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Logging Cedars

Bassattackr said:
Cedar is great for outdoor use. Slowest wood on the planet to rot!
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Above ground it is very slow to rot but below ground it rots fairly quickly. I used it for posts for a welcome sign on lane adn for target shooting platform and they are slowly rotting away. They have been in the ground approx 11 years. Hedge/osage orange is what I'd call slowest to rot
 
bwese said:
Above ground it is very slow to rot but below ground it rots fairly quickly. I used it for posts for a welcome sign on lane adn for target shooting platform and they are slowly rotting away. They have been in the ground approx 11 years. Hedge/osage orange is what I'd call slowest to rot
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I had a wild fire kill a bunch several years back. It took about 5 years for them to start tipping over from rotting off at ground level.
 
bwese said:
Above ground it is very slow to rot but below ground it rots fairly quickly. I used it for posts for a welcome sign on lane adn for target shooting platform and they are slowly rotting away. They have been in the ground approx 11 years. Hedge/osage orange is what I'd call slowest to rot
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We sink ours in concrete for gate posts, etc. Helps long term.
 
My experience with eastern red cedar if cut down some large ones you’ll have many many little ones in a couple years. Worst weed to ever grow in the Loess hills. How do spell evasive?. Any lumber or posts are a bunch of work and have a short lived usefulness. You might guess I have no use for them.
 
Y2KZ28 said:
My experience with eastern red cedar if cut down some large ones you’ll have many many little ones in a couple years. Worst weed to ever grow in the Loess hills. How do spell evasive?. Any lumber or posts are a bunch of work and have a short lived usefulness. You might guess I have no use for them.
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Not necessarily a bad thing. I like young cedars for cover. 40’+ tall ones, not so much..
 
Hardwood11 said:
Cedar wood that is milled is awesome. I’d love to have a bunch for a cabin.
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Hmmm...I have a bunch of cedar that I am thinking of thinning this winter AND I have a brand new sawmill waiting for me to pick up. Perhaps we should talk?? :) Oh...and I am building a kiln out of a 20' shipping container.
 
hillrunner said:
I had a wild fire kill a bunch several years back. It took about 5 years for them to start tipping over from rotting off at ground level.
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Similarly, when I have mowed them down out in the CRP in years past, the roots are pretty well rotted out in about 2-3 years. Untreated cedar will last a good while in the elements...but not nearly long enough under ground for me to use it for fence posts, etc.
 
Bassattackr said:
Not necessarily a bad thing. I like young cedars for cover. 40’+ tall ones, not so much..
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They don't stay small for very long. It's impressive how quickly they can choke out an area when you have an abundant seed bank.
Fire is the best weapon against them, but you have to use it while they are still young. Once they start to choke out all other plant life you won't have enough fuel to get them to burn. Natural fire is what controlled cedar trees before man started suppressing wildfires. When Iowa was covered in native grasses there was plenty of fuel for cleansing burns.
 
Daver said:
Hmmm...I have a bunch of cedar that I am thinking of thinning this winter AND I have a brand new sawmill waiting for me to pick up. Perhaps we should talk?? :) Oh...and I am building a kiln out of a 20' shipping container.
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Need any derecho cherry?


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Daver said:
Hmmm...I have a bunch of cedar that I am thinking of thinning this winter AND I have a brand new sawmill waiting for me to pick up. Perhaps we should talk?? :) Oh...and I am building a kiln out of a 20' shipping container.
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Tell me more. I was an avid woodworker in high school and haven't done it since. Milling my own wood has always intrigued me.
 
Daver that’s pretty cool. I messed around with a chainsaw mill a few years ago, sawed a bunch of walnut live edge slabs. I built several coffee tables and end tables.

Any chance you need a log trailer with a grapple?


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Daver said:
Hmmm...I have a bunch of cedar that I am thinking of thinning this winter AND I have a brand new sawmill waiting for me to pick up. Perhaps we should talk?? :) Oh...and I am building a kiln out of a 20' shipping container.
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If u r getting into the logging business, pm me. We have some timber to log soon.


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I have a man cave/bar made from my Iowa oak & walnut timber. My new favorite spot !!
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Daver said:
Hmmm...I have a bunch of cedar that I am thinking of thinning this winter AND I have a brand new sawmill waiting for me to pick up. Perhaps we should talk?? :) Oh...and I am building a kiln out of a 20' shipping container.
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That’s great…What county are you in ?
 
crietveld said:
Daver that’s pretty cool. I messed around with a chainsaw mill a few years ago, sawed a bunch of walnut live edge slabs. I built several coffee tables and end tables.

Any chance you need a log trailer with a grapple?
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I don't think so...but I will find out here in the next couple of months. :) I have a couple of very stout trailers that I intend to make use of and I have a grapple bucket for my tractor. So I think I should be good. The open question is if what I have is suited for the task or not. I think I will be OK, but once I get into it I might discover that I need heavier duty stuff. (That is my modus operandi for everything I do...to the chagrin of my wife. She calls me "Upgrade Dave" and it is NOT a term of endearment. :))
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
Tell me more. I was an avid woodworker in high school and haven't done it since. Milling my own wood has always intrigued me.
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My sawmill was ordered about 10 months ago and is "in" now, waiting for me to travel to southern Missouri to get it and receive training on it, etc. I hope to do that in the next couple/few weeks. Then, presto, I will be a logger. :) As I already have some logs here to start out on. I have an empty 20' shipping container that will be built into a simple, but effective kiln in the next few weeks too.

So I hope to be in operation in the next month or so. My plan is start slow, I am not aiming for a FT business at this point, (I already have one of those :)) But I should easily produce enough good quality wood to sell off a fair amount of it. If it turns into a "thing" then we will see where we go next.

I got a Woodmizer LT35, 25HP gas model. With a debarker and a trailer kit...so I can easily haul this baby behind my truck. My intentions, dependent upon where the log(s) is(are) is to sometimes take the mill to the log, mill it on site and then sticker/stack the boards there and haul them back to the kiln and in other cases, I will load the raw logs on a trailer and bring them back to my shop and mill them here. In both cases, they will be dried, and then stored, here on site in one of my buildings.

I have been reading up on this subject and preparing for this for years, so I do have some knowledge to go along with my inexperience :), but I am sure that I will learn much more as I begin to actually log and mill my own stuff. And that should start pretty soon! Woo hoo!

I am also a dedicated woodworker and intend to use the lumber personally and also to supply other friends and family.
 
Hardwood11 said:
That’s great…What county are you in ?
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My farm, and where I will get some of my trees from, is in Davis County. I live near Iowa City though and the mill, kiln and lumber will for the most part be kept here in Iowa City in one of my shops. I have space pretty well set up here at the shop to perform these operations, but do anticipate taking the mill "to" the tree(s) sometimes and then hauling back the milled lumber for drying and storage here.

I have about 95% of what I would need to dry, store and sell commercially here at my shop...should I decide to "expand" the vision. :) Just...don't tell my wife. :) :) But in reality, one of my sons is particularly interested in this gambit and may develop things into a business venture that he will primarily operate in the future. Me...I am just a simple man that is fulfilling a longtime dream to build stuff out of "my" own wood. I am weird that way. :)
 
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