- Hey everyone! My name is Matt, and welcome to my backyard. This time we're gonna be slicing up this little thing (laughs) on my band sawmill. So this should be a fun one. So, a viewer actually dropped this off, he is somewhat inspired by me, and he built a log
trailer similar to mine, or I guess he modified an existing trailer and put an arch on it similar to mine, and picked up this guy. At this point, he is
using a chainsaw mill, and this is a little too big for it, but he still didn't
want it to go to waste, so he picked it up and figured he would figure out what
to do with it afterwards. I've been there (laughs). So, about a month ago, he dropped this thing off and
we winched it off his trailer. And a lot of people asked me
when I was building my trailer why I wanted a steel deck so badly, well, this is a wood deck trailer, and it was not fun to try
and get this thing off, 'cause there's just too much friction. So this is a very goofy log
with all the crotches on here. There are several,
several crotches on here. It makes the (laughs)
log a really weird shape. So, as always, let's first take a walk around, take a look at the log, and talk a little bit
about sawing strategy. And if you haven't noticed, it's probably got some
embedded metal in it because this bird feeders' anchor is fully encapsulated in the tree. So, real quick here for
dimensions at the base here, this is four feet across. And then up in here, we get up over five feet or so at that first crotch there. This side, you know, pretty well flat-ish. And you got one crotch on the
bottom here, pointing down, and we got this crotch section here, which creates these two. And you got another crotch down here, which makes this thing, and then another pair of them over there. So, overall, it's a very odd shape. So, we're gonna have
a lot of crotch figure no matter which way we cut this thing. So in my mind now it's like, "Which way do I cut this
to give the best yield, "or the most, maybe, uniform slabs, "as far as shape goes?" You know, the easiest thing to do would be just to cut
it as it is on the saw, but I am liking the idea of
cutting in this plain here. So on the other side here, this is pretty well flat. We're gonna have, I think, a more uniform shape
as we work through the log, rather than cutting it
in this orientation, where we would have some longer stuff, and then some shorter stuff, but the long stuff wouldn't
be super uniform either. It would be really, really,
really big on one end and kind of skinny on the other end. So not nearly as useful, I guess? I think looking at this side
makes it a little more clear. So you would have a more uniform size all the way down through here. Sort of uniform, I guess. That's the thing about
these sort of decisions is you could really do anything and no way is more right than another, but you're gonna get different results. I think the figure is
gonna be good regardless, 'cause there's so much crotch. It's just gonna be a matter of
the uniformity of the slabs. So with the drone, I think we got a better
idea of the top view, and what the overall
shape will be if I cut it in the orientation I have planned. You can see, it is just
slightly more uniform, as you have a more, I guess, consistent width
down the whole thing. So that's what I'm leaning towards, or that's what I'm gonna do, I'm not really leaning towards it anymore. We're gonna roll this thing, and cut it 90 degrees from
how it lays right now. So now that I've made a decision, this thing has been
sitting here on the saw, you know, for a month now. I've been looking at it a lot, I've been thinking about this a lot. I am gonna roll it and get cutting. So I got some prep work to do, get this thing rolled over, get it leveled out, get it further onto the bed, 'cause it's not fully on there right now, get a blade on the saw, get the saw head up in the air, and get the first cut ready to go. (metal clanking) I got some work to do. I'll see ya in a little bit! (machine whirring) (chains clanking) (machine whirring) (metal clanking) (metal clanking) (chains rattling) (machine whirring) (metal clanking) (machine whirring) (metal thudding) (chains clanking) (machine revving) (chains clanking) (wood banging) (metal clanging) (machine idling) (machine whirring) (chains clanking) (machine revving) (wood creaking) (machine whirring) (log thudding) (zip ties busting) (metal creaking) (metal clanking) (tool banging) (metal scraping) (metal clanking) (metal clinking) Okay, I got this thing
rolled and positioned, and this is gonna be kind
of an interesting one because the ideal stacking shape for this is exactly this orientation, which means that I can't take
slabs one at a time as I go and put them into the stack. The bottom slab that goes
on the bottom of the stack is on the bottom of the logs. So I'll be offloading them temporarily and stacking them all at once, which, you know, it's fine. Just gotta find a place to
throw them in the meantime. So this first cut's gonna
remove some of this thing here. That's gonna be the cap for later. Really hope to get some smaller, well, shorter, I guess, slabs out of this area. And then we'll start
getting down to the longer, bigger slabs, which should
be kind of interesting. So I have the saw up. So the blade height now
is 50 inches off the bed. I can still go higher, but I'm just going to
leave this all as one piece for the rain cap anyway. So there's no point in
slicing it now anyway. So I'm just gonna take
this big chunk off the top and then start working my way down. So one quick, final walk around as I get ready to start here. One thing is, I do have this a little too far this way, so I'm probably gonna run
out of cut length, my saw. So I'll probably trim
some of this a little bit, but I'm not super, super
worried about that. I'll make it go. I got the bird feeder (laughs). Bird feeder's hanging out down there. We'll deal with that later. I'm gonna have to keep that and put that up somewhere in the yard. And then here's what over here looks like. Around the back. So I am all ready to go, I think. Seems like it's very stable, mostly 'cause this limb is
wedged between these two bunks. So it's not gonna roll that way anymore. And it is ridiculously heavy. It has to be waterlogged because this log should not
feel as heavy as it does. (saw whirring) (ax banging) (machine whirring) (metal clanking) (saw whirring) (saw squeaking) (saw whirring) (chainsaw buzzing) (machine whirring) (metal clinking) (saw whirring) (machine idling) (metal clanking) So I think I'll take a
better look at all of these once they're back on the
stack and I shuffle them. I'll probably take them off in as much as the little baby
skid loader can carry. But we can take a look at this
guy while it's right here, because this is a lot more convenient than showing the camera
when this thing is, you know, six feet, seven feet up in the air. This is pretty cool. There is some pretty interesting
zigzaggy grain in here. And some kind of, these are interesting, I don't know, staining? Some kind of weird color thing, but, this is promising for
being the very first slab. And you know what, for fun let's take a quick look at the tough side of slab number five. (water splashing) Since this limb is coming
straight up through here, we're gonna have, essentially, kind of a cookie situation, with a pith of this crotch coming up. So kind of a bullseye thing as we get through all of these ones. Yeah, this is pretty cool, too. (water sploshing) So kind of a similar
thing to the other one, just more of a circular type pattern. (birds chirping) (Matt laughing) (water sploshing) I've got Jarrod here from
Second Life Designs today, he's here to pick up my old trailer. - Hello! (Matt laughing) - [Matt] I was gonna try
out the sawmill here. So far most of these cuts have been eight, nine, quarter-ish. Looking like one more
cut at that thickness will get me down into kind
of the full width area, and then I'll start going to, like, 10 quarter or so, since this thing is so big and wide. So, it's just gonna be
back to sawing for now. And then we'll take a look at some slabs. (saw whirring) (saw whirring) Okay, so next we're going
to move some of these slabs (ax hammering)
out of the way, 'cause we're running out of cut depth, and, you know, since these
are gonna be stacked anyway, again, keep the number of
things moving to a minimum. (machine squeaking) So I'll grab the skid-steer, we'll pull these off, and then we'll take a look at
what's on the bottom there. Maybe it's an interesting grain. - [Jarrod] That's good! - [Matt] All right, take a quick look at what we're at so far, with a little water. Do you wanna do the honors? - I would love to. - Alright, here you go. That's the custom, 100%, official water toss bucket. - Which way are we going here? - Towards the camera. - [Jarrod] Towards the camera! Very nice. (indistinct) with water.
- Let's see if you've got the skills. (water splashing) Oh, that's cool. - [Jarrod] That is awesome looking. - Yep.
- I think I did pretty good on that. - That was a pretty solid toss. - [Jarrod] Yeah, that's pretty good. - You know, you got a good amount of
momentum going forward there. Also a dash of splash. So we got that big limb there, again, that was coming up this way, and that creates some nice
circular kind of grain patterns. So essentially a big
cookie in the middle of some other grain. Is that figure or is it sawdust? (water sploshing) A little bit of both. So a little bit of curl over there, and then coming up here, we're getting into this crotch as well. (water sploshing) But, check that out. That's some cool grain. - [Jarrod] Very cool. - [Matt] Bark pocket. Cool! (machine whirring)
Let's pull a couple more off and take another look. (machine whirring) Okay, here we go. (water splashing) Eh! - [Jarrod] Eh? - [Matt] Eh! That's some crazy color, very red gray, and this one's really cool. You wanna give us a few (stammers) (Jarrod laughing)
width measurements there? - [Jarrod] We have our lower crotch here-- - 55.
- 54, 55 inches. Here, I got a 46. In this widest part of the crotch, right now we're at 58 1/2. - [Matt] That's pretty wide. - [Jarrod] Very wide. - [Matt] (whispers) Man. (Matt exclaiming) (saw whirring) All right, I had a good time sawing a little bit with
Jarrod over the weekend. My old trailer is now with him. I'll leave you link to all his stuff if you wanna check him out and see what happens to the old trailer. But today I'm gonna get back to sawing here.
(saw whirring) Probably sawing next the
little sequence of slabs here, you know, two or three more, and then start offloading these things, probably one by one, and just chase the cut 'til I'm down all the way and have all my slabs cut. (saw whirring) (saw buzzing) (saw buzzing) (saw squeaking) (chain clanking) I can see this has a
ring shake right here. And as they're coming out here that is actually releasing and opening up. So, kind of interesting! You know? Actual ring shake. (machine banging) (metal scraping) (saw whirring) (hammer banging) (machine whirring) (hammer banging) (machine whirring) (wood clanking) So before I move this guy out of the way, I want to take a quick look at it 'cause it's looking like it's
gonna be pretty darn awesome. We're getting into two of
the crotch pieces here. You can see the two bark inclusions there, so let's have a quick peek! (water splashing) Oh, that's cool. You're getting some of the
compression figure up here from the crotch. There's little bands of
figure in the middle here. Ah! That's a big piece of wood. We'll just start with
this real quick (laughs). So we're at four feet down here. This is five. And then up through here is
gonna be just over four feet, four and a half feet. So these are some big, (laughs) big slabs. So starting up here we
have this bark inclusion and we've got some figure and
kinds of stuff going on there. And you can see the
bands of figure up here on top of that limb here. Now, that was that limb coming
up in this direction here. So you can see the pith, or the center of that limb, right there. And there's some figure
emanating from around that. Beautiful bark inclusion all through here with some figure around it. And another one that goes
right down through here. The color on this is amazing, too. Lots and lots of interesting
things going on on these. Then you can see, this is that ring shake right here, there's actually a couple of them. And a ring shake is where the tree separates along the growth rings, and you'll have some kind of splits that follow the ring around the tree. So, it's looking like I'll
probably be able to get two more slabs out of here before
I run out of full width. So one here, and then one down here. And that'll be it for the
main section of the tree. Let's see, I get stacks to dry, so two more cuts for that. I'm gonna get this top slab out of the way and then make those last two cuts. I think because I missed the nail or screw for the bird feeder, I'm just gonna leave it there (laughs). And while those things are drying for the next couple of years, you know, I just feed the birds! (hammer banging) (machine whirring) (metal clanking) (saw whirring) (saw buzzing) That's pretty good, 15 slabs to get (laughs) stacked. So I'm gonna pull 12, 13, 14 out of here. 15 is gonna go back into
the stack as a first slab, and we'll get that area ready. Get the leveler set up, and start stacking and
looking at (laughs) slabs! (wood clanking) (machine whirring) (metal clanking) (hammer banging) (machine whirring) (machine hissing) (machine hissing) (machine idling) (machine hissing) (machine hissing) (machine revving) So I'm getting set up back here, behind this other log. I have these four
levelers already installed from the log that used to be here. Here's a flashback to that. Those ones haven't moved at all. I get that question quite a bit. There is no settling on those, so I can reuse those four, I'm adding one more here, and that will allow me to get
that 10 foot log in this spot. So apparently I am using all of my 4 foot levelers elsewhere. So I have a 32 and a 18, or whatever this little tiny one is, 12 or something. We need both of these
together to make up this side. Also an amount of half blocks. So I have a broken block
and a block turned sideways, not nearly as nice and uniform as (metal clanking) the rest of the stacks (laughs). And no, nothing has rusted out here. (laughs) I love those comments. "All these levelers, "all those threads are gonna
be rusted and seized up." No (laughs). Not really. Okay, it looks pretty good. So this whole section here is a little higher than the other one, so I can't quite get it
balanced out perfectly. So it's three quarters higher
than my range on this thing. So on these four first ones, I'll have a three quarter inch thicker, as well as the half inch thicker, which is normally on here, and the one down there is, I guess, 1/2 inch thicker, and then everything is cold planer! Pop this string out of here and we can drop the first slab in place. (machine whirring) Alright, who's ready to look at some wood? Hu-ah! (water splashing) Splish-splash, baby (laughs). Man this stuff is cool. I think the color on the silver maple is probably my favorite thing. It has such a variety of color and stuff. So there is this guy, that's some pretty cool color
from the heartwood there. With the grays and reds and oranges, and a white sapwood surrounding it. So, pretty cool. Let's grab another one. (machine whirring) (wood clanking) Oh (laughs)! (metal clanking) (water splashing) This stuff is so cool. You're getting some bark
inclusions from those crotches, figure around those, of course, but I just love the color of this stuff. You have such an
interesting variety of color and just the color palettes
all over the place, pretty cool stuff. Let me get that next one up here. We'll take a look at that guy. I feel like I'm gonna need a bigger bucket 'cause I'm not getting
enough water on these slabs. (Matt laughing) (machine whirring) (water splashing) (Matt laughing) I'm not gonna do that every time, but I think that's, like, 10 or 12 buckets that I
normally toss (laughs). Oh, this stuff is cool. Alright, so we've got
some more bark inclusion going on down here, with some figure around it. And just, I love the
grain pattern in this. It's just so interesting and unique. Very, very cool. (machine whirring) So this is number 12, and we're getting a little
bit deeper into the tree. So things should be getting
a little more interesting. I can see we already have this
large bark inclusion here, it should be pretty sweet. (water splashing) Look, down here we got a
few little bands of figure, but I just love this,
like, undulating grain, and the color in this stuff. It's pretty amazing. You got some figure all through here. You got a nice bark inclusion there. You can see the ring shake. So there's a structural defect here. That's the ring shake. So you got some cracks
here in a few spots, but I think that adds to the
overall character of this tree. A little more shakes up here. Oh, we got this really interesting bark
inclusion there, too. Oh. Oh! So good. You can see, there's a few bands of
figure through here. Woo. (Matt exclaiming) (Matt laughing) I think we saw that one already, it's number 11, but we'll take a look at it again. (water splashing) Look at that big bark inclusion from this crotch right through the middle. You got a few splits and shakes there, and another bark inclusion here. So I really like this whole, like, multi-bark inclusion thing
with all these limbs here. This is especially cool. This situation here, with this undulating bark inclusion. And we got some figure up here from the top of that limb there. Another very nice looking slab. What's this? Number 10. (yells) Here we go! Whoop! (water splashing) That was not a good one. (water splashing) That was my one bad one, I think. Oo, that was bad. I'm soaked (laughs). (water sploshing) I cannot get over how
big these things are. (Matt laughing) (pats) That was a big tree (laughs). We got some cool stuff going on up here, and we got that, bark inclusion's almost gone. A little bit of crotch
figure around there, and got figure above that (indistinct) over there. It's a nice bit of crotch figure here, the bark inclusion, and just some cool stuff
going on all down in here. And then here's, hopefully, a better
view of the whole thing! (machine whirring) All right, number nine! (water splashing) Oh (laughs)! That is cold. (water splashing) And fresh. (water splashing) (water sploshing) So this is probably the last of the, I guess, the bigger ones, things are gonna start
getting narrower now. So let's grab some measurements here. We got 42 down here. We got this little dip in here. This is over four feet still. 54. 46. And 54 up here. So, still pretty big, but they're gonna start
getting a bit smaller. (laughs) Which is still gonna be big by, you know, most standards. So we're starting to see that main limb that is coming up through here is the bullseye pattern from there and the bark inclusion that surrounds what used to be, or what will be in the other slabs, that big limb that came
up from right here. But I got that, which is kind of cool. There's a little bit of
spalting around there, which is kind of a nice touch. Still have the shakes. So we do have the structural defects here. Not a huge deal, but kind of a nice little detail. A little bit of crotch
figure through here, we are through the bark inclusion, so this is all just figure now. We are through the bark
inclusion here as well, in the middle. Not a whole lot of figure
surrounding there anymore, but you still have a little bit of that bark inclusion there. Now up here we're getting
into this chainsaw cut here. So the rest of these slabs are gonna have a gouge all the way through here. This one does not go all the way through, but the other ones will. Then over here we have that little bit of, like, sunburst kind of pattern going on from the figure above that limb there. Okay, number eight! (water splashing) That's wet. (water splashing) So this one has that great bark inclusion
in the middle there, we're starting to get
into that bullseye effect from the big limb. Man, just a lot of really cool, interesting color and grain. Little bit of crotch figure
going on right there. It's a tiny little bit up there. (machine whirring) (wood thudding) (metal clanking) It's number seven. Here we go! (water splashing) (Matt laughing) (water splashing) (Matt laughing) So now we're getting into some interesting bark inclusions and things here, as this bark inclusion gets bigger and we start to expose
more of this limb here. They're gonna get a little bit more delicate through here as we
progress through these slabs. A little bit of figure
around the outside still here from the other limb. We got a bullseye here from the big limb we're passing through, and we got some more
bark inclusion up here with potentially some more
figure on either side. So the stack is getting a little bit tall, and making it difficult to
get a good look at the slabs. So I think for the next ones, we'll take a look at them, you know, like, ground level before I throw them up onto the stack. I think these next couple of 'em are gonna be pretty fragile, with this bark inclusion getting bigger. (machine whirring) So, you can see, this one's got the bark
inclusion all the way through, so it's two separate pieces now. And this one here is quite fragile. It's got a little bit of
a fracture going on there. Let's take a quick look. (water splashing) I think we might have looked
at that smaller one already. But you got some cool
bullseye things going on. Good color. (water splashing) Here's a little closer look at these, this is five, and the other one is six. So we got that kinda cookie thing going on with the bullseye from the big limb. Here's what this guy looks like. A little bit of connective
meat still there. And we go up into the little bits of the other
limbs that are up there. (wood thudding) Well, these are gonna be, like, cookies, essentially. (water splashing)
'Cause these are that big limb that was coming out vertically. So we've captured the pith from it, so these would behave a lot like cookies, and I expect these to continue
to crack a little bit. But kind of fun coffee table size, these are, like, four feet or so long, and two feet wide. A cool look. And these two are gonna
be fairly similar, too, the last one was just smaller. (water splashing) Really cool color. I think we looked at this one already. (water splashing) The grain on here is wicked. Wicked grain. I like it a lot (laughs). Then we got four, three, this is number two. A lot of really interesting
color and stuff going on here. This looks so much like
a flame or something. And then number one's just
kind of a smaller version, a little more sapwood, a little less hardwood. It's still pretty cool, though. (machine whirring) (wood thudding) (machine whirring) (metal clanking) So that's gonna leave
me with this chunk here that's still on the sawmill. I'll be able to pull some
smaller slabs out of this. Either some narrower slabs, or things I can cut up into smaller stuff, like guitar bodies, or things like that. So this log is a lot
heavier than it should be. So normally I just flip this thing over and just keep cutting, but it is in the same position. I ran the blade over it and
it hasn't rolled at all. So it's still in the same
place of making the cut now. It'll be a consistent thickness. So I think what I'll do is pull a piece of eight
quarter off the top, that'll lighten it up a little bit, and I'll be able to flip it over and continue cutting from there, make some smaller slabs and get a little more yield
out of this bottom chunk. It also still feels really stable. It's not like it's gonna slide around, at least it doesn't feel that way. So I think it's just
the weight on this thing is just so much greater than a tree like this should be. It's bizarre. (machine whirring) (wood clanking) (saw whirring) (saw rumbling) (saw whirring) Okay! (water splashing) (water splashing) Oo! Again, kind of a fun color
and grain in this one. Now, again, very similar
to the other ones. Those are kinda cool, whatever these things are. That's nice. All right, let's take a look
at the two smaller ones. (metal clanking) (water splashing) So these are pretty cool. They have this fun hint of heartwood kind of flaring up in here. And then you got a lot of, just, standard sapwood on this one. This one's got its bark inclusion, which has a little bit
of figure around it. And these are wide
enough for guitar bodies. So you could get something interesting out of this section here, and that section there, too. So, yeah! It won't go to waste. Also got that little
tiny piece right there, which should be enough for a
goofy guitar body, I guess. Or other assorted, live-edge, weird thing. (machine whirring) So I think this thing now takes the title as the biggest log that I've
ever sawn on the sawmill. This thing is pretty massive, and with all the crotches
and limbs on here, it's exceptionally ridiculous, and, goofy shaped (laughs). I'm also really surprised that there was no other
embedded metal in the tree. You kind of figure when you find a log that has
a bird feeder attached to it that things have been hung
from it over the years. But, apparently that's the only thing, which is kind of surprising! So, even if there's a bird
feeder hanging from it, it's not a indication
that it's full of metal. So, (laughs) there's that, I guess. So that's gonna do it for this one. This guy's gonna sit out here and dry for, probably a couple of years (laughs). So thank you, as always, for watching, I greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions
or comments on the sawmill or anything back in the shop, please feel free to leave me a comment, as I'll be happy to answer
any questions you might have, and, until next time (laughs), happy woodworking.
