Not logging necessarily, but some pictures.

[stikine]

 

[stikine]

Some nice Western Red cedar in these decks from a small operator here. This will be milled locally.

 

[pantheraba]

Beautiful wood...fine pictures. SO different from here in Georgia.

 

[flushcut]

Just a dusting a little reminder of what's to come. Nice deck of logs!

 

[cory]

Awesome pics. What is the next step for those logs, a raft or barge?

 

[stikine]

The logs came by barge from a neighboring island. They will be trucked from here a few miles to the mill. I'll try to get some other photos of the mill operation.

 

[stig]

Those are some nice logs.
The background ain't too bad, either.

 

[biggun]

Lovely!

 

[cory]

Do those turn into cedar shingles and shakes or also lumber?

 

[stikine]

Most of that will be sawn into rough cut lumber and then shipped to Washington for re-manufacture into siding, fencing, and other high end products.

 

[cory]

Is the logging year round in that area

 

[stikine]

Not really. At some point the logging roads get impassable with snow and ice most winters. The two outfits logging here just finished up for the season and they probably won't start back up until Feb or March...it could be an open winter though and sometimes they get the urge to start a bit earlier. For the most part it's a crappy time of year to be doing things outside.

 

[cory]

Gotcha.

What would those 2 outfits likely do in the off time up to march?

 

[stikine]

They usually work on their equipment. The small operator mills his lumber during winter months.

 

[ruel]

Very cool! Western red cedar is such a beautiful wood.

 

[stikine]

The market for red cedar has been very good the past several years.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Cedar products have been hard to come by here for a couple few years. Shit, bet i could make split rail and sell it for too much money anymore. Just no inclination to hunt down the logs. Very valuable cedar ya know.

 

[Bermy]

Oh Lordy we haven't seen that one in a while

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I literally had a guy come get me off the tail end of a job to go look at some cedar to mill. Some decent logs. Not real clear lumber (most western reds aren't here). But viable for somebodies project. Somehow, the conversation that started out with what we charge to mill your logs, turned into, well you can buy them, remove them to your mill, and make money off them. Ummm no.

 

[flushcut]

Lol no. You pay me to remove them.

 

[pantheraba]

Idjits are everywhere in this world, solar system, galaxy, universe! Aliens don't scare me...it's the wack jobs among us.

 

[stikine]

"Music Wood" - We occasionally put up some small sales that target specialty wood, like high grade Sitka Spruce. Very few trees have logs that meet the parameters for wood that can be used in guitars, violins, cellos, and pianos. Sitka isn't the only wood used (obviously) but it is what we have in SE Alaska. The photos are from several years ago but show how some of this high grade wood is broken down...in this case for guitar blocks/bolts.


Absolutely shitty falling/hinge in this case, but at least it wasn't me!



There are definitely some parts of these logs that don't meet the grade but the blocking process culls it out.

These are the split blocks/bolts that are split and shipped for re-manufacture into sawn, book-matched guitar blanks. Some of the lower grade or undersized pieces are used for internal support pieces within the instrument itself. I'm not exactly sure what the paint codes are but it is probably grade related.

 

[cory]

Wow that is cool seeing the actual trees that stuff comes from

 

[stikine]

On the larger quantities purchased sometimes the Japanese buyers will send over a representative to oversee the breakdown at the mill. I think that is primarily for piano stock.

 

[Tree09]

Japan builds a ton of guitars too!