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Phily
16th April 2016, 08:15 PM
Ivy is a pig of a weed, choking the life out of beautiful old trees. In this case an old blackwood. The upside was a very enjoyable day felling and trimming out some nice timber - though the natives were not overly impressed!! 376990376989376988

smiife
16th April 2016, 08:26 PM
Hi philly,
Nice figure in that blackwood, a good days work:2tsup:
But you shouldn, t upset the natives:o

Phily
16th April 2016, 08:33 PM
Turns out that my mate doesn't like spiders - wasn't happy at all that I got him to stay still while I took the photo. Poor spider was hanging on for grim death due to the leg shake!!!

hughie
16th April 2016, 10:38 PM
Anything that big should have rego. :U

mick59wests
16th April 2016, 10:52 PM
I would not mind if I had a tree with such beautiful timber that needed felling
Mick

Phily
17th April 2016, 12:49 AM
The Blackwood here in the Highlands is quite stunning. Unfortunately it isn't appreciated and I've seen huge trees put into the chipper. It still dumbfounds me why Arborists don't save the trunks. Milled up they would be worth $ thousands - and are getting rarer.

dai sensei
17th April 2016, 09:59 AM
... I've seen huge trees put into the chipper. It still dumbfounds me why Arborists don't save the trunks. Milled up they would be worth $ thousands - and are getting rarer.

You are so right, they have no idea of the value most of the time though. They are usually so busy though and don't have the storage room. When they try and team up with a miller the timing is hard to get right and they get mucked about costing them $ in time. I know my favourite tree lopper has a huge industrial yard where he gets the good trunks dumped now, then gets a miller in once a month to mill it up, value adding to his business. It is an experiment for him as all output $s at this stage until the timber is seasoned and ready for sale. He is looking more long term payday.

hughie
17th April 2016, 10:59 AM
You are so right, they have no idea of the value most of the time though. They are usually so busy though and don't have the storage room. When they try and team up with a miller the timing is hard to get right and they get mucked about costing them $ in time. I know my favourite tree lopper has a huge industrial yard where he gets the good trunks dumped now, then gets a miller in once a month to mill it up, value adding to his business. It is an experiment for him as all output $s at this stage until the timber is seasoned and ready for sale. He is looking more long term payday.

He's a bit smarter than most then. I have seen trees chipped that could have easily equalled the tree loppers annual wage.

Christos
21st April 2016, 02:53 PM
He's a bit smarter than most then. I have seen trees chipped that could have easily equalled the tree loppers annual wage.

That's amazing and very sad at the same time.

wheelinround
21st April 2016, 11:26 PM
Philly you and Hugie are the most gracious fellows I know when it comes to sharing timber I am going to miss that................ Thank you both.:U

Mind you this lot looks far better will enjoy seeing the produced items.

Hughie the lord created spiders so miracles happen good job I wasn't there or you'd have witnessed one first hand.:oo: I bet shaking wasn't the only thing happening

Phily
22nd April 2016, 08:04 PM
Philly you and Hugie are the most gracious fellows I know when it comes to sharing timber I am going to miss that................ Thank you both.:U

Mind you this lot looks far better will enjoy seeing the produced items.

Hughie the lord created spiders so miracles happen good job I wasn't there or you'd have witnessed one first hand.:oo: I bet shaking wasn't the only thing happening

I suspect you are right on there!!! :C :U

Wood Collector
23rd April 2016, 02:56 PM
The main issue it that most city trees often have metal in them so it is a bit of a risk in milling them. The other reason is space and the time and effort required to mill and then stack the timber correctly for seasoning. As A consultant Arborist I get to see some trees that I would love to get the logs from that have to be removed due to structural issues but often it is not possible to get 5m+ logs out of the backyard or front yards of some of he please due to access and safety hazards.
I have mlled up some silky, white cedar and camphor laurel that I will use for furniture one day.
Cheers Pat

John.G
24th April 2016, 08:29 PM
The main issue it that most city trees often have metal in them so it is a bit of a risk in milling them. The other reason is space and the time and effort required to mill and then stack the timber correctly for seasoning. As A consultant Arborist I get to see some trees that I would love to get the logs from that have to be removed due to structural issues but often it is not possible to get 5m+ logs out of the backyard or front yards of some of he please due to access and safety hazards.
I have mlled up some silky, white cedar and camphor laurel that I will use for furniture one day.
Cheers Pat

People often fail to realise the truth of this, that sawmilling is a business, that not all logs yield good lumber, and that only a fraction of it is "valuable" timber with the rest being just boards. The analogy I often use when people start talking about their "valuable trees" is that it's a bit like saying sand should be valuable because glass is... there's a whole lot of work and time and money goes into turning one into the other, and the raw material is worth bugger all.

Add the expense of needing climbers to get the log from the tree due to confined areas, needing cranes to load because they are single trees so it's not cost effective to use "regular" industry equipment, plus the high risk of blade damage due to foreign objects.
Consider that the timber is no more valuable then the same timber growing in a forest...

Urban salvage logging is one of those great feel good ideas that is a totally unsound business decision in 99.9% of cases.

Phily
24th April 2016, 08:35 PM
A couple of arborists have also told of how they have left timber for a keen woodworker only to be called back to the site several days later because it hadn't been collected - very frustrating for the arborists. I can also understand reluctance in having inexperienced people hanging around a dangerous work site but really, there is no excuse for the waste - with Local Council needing to take more responsibility in the way they manage contracts with Arborists (time pressures etc).
A few years back the Council decided to remove numerous 60yr old poplars in Berridale NSW. I contacted the council asking for details of the arborist so I could try and save some of the timber from the chipper. Months later they wrote back to me saying that they didn't give me the details as this could have been seen as giving preference to one person over another ??? As far as I am aware it was all chipped (hopefully some was saved?).

Phily
24th April 2016, 08:56 PM
Urban salvage logging is one of those great feel good ideas that is a totally unsound business decision in 99.9% of cases.

I guess it depends on the business model. By way of example, one elderly chap I know who used to work on the roads, hauled off the trunks of trees that had been felled, to his property. Years later they have become his superannuation and my primary source of dry timber - lovely stuff! So now I'm following his lead and collecting all the good timber I can from my friendly arborists!

John.G
25th April 2016, 11:39 AM
I guess it depends on the business model. By way of example, one elderly chap I know who used to work on the roads, hauled off the trunks of trees that had been felled, to his property. Years later they have become his superannuation and my primary source of dry timber - lovely stuff! So now I'm following his lead and collecting all the good timber I can from my friendly arborists!


I agree with what you're saying. But theres a fair difference between scrounging up a log here and there and holding the timber for your own use/investment and operating a commercial enterprise: one is a (hopefully) self sustaining hobby, the other needs to keep the kids in shoes and a roof over your head and that means that the time you put into it needs to be compensated for every month when the house payment is due. Big difference.

I'm all for not seeing logs wasted. My point was that from a solely commercial viewpoint those "wasted" logs going into chippers or being burnt are often not commercially viable to mill for a number of reasons. To be commercially viable requires that the log can be put through a mill and recover timber of sufficient value that it pays its way with a bit left over: price of log, milling costs including wages, equipment costs, storage, secondary processing costs if value added, sales and admin costs, plus some ROI on the dollars invested in the business. Sawmilling is a tough game: its hard to compete with a similar product being imported from a place where wages run at 25c an hour and if the logs are more expensive because of where they grow that has to come straight off the bottom line.

That doesn't mean I dont see those logs as a good source of timber for others - I give non commercial timber and logs away to others when I have it rather then send them to the burn pile - and I totally applaud what you're doing in salvaging what you can.

Phily
25th April 2016, 06:25 PM
The irony of course being that timber rated as NFG commercially is valued by wood turners for its Natural Feature Grain :U Good on you for passing on timber. Cheers Phil