though ought a simple framing with a turf roof, that would give me a cover from rain during the build and afterwards it could be used for many different purposes as housing workshops or a flock of sheep :D Nothing major.... :)

That is an epic wood store Andy. Nice to see the process of cutting and sorting. Have fun with it :)

Thanks mate! :) It is a nice experience to get it done all by yourself. Was very cool too to spend time with sawmill guys deciding what to cut from different trunks.

wow nice wood Andy, looking forward to seeing what you do with it all

Cheers Hamish, me too mate :) Been waiting long for this wood to turn up.

Asweome work there Andy - interesting to see a spade used for de-barking! Do you not have log spuds over there?

Great seeing people rip their own planks! I am toying with getting a small chainsaw mill for that very purpose at some point

Hello Mr BR :) Nope I've never seen a tool you just mentioned, but it got my attention and it could one day turn out as an blacksmithing project maybe?..

It is a decision I'm very pleased with. When you give away wood to be cut in a mill you can hardly see any action unless you stay there forever and you get to keep all the bits and bobs that are left over!..
 
This is a spud Andy

Long handle, slightly curved - designed to remove bark

Interesting! I can see the advantage against draw knife, you don't need to get so close to the log and it surely has got more control in it than a spade. But for boards, spade is excelent as you don't need any skill to use it at all.



Stringmaker - indeed, if it's blunt, you dont get the action ;)
 
Interesting! I can see the advantage against draw knife, you don't need to get so close to the log and it surely has got more control in it than a spade. But for boards, spade is excelent as you don't need any skill to use it at all.

Yep a spud is for whole trunks. Long handle so you don't get a bad back. Farily narrow as a wide blade would not conform to the tree dimeter, curved end to keep your hands off the bark and save bending. A good tool in its place - like a peavey hook is. Easy enough to make in a forge I should think!
 

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