Aspen is one of my favorites. But it doesn’t hold nails well. When it dries you can pull them out with your fingers so makes good sheeting boards if nailed into something like hemlock. The saw dust likes to puff up when sawed and that can push your saw blade. Sometimes a wider set helps. Feel the dust under the board that is on top the cant. Nice if feels coolish and not warmish.
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I can make a cant. It’s not pretty but it works.
I had a difficult time turning the log over so I gathered up some parts. I found a U bolt out of 3/4" stock and some 1 1/4" galvanized pipe.
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Looking good Bill
Glad to see you got it set up. I am starting to see daylight on my project if I can get some dry days I’ll be able to brake away soon and get up to see you. I want to love my mill up a little an run it some. It has sat to long with very little use. I have a bunch of jack pine I need to get sawn soon. A great addition to any homestead.
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I would love a visit Jim
Funny you mention this Bill. I went out and milled a couple logs yesterday for a subfloor in a barn loft I am building. It’s ironic that I had to build a cant hook yesterday too. I had been doing without but got some bigger logs. I had a hook with a hickory limb handle before but it broke. It was one with two hooks. I guess for a two-man log carrying device that someone had put on a tree limb like a cant or peavy. Not sure what to call it… Anyway, glad you’re gittin it dun up there too.Not sure what hemlock is like…like a pine., soft wood???
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Hemlock is like pine but maybe a bit heavier.
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I believe this is Aspen.
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Had a skid steer in for maintenance job today. Used it to put that post oak on the mill, but it’s way too big to cut. I guess we’ll have to split it first. Machine having real hard time picking it up.
EDIT: turns out that tree is 138 years old not 117
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You could square it up with a chain saw then it would probably fit in the mill. Not easy but for a log like that we’ll worth getting the 15 degrees rip chain and cutting off the slabs.
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Yeah, we were looking at it this evening. I think I will try to rip a slab off two opposite sides to leave about 22-23.5 inches. Small margin with Alaskan mill but I would like to be able to get two 2x10’s wide plus the perpendicular cuts in the slabs. It would easily make 3 2x10’s and a 2x8 or 2x6 but I’m afraid it will warp badly if we can’t take it off the edges systematically. I thought about 1/4 sawing it, but that wastes a lot of wood. I’ll study it a but more before I get too anxious about it. It’s also covered in english ivy and poison ivy so I’m a little slow to mess with it. Too wet anyway.
The blue on the end of the log is a sign of metal in the log if it showed up after it was cut in too.
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Nice catch I wouldn’t have noticed the discoloration to think anything of it. If that tree was on an old property line it probably had a fence on it at some point in time. My uncle always warned me there are treed here that the bottom log is something you don’t cut.
I’m with Jim . My bet is you will find some nails in the butt cut 
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Yeah, I hit a nail at the ground and an old full metal jacket rifle slug. I expect we’ll hit some more. There was a cable or a wire in the biggest crotch 28 feet off the ground. I’ll split it and see what’s there. I have found entire woven fences before in trees that looked perfect from the outside. Often find metal. Often bullets.
One time my brother milled a big tall tree. the bottom limbs (crotch) was over 30 feet off the stump. He hit a very old style spark plug from a car engine with the plug wire stuck on the wrong end. I thought maybe an electric fence wire insulator. But who knows how it got there. Also have to be careful about old tree stand spikes that the hunter’s put in
Thanks for the warning. I’ll probably risk a blade or two.
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Some people use a metal detector. Maybe I should get one some day.
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I got one 22 yrs ago. So far I’ve found 53 cents 
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I have one of the better ones that I got a real good deal on.
Have about 2 gal bucket full of change that I have found with it. I have no idea how much is in it. The last time I used it was in a sandy group camp ground, found five dollars in change in about twenty minutes.
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Luke has one he found a big clump of gold and silver coins from a burnt down house
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Here’s a video of the first log I ever cut up. Because it was short, I just made 1x 12’s with it.
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WOW isn’t that great!! Making your own lumber is a huge step, not only for your use, but to trade and barter.
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