We were contacted by a super interesting couple that wanted to turn a tree from their yard into a set of family keepsakes. The Honey Locust tree was standing with the top cut off in the yard of the home they had recently moved into. They had a tree service fall the tree in 2017 and eventually decided on a direction they wanted to go. They reached out to us to help turn that vision into reality.
We visited the site and saw there were two logs that would fit on a normal sawmill, and one that was too wide and would need to be slabbed with a chainsaw. Luckily we knew just the guy to call… Matt from Dog Holler Custom Slabbing. Working with the client we set it up so we would both be there at the same time and be able to load the logs and the slabs on the same day.
November 1st, 2019 and it was go time. Using our newly built log arch we loaded the two logs while Matt went to work on the log with the v-crotch. We’ll start with the chainsaw slabbing, because that was the most interesting part of the day. First, Matt has to trim the tree and shim a ladder to create a level surface with which to make his first cut. Then each successive cut is made using the top of the previous cut. We were able to harvest two 3.5″ slabs from the tree. Unfortunately, the log had a bark inclusion that ran the length of the V section which led to them separating, but they will be put back together in the final piece of furniture.
While Matt was busy cutting, we started to load the logs. Our new log arch allows us to load very large logs onto the trailer without the use of any additional machinery. This will be a game changer for us going forward and allow us to rescue more trees bound for the landfill.
With the logs loaded, it was off to our trusty friend and local sawyer, Tom (www.tomthesawyer.net). Tom quickly unloaded the logs and stacked them in anticipation of our milling appointment next week.
With the logs off the trailer, we headed back to the shop and unloaded the slabs, labeled them and stacked them for drying. We love the stories that logs tell you if you listen close enough. Even freshly cut you can see the log revealing where it was under stress from it’s own weight as well as the wind’s bluster. You can see in these slabs examples of ring shake as well as some checking from sitting with the ends un-coated. Logs dry faster through the ends than the sides and this delta in moisture evaporation can lead to some pretty nasty cracks (or checking). Never fear… most if not all of this will be fixable once the wood is dry and often times ends up adding to the uniqueness of the finished product.
November 6th, 2019 – Today was milling day. We spent a couple hours with Tom the Sawyer turnings trees into lumber. In collaboration with the client we settled on milling each board to 7/4 thickness. That’s sawyer speak for 1 3/4 inches or put another way seven, quarter inches. Given we are still figuring out what we are going to do with the lumber, the thicker the better. You can always make a board thinner, it’s impossible to make it thicker once it’s cut. Milling is an important step because you can optimize for the most optimal appearance based on the log you have. In the case of one of the logs we decided to capture some crotch figure in the board. Crotch figure is grain pattern that emerges when a limb branches off. This type of grain pattern is not typically found in commercial lumber because they focus on quantity and speed vs optimizing for appearance.
Overall, the day produced 12 boards and roughly 148 total board-feet of lumber. Board footage is measurement used in rough lumber that is calculated based on the premise that a single board foot is 12″ long x 12″ wide x 1″ thick. Since not every board is twelve inches wide or an inch thick, you can calculate a board footage using a formula and the length, width and thickness of any board.
Once finished, we hauled the lumber to the shop, stacked it, sprayed it with a compound to help eliminate existing wood borers and also prevent new ones from taking up residence. The wood was stacked and stickered ready for time play its role in removing the moisture in the boards (stickering is the act of placing spacers between layers of lumber to allow air to pass over all surfaces equally).
June 2nd, 2020 – Checked the moisture content of the of the 7/4 boards and it had fallen to 25% which is right where you would expect it after 7 months of air drying. We noticed that some of the ring-shake had become more pronounced and that checking (cracks) was evident in some of the boards. All of this is fixable during construction and largely caused by traits inherit in honey locust.
There were some positives during our inspections… some really cool grain figure started to emerge.
In consultation with our client we decided to re-saw the larger Y-shaped sections to make them more manageable and speed the drying process. So off to the sawmill we go. First step was to shave a small amount off the face of each board to provide a flat surface. Then the reverse side was trimmed to the final desired thickness of 9/4. This process will help us accelerate the drying process first and foremost, but it has the side effect of helping to remove any drying imperfections that had already emerged. Wood tends to move most drastically in the first few months of drying, so with a little care we should be able to preserve much of the thickness going forward.
We iterated via email on our client’s custom design and snapped a quick picture foreshadowing the final product. The last thing we did before letting mother nature continue to air dry the boards was to take a moisture reading on the Y pieces. At 32% a few more months and the boards should be ready for the kiln.
March 22nd, 2021 – The wood reached a low enough moisture content that it was time to finalize the drying process. We loaded up the honey locust with some of our wood and headed to the kiln. Over the next couple weeks, the wood will be slowly dried in a climate controlled environment and then heated to a temperature that will kill any insect pests that may have taken up residence in the wood. Pictured below 1) locust on the drying racks, 2) the locust on our slab moving trailer 3) the full load of wood which has the locust in addition to some cherry, walnut and ash, 4) the stack waiting to be loaded into the kiln (locust on the bottom, kiln in the background).
