# Treasures on a creek bank in North Texas



## Clay3063 (Jan 26, 2020)

I mentioned some time back about three walnut trees I found while popping grasshoppers for catfish along a creek that runs through a ranch owned by my best friend's (the one I ain't married to) family. We cut those trees last week and milled 95% of them. We still have to make another trip back to finish the project, actually two trips. One later this week to stack and sticker what we have already milled and then again in March to finish milling the last two logs out of the largest tree. It was a good find and took us four days to cut and mill. I'll post more pics later but wanted to share with you all what we found... FINALLY!!!

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## Clay3063 (Jan 26, 2020)

One thing to mention is that all of this will be sold and the proceeds will be used to purchase property for our mission in southern Colorado. With that being said, we are looking for buyers. I'd love to seel the whole thing as a single lot, green. We will be and are planning to dry this ourselves unless we can sell it green. Part of the plan is to build a kiln in the next few weeks and if we haven't sold it by then, we will be kiln drying it.

Reactions: Like 2 | Sincere 1


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## Tony (Jan 26, 2020)

That's some pretty stuff, great find Clay!

Reactions: Agree 1 | Sincere 1


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## Clay3063 (Jan 26, 2020)

One thing to mention is that all of this will be sold and the proceeds will be used to purchase property for our mission in southern Colorado. With that being said, we are looking for buyers. I'd love to seel the whole thing as a single lot, green. We will be and are planning to dry this ourselves unless we can sell it green. Part of the plan is to build a kiln in the next few weeks and if we haven't sold it by then,


Tony said:


> That's some pretty stuff, great find Clay!


I was so excited when I saw the trees last summer. I almost fell out of myself when we opened them up. Thanks Tony!!

Reactions: Like 1 | +Karma 1


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## djg (Jan 26, 2020)

Nice! I didn't realize how big the logs were until I saw the on the trailer.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 2


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## justallan (Jan 26, 2020)

Great score!
I wish I were closer, I've been hunting for walnut for to darned long.
Great pictures also.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Nature Man (Jan 26, 2020)

Golden! What an absolute wonderful treasure of Walnut! Chuck

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## David Van Asperen (Jan 28, 2020)

Awesome logs ,always fun to open them up

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## ClintW (Jan 29, 2020)

Awesome! Looks like some great timber! Good walnut is always a treasure I bet.

It looks like you are using a Woodlands mill in some photos? Curious of your opinion of it and it's build quality and stiffness.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Gdurfey (Jan 29, 2020)

@Clay3063 , great to hear from you. Was thinking about you and these trees the other day!! Great score. Blessings, be safe. Prayers for the right sale for y'all.


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## Clay3063 (Feb 1, 2020)

ClintW said:


> Awesome! Looks like some great timber! Good walnut is always a treasure I bet.
> 
> It looks like you are using a Woodlands mill in some photos? Curious of your opinion of it and it's build quality and stiffness.



That is a woodland mills hm 130. My buddy Henry bought that saw a couple years ago. He has cut lots of lumber since its purchase. It was the first time for me to see it in action and I do have some thoughts about it. I've watched numerous videos over the last few years on these particular saws and there seem to be some common problems with it. Tracking is one issue that this saw has. But, once it is set up correctly it does a really good job. We had an issue early on in the cutting of this wood with the tracking. Henry finally gave in and reset it. LOL. Once he got it set right it worked really well. The tire on his idler wheel is some sort of plastic, rubber, whatever. At some point prior to him bringing it up he had obviously let the blade get too hot and when he stopped, it stuck to a blade. It looked like he had to cut it loose from the blade as the tire was really gnarly looking. That probably had some to do with the tracking. This saw has no way to check tension so when setting tension I think he just guestimated. At least that's what it looked like to me. But again, he has used it enough to probably know what will work for what he is doing. He purchased a sharpening system and built a wooden box to hold his blades. Very good idea. I've been around a couple guys with band saw mills, one down in South Texas, that just throws dull blades away. I don't understand that and neither does Henry. He sharpens his blades until they either break or become otherwise unusable. The engine (13hp I think) does a decent job of cutting through the wood. I personally think something in the 18-24 hp range would be better. And I noticed that he was very hap-hazard with the use of his lube system; sometimes using it and sometimes not. I think he probably just forgets to turn it on so I would sometimes reach up and turn it on for him and he never once slapped my hand away or told me to stop. LOL. One thing I didn't like was the capacity. It will hold a 30" log on the mill. But it will not completely cut a 30" log start to finish if you are slabbing it. The cut between guides is around 24" if I remember correctly and you have to rotate the log and cut each side until you get it down to 24" or so. That is kind of misleading but it is in the specs for the machine. Personally, when I see a saw that says it will hold a 30" log I want it to cut that baby from start to finish as in slab cuts. This saw won't do that. I understand that they have upgraded this saw to where it will now cut a 30" log with the distance between guides being a full 30". Now, as for the cut. before he got the tracking set he went through 4 or 5 blades and there were some cuts that were wavy and dipped. He would have to back off and reset tension and or put a new blade on. Again, I think it was more from the tracking issues, blade tension and hap-hazard use of the lube than anything. With that being said, the quality of cut with the WM's saw as compared to the quality of cut (smoothness of the wood after cutting) with the chainsaw mill was definitely different but not in the way you would think. My chainsaw mill (which will cut around 38-39" between guides) actually left a smoother finish than the bandsaw mill. And I actually cut some slabs out to around 38 inches. The band saw mill seemed to cut faster than my chainsaw mill but I think that's because he was only cutting around 24" max and I was cutting a full foot and then some, more than that. When I built the chainsaw mill I used an old 18 hp briggs off a junker riding lawn tractor. It set up with fuel in it for a couple years after I built it and the carb was shot with alcohol (water) damage. I waited until HF ran their predator engine on sale and bought the 22hp engine to repower it. Most of my cuts were made at just above idle to half throttle. there are some tweaks I need to make on the chainsaw mill but I am impressed enough with it that we will continue to use it as a primary saw. (We had to use it to cut some of the logs down small enough to put on the WM HM 130. LOL.) Now I said all that to say this: I am impressed enough with the WM saw that I hope to one day purchase the upgraded model. I wouldn't buy the older version though simply because of the width restrictions. As far as rigidity goes, the WM does shake a little bit but if you slow down some and use plenty of lube it tends to go away. My chainsaw mill however does shake quite a bit as I didn't use large enough square tubing for the build. I used 1 1/2" heavy wall sq tubing whereas if I build another one I will definitely use 2" or even 2 1/2" heavy wall tubing. I think I can get rid of some of the shake by using gussets on the upper corners and will be adding them soon. The HM 130 is a great saw over all. And if you are looking for quality and economy I think it is a good match for weekend work etc. If you're going to go into full swing production I'd look at something more substantial. Hope that helps.

Reactions: Great Post 4


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## Clay3063 (Feb 1, 2020)

Gdurfey said:


> @Clay3063 , great to hear from you. Was thinking about you and these trees the other day!! Great score. Blessings, be safe. Prayers for the right sale for y'all.


Yes sir. Thought about you too when we went to cut this. The land owners weren't too keen on me bringing anyone else to their property and so I didn't call you to come help. I apologize for not getting back to you on this. If you get down to our neck of the woods look me up, I'll show you what we got. It's some really amazing stuff. I went back this week to get the rest of the wood out of the creek bottom and stacked and stickered it in a barn on the ranch to begin the drying process. I stacked and stickered what I brought back last week in a garage in north of Weston, Colorado situated around 8500 ft. And I brought back about 750 bd ft with me this week to be stacked and stickered as well. I wonder if altitude will make a difference on air drying. I know the difference in humidity will certainly help. I'm going to start building a couple of small kilns using dehumidifiers. One for use here and the other back in Texas so we can get this dried sooner than later.

Reactions: Like 1


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## djg (Feb 1, 2020)

Clay3063 said:


> ..... When I built the chainsaw mill I used an old 18 hp briggs off a junker riding lawn tractor...



I'd like to see photos of your CSM using s lawn mower engine.


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## djg (Feb 1, 2020)

Clay3063 said:


> .... I'm going to start building a couple of small kilns using dehumidifiers. ..



Keep us posted on the kiln build.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Clay3063 (Feb 1, 2020)

djg said:


> I'd like to see photos of your CSM using s lawn mower engine.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Great Post 1 | Way Cool 1


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## djg (Feb 1, 2020)

I like your setup. When you said CSM, I was thinking something like the Alaska CSM. Build like this is a little beyond me though.

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## David Hill (Feb 5, 2020)

@Clay3063 —- saw Henry this week— and pics of wood. Sure pretty!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Clay3063 (Feb 6, 2020)

David Hill said:


> @Clay3063 —- saw Henry this week— and pics of wood. Sure pretty!


Thanks David. Yes, we just about wore ole Henry smooth out. But we sure had a lot of fun.


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