Best Logging Log Cut Lengths

[Jim.ME]

Guess I’ll just ask the guy with the portable sawmill, and give up on getting alternative opinions

Likely your best course of action. He is going to be the one cutting them for you, not the group here. Let him know how you plan to move them out of the woods and see what he says. I doubt he will care about the length, but likely will care about dirt they may collect, especially if you plan to drag them flat on the ground.

 

[mjsnodgrass]

Wow… A lot of negativity on skidding the logs out of the woods (but interestingly that is how the commercial loggers did it here, and absolutely no positive alternatives offered).

Guess I’ll just ask the guy with the portable sawmill, and give up on getting alternative opinions here.

Thanks.

with a portable mill can he set up where the logs are? no skidding involved.

 

[Jim.ME]

with a portable mill can he set up where the logs are? no skidding involved.

Most set up on a "landing" that the logs are brought out of the woods to, they don't drag the mill to each tree in the woods.

 

[rustred]

Most set up on a "landing" that the logs are brought out of the woods to, they don't drag the mill to each tree in the woods.

Yes, they are skidded or forwarders are used to haul them to the landing. Then from the landing they are loaded on log trucks and hauled to the mill. Plus nowadays they are processed right in the bush , meaning falled , limbed and cut to length all in one operation. This is the way it’s done in the real bush logging. Would not apply to this situation with a few trees for power saw use. For a few trees it don’t matter how they get drug out of the bush. I’m sure the guy with the mobile saw mill will answer your questions.

 

[Russ from MN]

I was really careful to keep some logs clean a few years ago, and then the sawyer hit a fence staple that was hidden under the bark! He charged me a little extra for sharpening the blade, it was a big circle saw.

 

[Mcrafty1]

Folks - Looking to pull some downed nice logs out of the woods. Mostly white pine, cherry and smooth bark hickory. Winter storm blew them over including the root ball. Thinking to cut the larger straight parts out, and drag them out of the woods for a mobile saw mill. Any suggestions on the best rough lengths to saw them to in the woods? I'm thinking just over 20 feet. Then we can later cut them into various standard board lengths.

Your thoughts?

8'6", 10'6", 12'6",14'6" and 16'6"

 

[caterpillar guy]

We skid them out on the snow for clean logs and then cut y the curves in the log. It also depends on the quality of lumber you want and the amount you have . We have plenty of trees for our use and so didn't worry quite so much about quality in the way of if the log was a larger diameter and had a slight crook to it we would stretch the length by cutting in or maybe just past the crook to get a longer piece of lumber. As for the length cut what length you intend to use and ad a few inches for squaring on the ends and still keep the usable length you want. We us usually make logs as long as we can. You can shorten a piece but can't really make it longer. 20-25 foot is nice timber to have for use. We use 20foot 2x12's for plates to hold trusses up with one on each side of the pole if a building. We like to have them all in one piece for trusses and plates. What you want and use them for would be what I would cut them to. We also tend to over build everything.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Wow… A lot of negativity on skidding the logs out of the woods (but interestingly that is how the commercial loggers did it here, and absolutely no positive alternatives offered).

Guess I’ll just ask the guy with the portable sawmill, and give up on getting alternative opinions here.

Thanks.

Steve,
A sawmill in my hood debaks the logs before running them through their large bandsaw.
They sell the bark and sawdust too to landscapers and people with horses.
No problem with skidding logs.
My dad would skid logs with his Ford 6000.
He would use the 3 point hitch and lift the front of the log, so only the back of the log was in the dirt.

 

[WI Dan]

Folks - Looking to pull some downed nice logs out of the woods. Mostly white pine, cherry and smooth bark hickory. Winter storm blew them over including the root ball. Thinking to cut the larger straight parts out, and drag them out of the woods for a mobile saw mill. Any suggestions on the best rough lengths to saw them to in the woods? I'm thinking just over 20 feet. Then we can later cut them into various standard board lengths.

Your thoughts?

17' length
read the tree to avoid big limbs or crooked sections

 

[Fixingfarmer]

If it bothers you and you truly need a 20 footer leave it a foot longer than normal and drag it out mark the drug end with a paint can and cut it off yourself and burn it in the fire pit. Then you don't ruin the blade on his mill and your chainsaw is running the correct direction to not get completely ruined right away although wear will be more. Or hand him a box of new blades. 4 of them for 100 bucks sounds like a good fee if it's a buddy if he is making you pay more than that then let him handle it or like said above cut to fit what can be carried with what implements you have. plenty of smaller trees around here were pulled out with a 9n ford and a 3 point in the snow. back then most mills were not bandsaw however. or find the local steam show and take them the lumber for cutting. Most have a sawmill setup.

 

[RedMF40]

I was really careful to keep some logs clean a few years ago, and then the sawyer hit a fence staple that was hidden under the bark! He charged me a little extra for sharpening the blade, it was a big circle saw.

My local bandsaw mill will charge around $40 for a new blade if they hit metal.

 

[miangus]

Wow… A lot of negativity on skidding the logs out of the woods (but interestingly that is how the commercial loggers did it here, and absolutely no positive alternatives offered).

Guess I’ll just ask the guy with the portable sawmill, and give up on getting alternative opinions here.

Thanks.

After we got the cable skidder a C4 Tree Farmer everything was hauled to the landing for bucking. When dad and grandpa were skidding with the pair of FMDs everything was bucked in the woods. The FMDs had a pair of tongs on the three-point bar, you backed into the buck-cut and a tong was hooked to each log. Cut yourself a four-foot stick and get a trimming ax to mark with and you will look like a professional. Be careful if you are using a farm tractor, we had a young man killed skidding with the FMD. After we got the skidder dad brought the FMD that killed the guy home, and we used it on the farm. I spent a lot of hours disking corn ground with that tractor, kind of spooky. (FMD Fordson Major Diesel probably the toughest tractor ever built)

 

[Destroked 450]

Folks - Looking to pull some downed nice logs out of the woods. Mostly white pine, cherry and smooth bark hickory. Winter storm blew them over including the root ball. Thinking to cut the larger straight parts out, and drag them out of the woods for a mobile saw mill. Any suggestions on the best rough lengths to saw them to in the woods? I'm thinking just over 20 feet. Then we can later cut them into various standard board lengths.

Your thoughts?

How long you cut them depends on what you have to drag them with and how large they are
Also the type of ground your on, steep hills or crossing gullies shorter logs, flat ground longer logs, same with tractor size your dragging with
What are your lumber needs? 21’ will get you a 12 and 8 ft or two 10 ft with extra on each for squaring. Do you need any 16 ft then cut a single
If you can’t drag 21 ft you may have to decide what you want from each piece and cut to length plus 6 inches and drag them one at a time
Hooking to the top of a log makes dragging them easier as it tends to lift more of the log off the ground
Generally only the bottom 4th of a log gets dirty, a good mill operator will turn the log so the blade is pulling that dirt away of the cut instead of through the cut dulling the blade

 

[Ray,IN]

Wow… A lot of negativity on skidding the logs out of the woods (but interestingly that is how the commercial loggers did it here, and absolutely no positive alternatives offered).

Guess I’ll just ask the guy with the portable sawmill, and give up on getting alternative opinions here.

Thanks.

Mom had her property logged off by a commercial logging company. The dragged all of them out of the woods with a skidder, who said most were going to a veneer company. I do the same, pick up the end of the log before dragging.

 

[Ray,IN]

I was really careful to keep some logs clean a few years ago, and then the sawyer hit a fence staple that was hidden under the bark! He charged me a little extra for sharpening the blade, it was a big circle saw.

Yep, and on a different forum I was mocked for saying don't nail fencing to a tree.

 

[Non-farmer]

pick up the end of the log before dragging.

This ^

 

[m16ty]

To sell logs most mills are going to want them at least 6” over the desired length. If you’re sawing them for your own use you can cut them whatever length you want.

A word of caution though, working blow down timber can be very dangerous. Those trees can be loaded in ways that fool even the most experienced loggers. Lots of logging outfits won’t even touch a blow down stand without mechanized equipment because it’s so dangerous to cut by hand.

 

[m16ty]

We ran a pretty reasonable hardwood milling outfit for years, and still run a few circular mills - mostly for fun and our own use. If you're not scaling and cutting by grade, the old standard was: If in doubt, bring everything out of the bush at 16' (plus a few inches over length for trimback). 16' is a nice common size if it's straight and clear enough to mill (anything over isn't too common/desired/transportable). Or you can break in half once they're at the mill to get two 8's (the most common size, and bringing it out in 16's saves half the handling). Or if you get them to the mill yard and find there's a section of sweep or crook you can carve it off to get a 10 or 12 grade log and also get a drop that can be either milled up and sold to a hobby furniture maker or bucked up for firewood.

Coosing to skid them out in 16's rather than cutting by grade is not necessarily a universal or consistently-true rule, but it's kind of like taking a shot on net in hockey: It may not always be the best decision, but it's never a bad decision.

Most large circle mill outfits around here aren’t setup to saw 16’. The vast majority is 8’ lumber, with a little 12’ stuff.
We have pretty much all hardwood around here. The stuff like oak, walnut, cherry, etc will usually get sawed into 1 bys and any less desirable hardwoods will get sawed into cross ties.

 

[mjsnodgrass]

What're you, stupid? You're supposed to float them out of the woods with your hot air dirigible! Everybody knows that!

you're close. my ex bil had a side gig cutting shake blocks. we'd hike in from the nearest road and cut blocks from cedar tress the loggers left 100 years ago. after cutting the blocks, we would stack and sling them. a helicopter would come, fly the bocks to the nearest road so we could load them. even after paying for the chopper, we made good money.

 

[BAnNC]

Everything around here gets cut to 16ft 6in, 12 ft 5in, only the biggest diameter get cut to 8 ft 4 or 6 in. THEN loaded on the truck with a trackhoe.