Thread: Chainsaw milling some Cedrus deodar or Himalayan cedar

As with many conifers that haven't had any silvicultural management, the tree was heavily branched.

In that case, unfortunately it won't be worth that much because the knots will make it a more difficult to work and reduce its strength.
Turners may be interested in the odd piece of knotty stuff.

Originally Posted by MAI

Should I cut slabs of, say, 10cm? Some bowl blanks? Boards at 30mm to allow some wastage down to 25mm? Grateful for suggestions.

Unless it is quarter sawn, 10mm is too thin especially with all those knots it will tend to warp thin slabs.
Best to slab and dry it at ~50 mm and the resaw it after it has dried.

I have a Logosol chainsaw mill that does a good job - particularly in a softwood like deodar - other than the tendency to have an increased thickness in the board at the end of the board on the side away from the saw.

That's is a sign of differences in settings between left and right hand cutters or bar rail wear. Causes include differences in cutter hook, top plate filing angles or raker depths, this leads to the chain preferring to cut in one direction. Even if one or two more cutters facing one side or the other are involved this will cause the saw to cut preferentially to one side. The effect is more pronounced in softwoods and in downward cutting because gravity helps negate any upwards cutting.

Mills that hold the bar at both ends can tolerate differences better.

I have nil experience with this type of tree
but wonder whether some of the knottier bits might be of interest to turners

Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker

I have nil experience with this type of tree
but wonder whether some of the knottier bits might be of interest to turners

So I guess I could check common bowl blank sizes and cut some accordingly.

How about spindles? Can a spindle be turned off a piece that has knots?

I cut a small one up back in 2008.
It had around 2.2m between knots so some decent bits of straight grain.
I ended up turning too much of it into sawdust, I wish I had access to the BS mill back then.

Thanks, Bob. I wonder if there would be interest in boards/slabs/posts straight off the mill for making a rustic looking chest? Not sure how large the deodar rustic chest market is in Melbourne but I'm there to supply what there is of it with enthusiasm and a helpful demeanour.

I've been supplying lumps of blackwood, cypress, spruce and assorted eucalypts to my neigbour who loves knocking out rustic pieces of furniture like stools, small tables etc. He's started getting a few commissions so there's a bit of a market at least for what he's doing. The deodar wouldn't be well suited to what he makes but could be useful for chests etc This reduces some of the effort needed for dressing and hence knots are less of a problem in that regard.

I shouldn't have mixed measurement units in my original post. I had in mind 100mm for slabs. I should have said 100mm rather than 10cm.

I've attached a picture of the tree before I bucked it.IMG_2507.jpg

Originally Posted by BobL

In that case, unfortunately it won't be worth that much because the knots will make it a more difficult to work and reduce its strength.
Turners may be interested in the odd piece of knotty stuff.



Unless it is quarter sawn, 10mm is too thin especially with all those knots it will tend to warp thin slabs.
Best to slab and dry it at ~50 mm and the resaw it after it has dried.


That's is a sign of differences in settings between left and right hand cutters or bar rail wear. Causes include differences in cutter hook, top plate filing angles or raker depths, this leads to the chain preferring to cut in one direction. Even if one or two more cutters facing one side or the other are involved this will cause the saw to cut preferentially to one side. The effect is more pronounced in softwoods and in downward cutting because gravity helps negate any upwards cutting.

Mills that hold the bar at both ends can tolerate differences better.

Originally Posted by MAI

So I guess I could check common bowl blank sizes and cut some accordingly.

How about spindles? Can a spindle be turned off a piece that has knots?

not sure there is a common bowl blank
but anything above 50mm thick (prob better at 80mm or more) and 200 mm square or bigger

it's common to turn norfolk bowls through the knots so they are spaced around the rim/sides. Don't know if this would work with this Himalayan cedar. If I was down Melbourne way I might give it a try

not a common practice to turn with knots except pens and maybe(?) salt and pepper grinders

Looks pretty knotty. Bit hard to turn a spindle that would hold up a table. But maybe lamp bases. Which is what I'm after Is there room for 180 or 200 mm thick spindle blanks around the heart wood? Maybe 400 -500mm long?

Half logs would be very fun big bowl blanks. A bit of a challenge with the grain directions around the knots.

We went up to the deodar site yesterday afternoon to do some milling. First priority was to cut some slabs that the block owners have commissioned a cabinet maker to make some table legs from. They're using a redgum slab as the table top. It's a nice aspect of micro-milling salvage logs that people with a tree with some sentimental value - the grandfather of one of the block owners planted the tree 80 or so years ago - can have something made to preserve the link.

We cut those initial slabs avoiding the radial cracks:

11012015(003).jpg


then we did a a bit more before knocking off to visit a friend of the guy working with me yesterday. He has a home-made mill. (Visible in the background of one shot.) He's made a mirror frame using what would otherwise be the waste from squaring off a deodar log he milled some years ago.

11012015(001).jpgCloseup of mirror frame.jpg

My phone photos don't do the frame justice but it's a nice piece of work using what what would othewise have been kindling. He says that in his experience the deodar is very stable.

The property owner took a load of photos.

IDR_3685.JPGIDR_3677.JPGIDR_3684.JPGIDR_3687.JPGIDR_3727.JPGIDR_3732.JPGIDR_3740.JPG

Looks like a pretty smokey saw, what mix ratio is being run?

Glad you noticed that, Bob. I was going to ask if you had any suggestions. I noticed smoke being produced right at the end of the cut. No visible smoke before then. At the end of the cut is where the bar is being pinched the most. We were using wedges. I couldn't see any burn marks on the slab faces. I wondered if it was the saw laboring under the weight of the slab or if the very fine powdery sawdust - ripping a dry softwood log with a narrow kerf chain - was partly combusting.

The saw is running 50:1 mix using fresh petrol and Stihl 2 stroke oil. As I mentioned, no smoke visible until right at the end of the cut.

Originally Posted by MAI

Glad you noticed that, Bob. I was going to ask if you had any suggestions. . . .

Not really - I remember my old 076 going through that stuff like warm fragrant butter.

I can't imagine the weight of the slab being a problem as, being the face cut from the top of the log, it's a very small slab.
Forget to put enough the bar oil in?
I've done that a couple of times (I can see the powerhead temp go up if something like this happens) but the aux oiler allowed me to keep going.

That was probably it. I filled up the chain oil tank at the end of that cut. It did look a bit dry ...