100 year Cherry Tree - Need Some Help

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I saw an ad today on C.L. for a cherry tree for free. It's 100 years old, 2 1/2 feet at the base, and about 25 feet high. I grew up working on farms where we heated the house and built all the buildings from wood on the land so I've brought down 100 foot oak trees so that isn't the issue. I could use some help in what lengths to cut, how to dry as logs, how long to dry b/4 it's worked, and should I have someone do the resawing / drying of logs or chainsaw it into planks before or after it's dry. Then resaw, ts cut, joint, plane, etc.

On the farm my uncle had a 6 foot high saw blade (without a blade guard ) on a 30 foot hydraulic sliding sled so we could cut green wood boards to any width / thickness real easily one summer and use it for building the following year. I'm not sure of the correct steps to take to end up with a finished product as I don't have a 6 foot tall blade in my garage.

My woodworking goal had always to build craftmans style furniture and cherrys the wood for that so I think it could be one fantastic bargain if I do it right.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

You should post this in another section of the forum rather than in the BT3x00 related discussion. Other sections get more visitors.

Engage someone to do the sawing for you. A good bandsaw sawmill will make short (but tiring) work of it. Check out www.woodmizer.com and you can find folks in your area that can do the job for you.

Generally, 1 year per 1" of material for air dry. Much shorter in kiln.

Chainsawing generally doesnt give great results, is a little dangerous and crazy labor intensive.

[jlm]

I don't personally have any experience with drying green wood, but I did pick this book up a while back at a used book store:

http://www.amazon.com/Wood-How-Dry-F.../dp/091880454X

There's a lot of good information in there.

[Ken Massingale]

Wow, I have to admit I'm a tad jealous. Congrats if you get the Cherry. IMO it needs to be saed into the dimensions you want soon after falling the tree. Then stack and sticker, get the stickers cut from the same tree, this will prevent sticker stain. As Jeff said, 1 year per inch is a good rough guide when air drying. If you hope to use the wood in the near future consider getting it kiln dryed, otherwise you'll be waiting several years for the 8/4, 12/4 stuff to be ready.

[Black wallnut]

Cut into 6- 10' length. Remove the bark. Seal the ends of each log. Allow for 1 year per inch in thickness for drying. If you saw it right away into slabs, do all of the above and keep in a dark dry storage area. If exposed to sunlight cherry will darken.

[Russianwolf]

You're also not going to know how much "white" sapwood you are dealing with until you cut the tree down. You should be able to get nice 12 inch (all red) boards out of it, but would expect more than that in width.

I say this only because a buddy was all excited about a cherry tree he was taking down. about 18 inches in diameter. The heartwood was about 8 inches in diameter. He was diasappointed to say the least.

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Thanks for the replies ....

Update: I have some calls out to some portable saw mills based on Jefffery's input and also reinforced by an article on Woodweb (from a U of PA forestry prof) that says the color will change if not sawn into boards immediately for sticker drying and the ends not "painted" (with roofing asphalt) as Black Walnut said. He went on to state that air drying can get you down to only 20% mositure (outdoor use) and you need 6% for indoor furniture use. He recomemend building a solar kiln but there is no way in #### my homeowners association will allow me to put that out in the back yard so ..... I'm waiting on pricing for sawing / drying but I'm still tempted to have it sawn then air dry for a year or two and then if I really have to take it to a kiln.

I would be bumming if after all the work involved there would be a lot of sapwood or that the price of sawing into boards was really expensive. Picture this ... it all has to fit in the back my Grand Cherokee (maybe I could pull my ski boat over and carry it that way .... sounds like I'm on an true woodworkers adventure if the price for sawing is reasonable !!!)

If it works it could also make a great story ... see this piece of furniture I built ... I sawed this huge tree all by myself and ..... (my wife would surely roll her eyes but maybe somebody would be impressed, on second thought it probably would just be me but that would be o.k too .)

[Ken Massingale]

Thanks for the replies ....

Update: I have some calls out to some portable saw mills based on Jefffery's input and also reinforced by an article on Woodweb (from a U of PA forestry prof) that says the color will change if not sawn into boards immediately for sticker drying and the ends not "painted" (with roofing asphalt) as Black Walnut said. He went on to state that air drying can get you down to only 20% mositure (outdoor use) and you need 6% for indoor furniture use. He recomemend building a solar kiln but there is no way in #### my homeowners association will allow me to put that out in the back yard so ..... I'm waiting on pricing for sawing / drying but I'm still tempted to have it sawn then air dry for a year or two and then if I really have to take it to a kiln.

I would be bumming if after all the work involved there would be a lot of heartwood or that the price of sawing into boards was really expensive. Picture this ... it all has to fit in the back my Grand Cherokee (maybe I could pull my ski boat over and carry it that way .... sounds like I'm on an true woodworkers adventure if the price for sawing is reasonable !!!)

If it works it could also make a great story ... see this piece of furniture I built ... I sawed this huge tree all by myself and ..... (my wife would surely roll her eyes but maybe somebody would be impressed, on second thought it probably would just be me but that would be o.k too .)

Well, I'm sure that prof knows his field of expertise, but his statement about air drying only getting down to 20% is way incorrect.
If it is 100 years old and 30" dia, it has been a slow grower which should yield plenty of heartwood. Sorry I didn't mention sealing the ends this morning, but it was 5:33!

[Hellrazor]

What variety of cherry is it? Wild cherry around here is notorious for being hollow and full of ants. Wooden baseball bat and hit the trunk test....

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Final update:

The cost to bring in a professional mill onsite was about $600 / $700 which would have worked out to about $1.25 BF for raw lumber. Speaking with A LOT of people the issue that arose is that you don't know what the initial value of the wood will be until it is sawn into logs and can look at the tightness of the rings, rot, amount of outer sap wood. The final green wood value would not be know until it is sawn in boards.

The professionals wouldn't have taken it for free because the raw wood value is inverse to the labor costs until breakeven at the air dried point in one or two years e.g. not a good investment if just cutting down a single tree. If multiple trees they would have made the call only after the tree was on the ground ready for them to look at.

I'm pretty bummed ... I had visions of a many year inventory of the type of wood I wanted to use for projects. I greatly appreciate everyones help, I learned a lot in the process, and also found out quickly what priorities my wife has versus what I have for the family in the near term which is always a good thing to know one way or another!!!

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Ya, if it were that easy we'd all be finishing the walls of our shop in Cherry! LOL! It was a good idea and you learned a lot along the way.

[Black wallnut]

Almost exactly what I found out when I lived in a house and had a harvestable sized black walnut tree. After paying someone to cut the tree down, transport to and from a mill, milling costs, I would have almost as much into the lumber as if I purchased milled lumber outright. Not to mention the drying and storage.