Sunday 13 March 2011

Chainsaw Milling

This is a continuation from the last post.
The second day of the course was chainsaw milling, as my brother has just brought a chainsaw mill we were keen to learn a few tips.
It stated off fine, a short talk on fuel mixes and chains then fixing the guide frame and cutting the top piece like butter. Sliding it off revealed beautiful grain under it, I love that we're the first people to see the tree like that.
One thing we did learn was not to clamp the frame of the mill to near to the end of the bar on the chainsaw as this is what the instructor did and ceased up the chain, preventing us from milling anymore. It didn't matter though as we'd seen what we wanted to see and we even got to take some oak home in the process. My little van was unimpressed with the weight of three slabs of green oak on the way home though!
In all it was a lovely weekend where we learned loads and found muscles we didn't even know we had. I always think a much better way to learn about history is to go and do it. I think now though I want to learn more about coppicing and how to use the wood you gain from it, I've already got some more courses in mind!

I had to put this last picture in as it's like a painting of the past. I think its great that people are still practicing these crafts and for me this picture sums up the beauty of a coppiced woodland.

2 comments:

  1. Some big lumps of oak you have there, maybe a big oak bowl in the future.
    Brian

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, Thats what I was thinking, might try and turn them green and leave the bark on. One peice was going to go for a bench/table for outside - maybe, depends when I get time!

    ReplyDelete

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