[Daikusan]

Recently I found an interesting wood store fairly close to where I live. I had been by the store hundreds of times but never stopped. All the display items outside were small wood pieces and hand made clothing. Usually there are several ladies outside looking at the clothes. Little did I realize!!

I found a very knowledgeable elder Japanese man who is retired and loves make wood knickknacks. He excitedly gave me a tour describing every work in detail and naming the wood it came from; many of which I have never encountered or knew of. He had several pieces of ironwood and blood wood, both easy to recognize.

I did not realize what one stack of waney edged wood was until he gave me a piece of the bark, it was cinnamon. Other wood I have never seen was: camphor, Japanese pepper, fragrant olive, and Japanese pagoda. One of his favorite work is to make designs from natural sawdust of different colors.

The best part was the tour in the back shed that held a mammoth band saw. It stands around 10 feet tall and the blade is somewhere around 6 inches wide. It is used to saw up logs. He promised to help me cut up some cherry wood; I just have to figure out how to get it here. The logs are up in a mountain 2 hours away and $60 in tolls one-way.

I thought some of you might like the pictures. I will post more of cutting up the cherry logs.

 

[Daikusan]

Cherry Logs

A picture of the logs that need to get to the saw mill.

 

[Wildwood]

That's a great story Steve - thanks for posting - I've just got to make some of those owls!
Rob

 

[jw2170]

Hi Steve.

That is some band saw.....

Thanks for posting.

 

[jw2170]

A picture of the logs that need to get to the saw mill.

Are you able to beg/borrow/steal/rent a chainsaw and cut the logs into lengths that you can transport.

You have to weigh the cost of the tolls against the cost of the timber to buy....

 

[OPG3]

Cool photos - Thanks for posting.

Otis Guillebeau from Auburn, Georgia

 

[CharleyL]

Just a personal opinion/observation, but thos logs don't look large enough to justify the hauling, tolls, and sawing costs. You need to explore these costs and get some diameter and length measurements of those logs for your sawyer to look at. With the measurements he should be able to give you a rough estimate of how many board feet you will have once they have been milled. Does the saw owner have a kiln? After the sawing the boards need to be kiln dried to kill insects as well as stabilize the wood before you can use it. This will be an added expense to add to your cost totals.

Charley

 

[Barry747]

Steve, thanks for posting. That's one serious band saw. From the looks of it, and all of the wood that's been cut, I'm guessing he does more than make owls. I also doubt that he has much of a problem coming up with sawdust for his projects. Very clever. Sort of a woodworker's version of colored sand in a bottle.

Charley made an excellent point. Although you don't know how much usable wood will come out of those trees the sawyer's estimate will give you a ballpark so you can calculate the cost per board foot. It might be cheaper just going to a local sawmill or lumber yard. At least there you'd know what you're getting. Unfortunately for me, I don't live near any sawmills and the closest thing to a lumber yard is HD or Lowes. Not exactly purveyors of fine lumber. Since I do small projects, toys for the grandkids which is usually under 10 BF, I pay high prices and buy through the Internet. I also don't have a planer or, I'm ashamed to admit, a table saw, I'd have a problem with rough cut lumber. Some day ...

 

[Mike]

Steve, please tell the gentleman that I admire his work. I am sure the cost of transporting the wood is far lower than the cost to purchase it already processed. We tend to forget that wood prices vary from country to country. I was at the Rockler store near me when a shipment of wood from South America came in. The packing crate was built from bloodwood! What costs an arm and a leg here is dirt cheap in other countries.

 

[bosox]

Great post! That's a big band saw. I like the little projects that the man did.

 

[Daikusan]

Are you able to beg/borrow/steal/rent a chainsaw and cut the logs into lengths that you can transport.

You have to weigh the cost of the tolls against the cost of the timber to buy....

James
Thanks for your kind comment. The chainsaw I cut down the trees with died while taking off the branches. Ive replaced it since then so cutting them up into usable lengths should break it in well. I get up to the mountain a couple times each summer so it is a bit unfair to count all the toll cost against the logs. Just wish I had a dump truck.

 

[Daikusan]

That's a great story Steve - thanks for posting - I've just got to make some of those owls!
Rob

Hey that would be a real hoot. That’s ******* talk for it would be a wonderful interesting project that would be loads of fun. Is there someone out there that can translate *******?? :blink:

 

[Wildwood]

Hey that would be a real hoot. That’s ******* talk for it would be a wonderful interesting project that would be loads of fun. Is there someone out there that can translate *******??

Here in SA, that translates to Rooinek - what we call the Brits

 

[Daikusan]

Charley and Barry
Thanks for looking out for me you both made good points. The guy said he would cut it up for me so the only real cost will be transportation. Cherry wood here comes from your own cuts. All the kiln dried wood as far as I know is imported; though there is likely one or two somewhere on the island. All the indigenous wood I have seen is cut and stacked with stickers [see picture 2 of the band saw] and dried naturally. The left tree in the first picture is about 60cm across. The second tree is 7-9 m to the fork; its at least 40cm across. If I get enough to make a roll top desk I will be more than happy. Im thinking I will end up with a pile about like the one at the sawmill (that may be more wishful thinking than reality).

We have something like HD or Lowes, the imported lumber is Douglas Fur or White Pine. Occasionally I will see some Teak. The rest is home grown matsu a pine that is a bit denser and harder than Douglas Fur; its darker too almost brown. There is a lot of mahogany that prices out comparable to the pine. That it for lumber unless you import it

 

[Daikusan]

[Here in SA, that translates to Rooinek - what we call the Brits

Rob
Im sorry if I offended you, it wasn’t meant to be. It was meant to be a pun.

Rooinek sounds like a slam on the Brits. When we have a really good fun time we say, “That was a real hoot.” In other cases, “That was a real hoot,” can mean that was a really good laugh.

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’? :jester:
Thats just American English [if thats real English] not adding the slang from the Brits, Assuies, SA or anywhere else.

 

[bosox]

That makes sense.

 

[papasombre]

Hi, Steve.

Are you an english teacher? It was funny!!!

 

[Daikusan]

Hi, Steve.

Are you an english teacher? It was funny!!!

Alexis
Teaching English is more or less a hobby. I see you are from Venezuela, is English a second language for you? The grammar part of English is very hard for me, so I really admire those who have mastered it as a second Language.

There are many comical misuses of English words here in Japan. On the other hand I have made more than my share of mistakes in Japanese, some rather hilarious.

 

[Mike]

Steve, not sure if you caught my response asking you to compliment the gentleman on his clever projects. I would appreciate some close up photo's of his owls.

 

[Wildwood]

Hi Steve - I have no idea why you should think I was offended, because I certainly wasn't - you asked if anyone could give you a translation of *******, and I was just giving you the Afrikaans version. Many visitors from UK get rather sunburnt here when they first visit (specially on the neck!) and they have been called Rooineks by Afrikaners since the year dot. It is actually not considered derogatory here, but rather a hoot!
And I greatly enjoyed your observations of the English language.
I look forward to more posts from you - Rob