Snow calls for firewood

The apprentice learns more new tricks! To say the least, it's been quite a winter in Pennsylvania this year. As a result, we have been using up firewood like crazy. We heat the shop via a fire barrel stove that needs to be fed regularly to keep the climate inside this big building comfortable enough to work every day. After weeks with temperatures between -10 and 15 degrees, the dried firewood supply has dwindled.

On the first day that snow wasn't actually falling from the sky last week, we took to the yard and turned logs into tinder. Jeff manned the tractor, delivering big logs to areas of hard, snow-free ground. Rob fired up the chainsaw and cut the logs down to reasonable lengths. And, thus, I was left to chop. Swinging a giant (well, 'giant' for a girl who is 5' 4" on a good day) maul over my head and managing to land in a place that splits a log in half is not something I would have anticipated to be part of my skill set; but, consider it added to the resume, ladies and gentlemen. Not only did I actually manage so split firewood, I didn't even break my wrist(s). Score!

As the winter seems to have no sympathy and we are forced to welcome another 4" of snow today, there is least somewhat warmth within the walls of the shop (and my upper body strength is increasingly more impressive). Rob is still hard at work perfecting the design and techniques to build the small wall cabinet that will compose our soon-to-be third level course so keep your eye out for updates on that. In the meanwhile, enroll in Practical Woodworking and/or Advanced Joinery in 2014 so you can join us for the new course when it's launched!

Until next time, I hope that everyone in the local areas is staying warm and safe in this horrendous winter.

I am basically a pro with an Alaskan chainsaw mill

While Woodcraft was here to document all things Morris chair related, Jeff and I made ourselves scarce (and busy) by taking to the saw mill!

We spent two days slicing live edge slabs with the Alaskan chainsaw mill. Although I may not be a master of the 6-ft long chainsaw just yet, a few days of intensive practice definitely brought me closer to such a title. I can now oil, gas, sharpen, and start up a chainsaw all by myself! ::pats self on back:: This log was a cherry tree from which came several 2 1/4" thick crotch, live edge slabs with stunning figure. They have been coated in Anchorseal to protect said figure and any checks that might want to form.

While we were working, Donna and/or Tom snuck out and captured us in action. Beyond the fact that I now feel like somewhat of a woodworking celebrity, for those that may have doubted my scrawny build's ability to man a chainsaw, here is a bit of undeniable proof. Despite the heavy Pennsylvanian heat this summer, we now have cut and stacked a huge collection of live edge slabs. They have begun the drying process and, thus, are a few weeks closer to being usable. We are already anxious for them to finish drying!

Again, a huge thanks to Donna Chiarelli and Tom for such wonderful work on the Woodcraft Magazine article and now for sharing these photos with us! And, an additional thank you to Steve at Shreiner Tree Care for providing the beautiful logs, without which I wouldn't have been able to hone my awesome chainsaw skills a few weeks ago!

Last week at the saw mill...

Despite the presence of full-on summer climates, we spent a good portion of the past few weeks outside at our saw mill. We were finally able to make some room on the drying stacks by loading the kiln so, we finished making slabs of the beautiful logs Steve (the man in charge at Shreiner Tree Care) donated to us!

When it comes to milling here at Lohr Woodworking, some logs are easier to cut than others. Our band saw mill has it's size limitations so, for the narrower logs, the process is relatively quick and dirty. After rolling the logs onto the mill, we need to decide how we want the boards to be shaped along their live edges. In most cases, when we mill the logs ourselves, we have no intention of milling the edges to be straight; they will likely be left in their natural, live edge form so we want the shapes to be as interesting as possible.

After we position the log how it needs to lay to provide the most appealing and interesting live edge shaped boards, we use wedges (and in some cases a car jack) to hold it in place to can cut a flat face. Because it is far safer to cut the log with a flat surface sitting on the mill's base, once the flat face is cut, we flip the log over and cut the boards from the opposite side.

Here, I am cutting an 8-quarter slab. The band saw blade spins horizontally as we manually push it through the log. Even for a clearly incredibly muscular girl such as myself, pushing this mill is far from effortless.

Now, what happens when we find ourselves with a log whose diameter is longer than what our band saw mill can cut? Well, we break out the Alaskan chainsaw mill of course!

First, we need to halve the log so that we have the largest flat surface we can get for the straight cutting guide of the chainsaw mill to ride on. Before that flat surface exists though, we need to make an exterior flat surface in order to make a straight cut to halve the log. To do this, we attach a long straight, milled board to the top of the log. We attach it by leveling the board as it sits atop the log, then screw a small square of plywood to the ends of the log with it's edge flush with the level board. From there, we screw another small piece of wood to the plywood, make it flush to the level board as well, and screw through that piece into the level board. This way, the board is firmly held into a level and secure position as we use it to guide the chainsaw.

Then, out comes the Alaskan chainsaw. As I have written about before, this monster of a machine is composed of two chainsaw motors attached by a 6-ft long bar and chain. The straight cutting guide is an adjustable frame that allows the long bar to remain straight and level as it cuts through the log.

Here, you can see Jeff and Rob making the first cut to one of the logs. The guide rides flat along the level board we attached and as the cut is made, small wedges are pushed into the cut so that the weight of the upper portion of the log doesn't weigh too heavily on the chainsaw blade.

Eventually, the log is halved and we break out ol' Trixie the tractor to move the upper half. We place the half up on lifts so that we can easily get to the bottom when we need to lift and move it again.

This is one of the best parts of woodworking; being the first person to see the inside of a tree. The plant has spent years and years growing it's annual rings and keeping them sealed and hidden under it's newer layers and bark. When the half is lifted, the grain patterns and colors are revealed to the human eye for the first time.

From there, we use the large, freshly cut, flat surfaces as the level face for the chainsaw guide to ride on for the remaining slab cuts. The guide is easily adjusted to cut any board thickness we want.

And, by the end of last week, we have stacks of brand new live edge slabs! The slabs are temporarily stacked on saw horses with equally-sized sticks placed in between to prevent warping and allowing air to pass between the slabs so both sides can dry at the same pace.

In this photo, you can see the white, waxy substance applied to the ends and along the figure of the slabs. We use a coating called Anchorseal to seal the ends of the slabs to prevent checks from developing/growing through the drying process. The sealant also helps protect the interesting figure from any cracking or splitting it might do while the slabs dry.

Now, these slabs will find themselves on the drying stacks for a year per every inch of thickness. From there, they will make their way into the solar kiln for a couple more weeks. And, some day in the distant future, they will become part of some  one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture to carry on their legacy.

The Revolutionary War Maple

A bit later than promised but, alas, I am here to tell you about our logging adventures on Thursday!

Earlier in the week, Jeff spotted a fallen maple in a cemetery not far from the shop. After chatting with the groundskeeper, we got the go-ahead to slice up some of the trunk for what we hoped would be curly maple slabs. Jeff and Rob and taken a small part of the tree earlier in the week and cut into it to see if it was worthwhile. Even the small portion they cut from showed beautiful patterns in the softwood. So, first thing Thursday morning, we packed up supplies and Trixie the tractor for the trek to the cemetery and spent the day dissecting the truck of a 130+ year old maple tree.

Here, you can see the portion of the truck we cut the slabs from. The picture gives perspective on just how big and thick it's trunk was. The way that the tree had been cut after it had fallen made much of it too short to be used for much furniture purposes so we worked mostly with this big truck log to get useable pieces.

We made the log stable on the ground with wedges and broke out the Alaskan chainsaw mill. This impressive machine is essentially two chainsaw motors attached to one another with an extremely long bar and chain. There is a adjustable stabilizer that attaches above the blade so that it maintains a straight cut throughout. Because of the immense size of this log, we had no choice but to break out the big guns... and it was awesome! After cutting off the top portion of the log, we had a straight, flat base to drag the chainsaw along for cutting useable 2" slabs.

I was lucky enough to get a go at such a crazy machine. I have seen a chainsaw used in my day; I do, after all, have a father that loves maintaining his yard as much as the next guy. But, this chainsaw is a whole different story. Because of it's length and the size of the log, we had to use wedges every 8" or so to keep the already-cut portion elevated enough to alleviate the pressure the heavy wood was putting on the blade. Beyond that, even though we were using newly sharpened blades, it took at least an hour to cut each slab! I am appreciating anything made of real wood more and more each day!

As we spend the morning breaking this massive log into manageable pieces, we are surrounded by the gravestones of Revolutionary war soldiers. Over our sandwiches at lunchtime, the groundskeeper came over and was kind enough to share some of the history of the land this tree grew from. He told us that the oldest headstone they have found in the cemetery so far was from the 1700s. Several of the stones were marked with American flags waving and a pendant proudly displaying a soldier and the words "Revolutionary War". This tree had been growing amongst the original American heroes.

I am still adjusting to living in a place with so much history. I am proud and excited to know that the slabs and boards taken from this aged, historic tree are going to be used to make long-lasting, beautiful furniture pieces instead of pieces of firewood to be burned and forgotten.

After lunch and cutting the two big slabs we could from the log, we used a smaller chainsaw, some iron wedges, and a sledge hammer to break the remaining large pieces of log into quarters. I imagine that every bit of useable wood there is from this log will be so, we needed to get it all back to the shop; cue Trixie. She did her job to carry these huge, heavy logs up to the trailer to be brought back with us. Between the hours of cutting, hammering, chainsawing, and lifting, 3 o'clock was welcomed by all of us. And, now those slabs will be ready to use in about 2.5 years when they dry properly.

Upon our arrival back at the shop, the guys took a small board from the haul that day and planed it to see what curliness there was to be seen. I can tell you one thing, this photograph doesn't do it justice. As the wood shifts in the light, the curls shine and move. It's incredible that nature produces these things and keeps them hidden deep in the layers of it's trees' trunks. We were all so pleased with the results of our labors. I was overwhelmed with, yet again, another day full of new and exciting knowledge. This job is a bottomless pit of new experiences! I'm glad to have survived my first day of logging!

We have some more photographs of our day with the Revolutionary War Tree that I will be posting on Wednesday so keep you're eye out for those! Until Wednesday, I bid you all a good night.