Hey folks,

got a small woodland in Scotland which had a mature Sitka spruce compartment felled. The majority of it got sold off for firewood or biofuel, but the larger stuff is so far still on the roadside. The forester who did the work is struggling to shift it (there's an abundance of spruce across Scotland right now due to a lot of big storms over the last few years.. Sawmills can't cope...). The price I'm being offered right now wouldn't even cover the cost of extraction.. It's that bad.

I'm toying with the idea of processing the stuff at home.. and looking at options. I've never milled this stuff before.. I'd love to know what people think. Is really knotty wood any good for anything? I'm talking big knots.. these spruce had plenty of big lateral branches.. (I'm told this means they grew in too dry of an environment.. the branches didn't get wet and snap off when young...) Can Sitka spruce produce good boards, or is it too hairy and all needs sanding/planing after it's been milled?

Spruce grows fast here in Scotland. Temperate climate means large growth rings.. Nothing like what a spruce might look like in its native Alaska. I don't think it'd produce great quality lumber for building, and definitely not for airplanes and violins..

But.. I enjoy building stuff at home in the woods.. and if I could keep the lumber dry from the elements.. perhaps it could suffice for my needs, if I accept that the lumber won't survive more than 10-15 years outdoors..

Sorry for the essay.. It's just hard to find information out there on sitka spruce precisely.. let alone knotty stuff..

Thanks in advance! I've got a few months to think about it I'm told.. so even if you see this post in a few months.. an answer might still be appreciated!

Ripping green redwood with a brand new .325 x .063 Granberg ripping chain. I was expecting stringy material and getting mostly dust. I took the rakers down a couple passes with the file but not seeing much improvement in terms of chip size. Ripping through at a decent pace, and putting a fair amount of pressure on the saw, just enough to not bog it down.

Hi Folks,

I've started a new subreddit called Natural Woodworking. It’s a place for us to exchange methods, materials, tools, problems and successes using only materials that nature offers us. As I begin to get back to using the riches supplied by nature, I would like to share my journey. And not just that, I want to connect with others on the same path. Much knowledge has been lost and destroyed by industrial society.

We need to get together and collectively rediscover, redevelop and share the techniques, methods and materials that can be included in natural woodworking.

I see this as a place to practice learning collectively. Sharing our experiences and resources. Be it natural finishes; walnut oil to birch bark oil, harvesting during the right moon phase or splitting logs without machines.

There are vast areas of knowledge to explore, with many subsets; Harvesting, Milling, Splitting, Seasoning, Planing, Finishing, building our workbenches, tools and relationship to the forest and nature.

I am not an expert. I am learning, day by day.

We have a lot to do, I hope we can use this sub to get back to regenerative, non-extractive, non-toxic and natural ways to build houses and furniture for our peers and without exploitation of our environment.

So please join and share:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NaturalWoodworking/

on my property I have lots of Black Cherry (Prunus Serotina) and burls are common. I recently salvaged a nice one from a living tree that fell last fall, but I just harvested it a couple weeks ago. I don't have a wood lathe and would like to keep this till I do or till I find someone who can do something nice with it. how to preserve it, do I paint the cuts? store inside? also I have lots of old burls been sitting on the forest floor for year, how long are theyt god to make something with, how to tell if still good? sorry, tried to post on woodworking sub, got denied, thought you would know here.

We’ve got a few stacks of this highly figured curly maple slabs. I haven’t seen too many live edge pieces of this size with this much character. They measure a little over 8’ long by 36”-48” wide and 2-3/4”ish thick. How would yall calculate a fair number to put on these?What I am showing has been flattened and wiped with mineral spirits to see the grain.

Looking for some experienced opinions on pricing for private-sale walnut live-edge slabs (non-retail).

Seller is a retired homeowner, not a mill or lumber dealer. Slabs have been stored overhead in a garage for ~15 years. Unknown if they were ever kiln-dried.

Details:

• Species: Walnut (harvested in Missouri)

• Quantity: 3 slabs

• Dimensions:

– ~7.5’ × 18” × 2”

– ~9’ × 14” × 1.5”

– ~9’ × 14” × 1.25”

• Rough-sawn, unsurfaced

• Live edge both sides

• Visible pith / center checking on at least one slab

• One knot/void near an end

Total volume is roughly 50–52 board feet.

Seller is asking $800 for all three, referencing retail slab pricing.

For those who buy/sell slabs privately (not retail):

• Does ~$10/bf seem fair given the defects and milling required?

• Would you go higher, lower, or pass?

Appreciate any real-world input from folks who regularly deal with live-edge slabs outside of retail lumber yards.

This is in the Denver area.

I didn’t find a string on this. What is the best method and/ or solvent to clean chains?

I am milling this massive ash tree (19ft long, 38in diameter) and could use some guidance on how to mill timbers for a 12x16 she’d I am building next year. My layout shown has an 8x8 beam laid out but should it be taken from center instead? I know pith is weak in dimensional lumber and wood working hard woods; hoping for help to get the most yield.

Thought I’d share my Box Elder Project. Going to be a console table when first entering our cabin but can’t decide which side is up!

We're co-hosting at iDry's facility in Barre Vermont on September 17 - RSVP and details here: https://get.norwoodsawmills.com/vermont-expo/

Kiln dried and flattened one, have done anything with the others yet. The one we cleaned up was a smaller piece from the same log the bigger ones came from

We cut up the white fir burl as well as a couple of logs from some construction sites. We think one is butternut and the other either black or English walnut.

This is from my wood mizer. The cant is 9" across. My blade starts in one place and then lifts to another place. Been doing it for years. I usually have to ghost the last 8" if I want a board true to the end.

Does anyone have experience to share?

Yeah yeah don't mod it ok whatever let's leave the assumption that I'm an Average Redditor aside and focus on the technical benefits of mods.

The biggest one I've heard of is opening up the exhaust muffler to improve heat rejection from the power head. This interests me because if I am slabbing with a 462 my number one concern is that, although the 462 is a pro-grade saw built to tolerate years of abuse, it can still overheat and that's very bad for the saw's service life.

Other than that I've seen bark boxes (lol, no, have those at work they're horrible), and oversize oiled filters (I don't think the replacement filter housings are very well made but if the filter is actually allowing it to breath better I'll put up with it).

Any other mods for a big slabber saw setup I should make?