nails in trees

[wiwoodsguy]

Yesterday I was sawing some box elder with a chainsaw to get a flat side to bring in to resaw on the bandsaw. I picked these up about 3 years ago as the tree was removed and cut for firewood. I have left the pieces ont the ground exposed to the weather to promote spalting. So while cuting to make flat edge I ran into a nail which is in no way visible from the outside. The nail had been in there for some time and was an older nail made of steel and tough as it sheared two teeth off my saw chain. Nails today are rough on a saw but you can saw thru them and will ussually just require fileing you saw. My whole point is never ever put nail or screws in your trees they always come back at you. Of being the wood hound I am I will continue cutting and hope for the best. Mike

[dragyn]

Mike, you are lucky the teeth didn't take a bite out of you in a kick back. Thanks for the reminder to always be careful when cutting old wood.

[Simplyme]

"left the pieces ont the ground exposed to the weather to promote spalting"

Can you explain this to me? I thought that was the last thing you wanted to do to a piece of wood?

Sorry for the dumb question in advance............

[wiwoodsguy]

There are some lumber companies north of here that take boards and put them down then cover them with sawdust for about a year to get spalted lumber. spalt is basically caused by like rot. you want to get to it before the rot and that wood may have the spalted effect. box elder is known to have some pinkish color in the wood so I left it sit in the weather and rot! Though it is not rotted completely and is still sound and hard it has spalt in it. one photo shows the wood stack or what I still haveout there the other is one piece cut open. I am getting ready for winter where I heat my shop with a wood cook stove. there is an open stair way and I put a few boards accross above the stove and I will put those pieces up there to dry. once I start heating the wood in my shop gets down around 7-8% moisture content. in the wood here there could be some worm so I accually put piece that show any sign of worm in a warm oven the wood should be heated to about 140 to kill any worms. hope this all makes sence to you, Mike

[marshall]

Mike I guess this is why that just about every sawmill that I have had dealings with, always ask if the log that I'd bought them came out of someones yard . This is what they are worried about is the nails ..........Marshall

[wiwoodsguy]

Sawmills will not cut trees from a residents You can get moble sawyers to do it if you agree to pay for blades in a contract before hand. I had to on an oak tree about 4 years ago and lucky me he hit nothing. Mike

[FRETDUST]

Hi Mike. Not only is nails a problem but also trees with bullets from someone missing that big buck. I work in a powerhouse where we burn woodchips. We get alot of shells in our cleanouts of our rechipper and other equipment.

Steve in Mi.

[Stoney]

Hi Mike,

I know a little about hardware in trees. I was raised working on my dad's sawmill. It was a circular saw mill. We had an inserted tooth blade on our mill which helped to minimize damage. I can recall many, many times hitting metal objects. Nails, screws, or bolts can cause damage, but nothing compared to a horseshoe. We cut a lot of our own timber, but at times bought logs hauled in from other sources. My dad would not knowingly accept logs from tree service companies. We had some pretty good suppliers most of the time. Yes you can also find metal in logs cut from a large tract. Some items include barbed wire, staples, and nails usually from fence lines or signs. Also lead bullets although they don't cause as much damage.

[wiwoodsguy]

I worked for about 3 years in a lumber yard which was a saw mill in the past. we were cutting a lot of wood for pallets. I was running the band saw resaw we hit a few bullets hey no problem but when you hit a bolt with a 6" band it is all you can do to keep calm enough to kick the disengage to stop the feed. those sparks just make that blade scream even with ear plug between the noise and sparks makes you want run and hide. Quite the machine we mostly cut basswood but I did run some harder woods thru it It amazed me when i would run a 14" piece of maple or oak thru it. Mike

[wiwoodsguy]

The piece of box elder that I was cuttin when I hit the nail. I cut it from a big piece of knot on the side of the log. The rest of the rescued fire wood pieces are put up in the rafters to dry. I cut like a 3" slice off a log piece about 12" long. today I ran it after I removed the nail thru the saw and cut it down to about 1" + or Minus then sanded them to sanded surface. The wood show a lot of the color that I saved the wood for. I left it out in the elements a little longer than I'd like. But it will still be fun to use. Mike