An area estimated to be twice the size of the state of New Jersey containing more than 300 million trees–the equivalent of over 100 billion board feet of timber-is available to be harvested worldwide – underwater! interesting story
View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product†– Charles Greene
CaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
CaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
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Very interesting indeed.
I remember reading something years ago about the amount of timber that's sitting at the bottom of the Great Lakes (as a result of shipwrecks, or storms sending the logs over the side). Apparently there's a sizable quantity of it, and because the cold water there prevents the teredo worm and other nasties, the wood is in pretty good shape.
Be curious to see if it's cost efficient to raise those logs up.
A retired trim carpenter friend of mine use to be a diver too. He worked on surveying underwater, petrified forests in the upper great lakes. The shore line 10k years ago was much lower.You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
Under the same subject did you see where that cargo ship carring thousands of bdf of lumber sank off the British coast ?They now have a hazardous "board slick" floating in the ocean most of the lumber bundles have now broken up and 33' planks are floating with the current I got the full story w/ pics off the BBC web site ........(I don't know how to link it to here)
Edited 1/17/2008 10:22 pm ET by JerryHill
Here you go:http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7180000/newsid_7189300/7189348.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7180000/newsid_7187100/7187100.stm
TX
When you are on the BBC site at the top of your page in an address line will be that web page address.
If you place your cursor over it and right click on it and it will hi-lite to blue color as a window opens and you can then left click on copy.
Then place the cursor in the text of your post here and right click which will open another menu.
Left click on the 'paste' in that menu and it will deposit that web page address link into your post.
Sounds like an interesting article and I couldn't find in in a search;o)
Peace in.
TX...........so thats how its done...........you folks are really in for it now!
I remember reading, and I think it was in FHB, about a similar operation running along the southern coast of Lake Superior. {The lumber was cut in the Upper Penisula of Michigan and Minnesota and rafted together and these huge "rafts" of logs would be pulled/pushed down to the lower Great Lakes.}
These rafts lost 10% of the logs in L. Superior. That lake is really deep, 650ft plus, and thus anaroebic conditions exists down there. I have to find that article 'cause I seem to remember that, years ago(20yrs?), they advertised in FHB about this new lumber source.
Can you imagine popping up a 3'-0"diameter old growth? Probably would be 40 to 60 long! That wood would be tight!
Query. Have any of you ever heard of the "White Pine Monographs", aka 'The White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs'? It was published in the early 1900's and was used to encourage and promote the use of white pine as an exclusive building material...that's because it was so plentiful and, of course, would never be used up. Ahem...never?
Just curious. (Yeah I'm a technical and architectural book collector and have the whole series).
ciao, ted
dirtyturk,
My sister's floor has old growth recovered wood from superior.. Drive up to Duluth and it's readily available.. (bit spendy!)
frenchy, all this talk of old timbers reminded me of a house a contractor friend of mine and I saw going up and, being curious, we went over to scope it out. This was about 15years ago.
Owner/builder was really a open about what he had found. Seems his main business is recovering and reuseing old barn framing and when available the slate roofs.
His new home was completely framed out and finished in heavy timbers and rough sawn planks. Come to find out that the rough sawn were from a couple of WW2 vintage buildings he came upon in Cleveland that were being dismantled. The wood he "found" were actually 12"x 24" beams used to throw up storage buildings for the war effort. {Seems these buildings got built without any thought to the materials, since we had soooo much wood. They had been sitting there all this time}. He hauled them to a mill and had them cut down to the sizes he wanted and with his barn timbers put up his home(5000sf). Slate roof got installed on a SIP system which was on the timbers.
If memory serves he was told the wood got floated down to Cleveland from, I think it was Duluth.
As is often said there's gold in them there hills. You just got to be willing to dig for it.
ciao, ted
I've got them too, reprints though, very good reference of early American work.
They still have the big log rafts up in BC Canada. I have a friend on an island up there who build his place just from what broke loose and ended up on his beach; his partner has built 5 other homes there the same way. These aren't shacks either...
They still have the big log rafts up in BC Canada.@@@Still have them in Washington = Puget Sound, the Islands, the Strait, etc. I dodge them all the time crossing Rosario Strait. At night they are interesting because the running lights on the raft are kerosene lanterns with 1 qt reservoirs. Dim at best. When you see the tug, find out what is behind him.For interesting navigation, try conning a $6,000,000 log raft through Dent, Gillard and Yucultas Rapids in succession. Here is one account - and not a tug with a raft behind.<http://www.waggonerguide.com/q_12.html>The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
I saw one off Lopez a week or so ago, near the ferry landing. Struck me as an odd place for it. Often see them on the way to or from FH, especially now that there's that mill along 20 west of 5.
especially now that there's that mill along 20 west of 5.@@@Isn't that something? Washington Wood, as I recall. It was a lot when we headed south one fall. Next summer there it was. I wonder where they are getting the stumpage.The Anacortes library has a neat book on the old time town - mills all along the waterfront. About all that remains now is the ruin of that plywood plant that fortuitously burned - the one with the wood tug sunk out there. That long boatyard building at Skyline was part of the lumber mill there back when. The marina is in the log pond.The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
The following article was in the Portland Oregonian some time back. A picture showed them to be using a modified large backhoe (actually, a log loader, I guess) to pull the logs out of the river. They used to float large floatillas of logs down the Columbia when I was a youth and I imagine that a lot of them didn't make it to their supposed destination.
http://www.forestcouncil.org/tims_picks/view.php?id=1116
and another approach:
http://www.forestnet.com/archives/Sept_01/Water_Logging.htm
Inspiring stuff, guys. Thanks.
A few years ago I worked in a mill where we planed lumber that had been harvested from underwater. It came out of Ootsa Lake (BC) which was created about 60 years ago for a hydro resevoir. They used a saw on an extention arm off of a barge and cut the "standing" timber which was completely underwater. I don't know if that is still going on but the lumber was as sound as anything you will find anywhere but was it heavy!!
I think when i wuz framing they sent me all that waterlogged lumber cause some of it sure wuz heavy
pond-dried lumberView Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product” – Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Timeless timbers. I had purchased 100 BF of Birdsye Maple from this company and Yes, I think one can make money at it at $50.00 per BF. By far the best I had ever seen. We made solid maple rased door panels 1 3/4" thick, door jambs and stop. This was for a custom home here in Redondo Beach, Ca. Oh and stair tread nosings as well.
There's been a group advertising in FWW about selling 50,000 year old buried logs out of New Zeland bogs. The wood is really beautiful...and really expensive. Like $100 bf. It's on line too. Looked at it a few times.
That is a very cool machine and idea.
There is a company out of New Orleans which recovers and mills sunken cypress logs - jimmyscypress.com -- they sell everything from 1x to 12x12
I believe these are logs which were cut years ago and got away from the float plan. I don't know how they find or recover.
Checked with them for some 4x8 cypress for a project - wood price was OK, shipping charges and moisture content were the killers.
Jim
I live near the Ottawa River, in Ontario, and there has been an underwater recovery company operating here for a few years now. They send Scuba divers down, and individually rope each log and haul it up. Check out there website for some interesting history:
http://www.logsend.com
Simon
Looks like they need some sawfish.
Yeah, since the Scuba Beavers have unionized, they just want too much money!View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product” – Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Goodwin Lumber in Florida salvages a lot of cypress and heart pine from rivers. Some of the stuff was axe-cut... all I've used has been very nice tight lumber. Winterlude, Winterlude, my little daisy,
Winterlude by the telephone wire,
Winterlude, it's makin' me lazy,
Come on, sit by the logs in the fire.
The moonlight reflects from the window
Where the snowflakes, they cover the sand.
Come out tonight, ev'rything will be tight,
Winterlude, this dude thinks you're grand.
When the old shepherds made walking sticks from Hazel they would cut the lengths then put them in a bath of water. The capillary action within the wood sucked up the water and pushed out the sap. Water is easier to dry out than sap so the sticks could be matured quicker.
Would this be so with a whole tree?
Discovery or NGC had a show or segment on this once. VERY neat indeed.
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"If you come to a fork in the road, take it"
I have seen mission sytle furniture being sold from these reclaimed timbers. There's a furniture store on lakewood Blvd. a coupla miles south of the Long Beach, Ca airport that sells the stuff. Or, so I saw about 6 or 7 years ago...
I had to go dredge up some pictures before I revived this thread.
Back in the early 90's, my buddy got into cypress salvage.
He called me up one morning to meet him at a boat launch with my trailer. When I got there, all's I could see were some plastic drums 1/2 submerged. We winched the log as far as we could on to the trailer, then hooked up 2- 4x4's to the front of my truck to pull it out.
After about 20' I looked down at my speedometer and it said I was doing 70mph.
The sinker was so heavy, that it cantilevered off of the trailer axle and lifted the back of my truck 3' in the air. Almost 5' in dia. and 45' long.
So, now we're stuck. Had to rent a crane and a 40' float to take it to the mill.
This tree was used for shingles on G. Washington's Mount Vernon home. They had a big write up in a mag (Southern Architecture?) on how the La. sinker cypress outlasted the Florida Grosbeak Cypress that was used in a previous restoration.
I scanned the jpeg but my buddy emailed the pdf file and I didn't try to resize them
Is there a way can I copy a pic from the previuos poster's pdf file to get it saved to my puter using Acrobat?
Thanks
Peaceful,easy feelin'.
Edited 2/5/2008 12:23 pm ET by rez
Hover over the picture and right click. Click on "Save as" and save to your computer. Open Acrobat and then open the picture in a document. save. Note: you need to have full version to save a pdf file. (you must purchase this)
You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
Edited 2/5/2008 1:59 pm by Marv
'must purchase'
Now I understand the free Acrobat service.
I can copy/paste text from the free Acrobat version thus I was hoping it was just my own puter illiteracy that was preventing me.
Thanks.
Peaceful,easy feelin'.
I could email it to you.You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
Open the file.Center the picture.Do a "printscreen".Paste the screen capture in your graphics program.
Yeah, it may be cold, but at least it's a wet cold !
I tried to harvest timber under water, but every time I stuck the chainsaw under the surface, it stopped running!
I couldnt figure out how to hold my breath long enough to find a piece of wood.
Were you in a hot tub by any chance?Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
Oh man.... that's f'd up.
Come to think of it, the bottom of the lake was much smoother than I expected.
Im having the Amish guy who did my log skidding outfitting his team of belgians with aqualungs so we can harvest the logs from the Army Corp lake near me. U can tell thier fart from from the airbubbles...smelly kinda oatie.
I tried to harvest timber under water, but every time I stuck the chainsaw under the surface, it stopped running!
They "run"?!! No wonder I was getting so tired sawing back and forth with mine!
View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product” – Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
at least you didn't try it with an electric CS...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Ouch!
Man, I'd rather be working under water (without the chainsaw though, electric or gas) than outside here today--we have near blizzard conditions, blowing snow, sometimes white out conditions. Wife just got home, school let out early--took her twice as long than usual to get home; said she had to stop twice to clear snow from car in order to see during a normally half hour drive.
so where is here???
our strom broke a bit ago... looks like another is coming in to replace it...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Central Michigan and toward the Saginaw Bay (off Lake Huron).