Wild cherry trees seem to have a definite life span and once they reach a certain size or age they appear to simply keel over. In February 2016 my brother and I spent a day in Pop’s Wood hand sawing a log from just such a wild cherry tree that had collapsed onto the top of a hazel stump.
It was hard going with the two man hand saw but we managed to get through it cleanly and revealed a lovely heart shaped profile to the log – very fitting for February.
Moving the log relied on the ancient technology of wooden rollers, levers and sheer muscle to get it into the back of the car to transport it home.
Next job to was get it onto the saw mill and the very satisfying job of sawing it up into planks, stacking the planks with stickers in place between the layers to allow the timber to dry out evenly.
That was back in August last year and the planking has been drying out now for over 12 months. This week I started with the next stage which is to saw the rough waney edged planks into usable lengths of timber and then plane them to a smooth finish on all faces.
Great to see a felled tree through all the various stages.
It is sobering to consider the amount of forward planning that is required and the time lag/investment necessary to allow each stage to take place properly. For example you can’t hurry the seasoning process without a great deal of additional energy input. You also have to carefully control a micro environment around the drying timber to prevent end splitting of the planks which effectively ruins the finished product. Or…..you just have to wait for nature and time to season the wood.
Once my felling licence is in place the intention is to fell a number of wild cherry trees and stock pile a reasonable amount of planked wood so allowing a reliable supply to sell.
More next time…………..
Tim Burr 