Bad weather but a good conclusion

[pasound]

Early this past April, a huge storm front swept across the Ohio valley, pushing high winds and tornadoes through several states. West Virginia, which normally only sees two tornadoes a year, saw five in one day. One worked its way across two counties, and ended up taking down massive trees near a good friend's father's house and garden. Luckily no damage to the house and no injuries. But the trees had to be removed. The friend contacted tree removal services, and all wanted to chip the trees to remove them. My friend, a journeyman furniture builder, was stubborn and held out hope he could find a woodworker with a sawmill. The reason, both trees were native cherry, and massive. The one in the yard had 40 feet of straight trunk before the first split to two large limbs. The bigger one was up the hill behind the house, and had nearly 60 feet of straight trunk. The woodworker he found looked at them, and they struck a deal. He would take both trees, cut them into lumber, and cure the wood. His fee? Half the finished lumber. My friend intends on building a solid cherry dining room set, table, chairs, sideboard, and hutch, and maybe a cherry headboard for the master bedroom, next year after it is fully cured.

Here's the first tree, bucked and loaded onto a trailer. The biggest log is 8 feet long and nearly 3 in diameter.

The weather can produce damage, but sometimes it produces rewards.

 

[Greyman50]

Use a kiln. Cut in 5 quarter lumber, stack under a cover for 3-4 years, oh yea paint the ends with cheap paint to prevent “ checking”. Had quite a lot of nice walnut 30 years ago. Long time woodworking buddy made me a very nice drop leaf table, he kept the rest.

 

[pasound]

I have no doubt the sawmill guy is going to do a good job curing this cherry. This haul is worth a lot to him, even at a 50% commission to my friend, who gets enough cherry to build projects for years. He was vetted by members of the woodworking club my friend belongs to.

 

[LVSteve]

Should:

The biggest log is 8 feet long and nearly 3 in diameter.

...read 30 inches in diameter?

 

[pasound]

I should have said 3 feet. It and the next above it had almost no taper. Big enough to make a standard table top with two planks, or a drop leaf with four planks. A cherry as big as these trees haven't been around for more than a century. If you notice, it's bigger than the tires on the trailer.

Nearly 50 years ago I was working middle management at a large furniture store. A solid cherry dining room suite with six chairs, sideboard and hutch would run around $4,000, back then. It has taken over 100 years for big hardwoods to recover in my state. It was clear-cut for hardwoods just after 1900.

Tree services in this area (and most, I'd think) won't buck and make lumber from "city" trees. One nail and they've destroyed a saw blade. I live in a downtown neighborhood that is turning into a yard-floored old growth forest. Several years ago, a native black walnut was taken down between my apartment building and the house next door. Open field walnut trees tend to get gnarly and wide, and don't grow much over 40 feet. This tree, trapped between two buildings had 50 feet of straight trunk before the first limbs, much like a deep woods tree. One of it's first big branches had broken during a storm, so it had to come down. I watched as the tree company shredded the entire thing into sawdust. Thousands worth of native walnut, ground into mulch. Sad.

 

[rwsmith]

Pines are big around here...

...since we've had a paper mill in operation since the 30's and a lumber mill for almost as long. Hurricane Hugo knocked down a LOT of pine trees, but it wasn't economical to get them off the ground and in a short amount of time borers, fungus and other pests took hold. It was a durn shame. So we were treated to years of looking at forests full of snapped-off pine trees.

So it's GREAT seeing beautiful wood (and a lot of it) getting used.

 

[Rudi]

That is some fine wood!!

 

[jeffrefrig]

That's a heck of a trailer to haul that weight, but the tires do look pretty big. Stink bugs destroyed both cherry trees out back. The wood would've been useless. Since stink bug summer the big one snapped off in the wind and the little one was just a woodpecker feeding station until it had to go. Shame because they were big & good cherries.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Any time I read "Ohio Valley" I think of weather with Dissociative identity disorder.

 

[lihpster]

Directly across the street from me is an empty house with a large lot. I think they are clearing the lot to build multi family dwellings or maybe 2-3 small houses. They cut down 5-6 large Douglas Firs and a couple large poplar trees. No idea what they are gonna use the wood for. So far it's just been sitting there. The Mountain Dew can shows scale. But we know a few things about large trees in this area as the vintage pic shows.

 

[crows]

Any time I read "Ohio Valley" I think of weather with Dissociative identity disorder.

I always remember hearing the old timers saying, "Don't like the weather today? Stick around, it'll be different tomorrow".

 

[Rustyt1953]

I always remember hearing the old timers saying, "Don't like the weather today? Stick around, it'll be different tomorrow".

Here in the Ohio Valley we have 18 seasons.

 

[Greyman50]

Have pics my Dad took between the 1930’s and 50’s of Real timber. Remember going with him as a kid to check logging jobs that sold timber to the mill he was timber manager. Amazing how logging used to be compared to today. Narrow gauge rail roads through swamps with “ skidders” to pull logs to deck for loading.

 

[boykinlp]

Directly across the street from me is an empty house with a large lot. I think they are clearing the lot to build multi family dwellings or maybe 2-3 small houses. They cut down 5-6 large Douglas Firs and a couple large poplar trees. No idea what they are gonna use the wood for. So far it's just been sitting there. The Mountain Dew can shows scale. But we know a few things about large trees in this area as the vintage pic shows.

That vintage picture is awesome!
Larry

 

[pasound]

After WV was clearcut at the beginning of the 20th century, many of the lumbermen and their families went west. Some ended up in eastern Oregon, cutting the huge trees there. Some settled in a town called Joseph, and the descendents still form the core of the population. I know this because a good friend moved there years ago when his wife got a vey nice teaching job in the area. They discovered early on they had moved to a WV colony, still in the hills.

The single truck trees were very common for the lumber that was harvested, just as it was 120 years ago in WV.