A friend wants to have some live cherry logs milled into several thicknesses (4/4, 6/4, 8/4) of lumber from family property in NY. Her two options seem to be have the logger also band mill the logs, rent a box truck, and bring the just sawn boards to Cincinnati where they would be stacked with stickers to air dry. The other option is to have the logs brought to Cincinnati and sawn here, then stacked with stickers. Assuming her logger is comfortable with both options, should she have a preference?
Is it important to have the bark edges ripped off when the logs are milled?
Should the just sawn boards be sprayed with a borate or other insecticide before stacking?
To me it would be simpler to hire a sawmill in NT and move the boards - less weight, easier to stack to transport. The sawmill can saw through bark although if you remove it you can make their lives easier since the bark can hold dirt and grit which dulls the blades. Some small sawmills have a debarker blade that cuts the bark away in front of the bandsaw blade.
You can have someone with a portable band mill come to where the trees are and mill them instead of the logger. Might compare costs. Woodmizer keeps a list of Woodmizer owners who are willing to saw for others. They gave me the option of signing up for that but I declined - it sounded too much like work!
I don't think cherry is a problem but you'd better check to be sure there are not ruls prohibiting moving green cherry out of, through, or into the various regions/states. Walnut, ash and others have strict quarantines.
If you mill and move the wood in the winter you shouldn't have problems with PPBs but it shouldn't hurt anything to treat the boards now.
You will lose less wood to end grain checking and cracks if you apply Anchorseal to the log ends even before milling. For cherry, I'd probably seal them soon after they hit the ground. Again, the urgency is not as great in the winter as the summer but it won't hurt.
There is great opportunity here to spend a lot of money and wind up with lumber not nearly as good as it could have been, or if the logs are not suitable wind up with lumber unsuitable for its intended use. In general, it is not a trivial task to manufacturer you own lumber without considerable experience doing so. The opportunities to degrade some or all of it is great, especially so for cherry. (BTW, NY has excellent cherry) The best option would be to saw the logs and have someone experienced stack and dry and then move the dry lumber to Ohio. Ideally you can find a mill that knows how to saw lumber for furniture use ("saw for grade") and let them make the decisions you need to make.
It makes no sense to move logs to Ohio. It might not make any sense to move #2 and #3 Common grade to Ohio depending on what the intended use is. There are no restrictions on cherry.
Is it important to have the bark edges ripped off when the logs are milled? Not essential but it will make using it a whole lot easier.
Should the just sawn boards be sprayed with a borate or other insecticide before stacking?...probably not
I suggest you read my series of articles in the Articles Section about manufacturing hardwood lumber.
Bill, I think your advice here is good if the goal is simply to get some lumber.
I interpreted the revelation that she "wants to have some live cherry logs milled ... from family property" might imply wood from these trees may have some personal significance. Perhaps the intention is to make something with special meaning to the family.
Apologies for leaving out that detail. Yes, the hope is to have a smallish dining table and maybe a half height bookshelf made for each of her two sons, using cherry boards from the family owned property in New York. This was her husband's intention and then he only lived a few months last summer after rapid growing cancer was discovered.
The stated goal does not require much lumber. However, for the table top the lumber is going to have to be at least #1 Common to get clear lengths long enough. If the logs are good quality, not field trees, it will not be difficult to get suitable lumber for table top and book shelves. No more than 2 logs worth sawing will do the job. The logs should be cut to length to not have much waste from cutting the table tops. For example, if the top is 5' the logs should be cut at 10'6" or thereabouts.
Neither project can use much if any lower grade lumber, unless the book shelf is not very wide. Even good logs will yield a significant amount of lower grade lumber. If I was faced with this project and I could work it out with a mill I would sell the lower grade to the mill to off set the processing bill.
I had a nice looking cherry tree blow down on some property we own. I got a 10' x 18" log and a 11' x 14" log from this tree. In spite of the fact this tree was back in the woods some, when we sawed it we hit nails and bullets. However, it yielded some clear lumber from 2 sides. Discounting the defects from the bullets and nails about half was top grade, very little #1 Common, and nearly half low grade (#2 and #3 common).
This small amount of lumber made a small stack, as stacks go. Cherry has an annoying property. The sap wood shrinks much more than the heart wood. Because the stack was not very high there was little weight holding the lumber flat. Any board with sap on one side warped and twisted severely as it dried. I have a lot of experience rescuing useable lumber from this situation but still I was challenged to get useable pieces from several otherwise clear boards. The all heart wood pieces dried fairly flat but there was enough cup developed in one 16" wide piece that I lost considerable thickness getting it flat for a panel. Again, had I had a taller stack it would have kept the wide pieces from cupping.
....if you can work it out, would be to find a shop in NY that would take on the whole project of managing the sawing, drying and making the items. Some of the lumber from the logs could be partial payment. I can not overemphasize the risks of milling and drying lumber if you don't have the experience to do it correctly. A good place to find someone would be to inquire at a local woodworking club or advertise for the job on Forums.
>>>I can not overemphasize the risks of milling and drying lumber if you don't have the experience to do it correctly.
Don, Bill is right on the money. It is easy to mill and dry poorly and end up with mostly useless lumber. Some species like cedar and walnut are easy. Oak can be horrible. I've had persimmon warp so much that 8/4 boards 12" wide turned in to potato chips even with stacks of concrete blocks for extra weight. Even something simple like stickering can cause grief if don't incorrectly.
I haven't had much trouble sawing and drying 4/4 and 8/4 black cherry but I have seen some for sale that was nearly useless. Milling a lot more than she needs might give a chance in getting enough wood to make what she wants. As Bill implies, finding the right trustworthy people to do it is key, more difficult if doing this long distance. I really like the idea of referrals through a woodworking club.
The NY listings start on page 10. Obviously you are going to need to find a small operator for this job. Any of these that you call, I would ask them for referrals if they are not interested. I'm sure there are lots of guys out there with portable mills that aren't on any list.
I still have a large stack of Cherry I purchased at an Estate sale near my home about 10~15 years ago. The property was owned by an Old Order (Amish) family.
They had purchased a large home converted from a fairly old large school building and had a quite large sawmill inside the building powered by the front end of a case tractor.
The lumber included in the sale was extraordinary. The property also had a large barn and a building that was previously used as a commercial turkey farm about 150' by 50 wide, there were also small buildings. These were stacked full of air dried lumber. It took the auctioneer 2 days with skid steers to move enough stacks of lumber to areas in the yard so most of the wood could be seen. Several semi's and large trailers left fully loaded.
During the sale I saw a stack of stickered cherry laid out on two skids total a little over 8 ~ 9 foot long x about 6 foot high. The wood had been air dried with several sacks of concrete holding it flat. It appeared it was one tree, and it had boards up to over 24" wide, all were cut about 4/4 to 5/4 thick.
I was told most of the wood was several years old. The stack I purchased had one or two of the concrete sacks torn open and it was covered with dry concrete dust. It was difficult to see it was cherry. I ended up bidding against one other guy and bought it (as I remember) for about $60. After cleaning the dust off, it filled my 12' by 7' trailer.
After re-stacking in the upstairs of my shop, I cleaned up a couple of boards with my joiner and planer and found much was full of beautiful figure. It did have some PPB damage near the edges in the sapwood but no new infestation. I haven't had a project deemed worthy of that wood as yet, probably will be left to my son!
I bought a few other lots of lumber at that auction and had to make a few trips as I estimate the total weight exceeded 3 tons!