CountryPlans Forum

Off Topic => Off Topic - Ideas, humor, inspiration => Topic started by: Redoverfarm on December 17, 2015, 08:37:38 AM

Title: Hard to imagine
Post by: Redoverfarm on December 17, 2015, 08:37:38 AM
Hard to imagine that once our forest had these massive trees. 

(https://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/redoverfarm/scenes/country%20plans/Large%20Tree_zpsw4vqxg5s.jpg) (https://s220.photobucket.com/user/redoverfarm/media/scenes/country%20plans/Large%20Tree_zpsw4vqxg5s.jpg.html)
Title: Re: Hard to imagine
Post by: MountainDon on December 17, 2015, 09:36:02 AM
It's also hard to imagine we cut them down with hand saws.

How many board feet in a tree like that?
Title: Re: Hard to imagine
Post by: Redoverfarm on December 17, 2015, 10:01:52 AM
Quote from: MountainDon on December 17, 2015, 09:36:02 AM
It's also hard to imagine we cut them down with hand saws.

How many board feet in a tree like that?

A Bunch. ;D

Labor intensive.  But then it makes you wonder how they used such a massive log.  No mill could ever saw that thing so I guess they used a pit and handsawed it down to workable size.  It would be one of those times that I am glad I live in the 21st Century. Well maybe not sometimes.
Title: Re: Hard to imagine
Post by: Gary O on December 17, 2015, 10:20:09 AM
even harder to imagine them having cut/paste back then

whooda thunk
Title: Re: Hard to imagine
Post by: Pine Cone on December 20, 2015, 01:59:10 AM
Quote from: Redoverfarm on December 17, 2015, 10:01:52 AM
A Bunch. ;D

Labor intensive.  But then it makes you wonder how they used such a massive log.  No mill could ever saw that thing so I guess they used a pit and handsawed it down to workable size.  It would be one of those times that I am glad I live in the 21st Century. Well maybe not sometimes.

Assuming 18 feet in diameter and 200 feet tall, about 139,873.58   board feet Scribner, but it depends on the log length as well as form/taper.  For comparison purposes, the company I used to work for assumed we would harvest trees which averaged about 18 inches in diameter and 100 feet tall which would have about 400 board feet per tree.

Large redwoods were often split into quarters using dynamite placed in holes bored into the logs.

Back in the late 1970's I worked with a faller who started working in the woods back before WWII.  He recounted working as a faller with his older brothers before the age of chain saws.  Used to fall one-to-four large pines a day using axes and two-man hand saws.  These were 3 to 8 feet in diameter, maybe 120 to 150 feet tall.