Band Saw Mill Owners

[OliverFarmall]

David,

Chestnut oak, yes. But American Chestnut, no. There hasn't been any sawable chestnut around here since about the 50's, and that was only standing dead trees. The chestnut blight killed everything in the early 1900's. There are still American Chestnut growing here from old rootstock, but they only get to about 3-4 inches, then the disease gets them. Not big enough for sawable timber or nuts. I'm thinking that what Clint has may be Chinese Chestnut.

Might be horse chestnut we have them around and they have really big spikey nuts that aren't edible.
If they were American Chestnut that's a tragedy if they were cut down as they would be the ones the Chestnut Foundation is looking for to rebreed with .

[OliverFarmall]

How do the Norwood saws tracks hold up ? My concern when looking at them was they didn't seem like they'd be very rigid and would flex under heavy logs or use ?

They hold up very well. They are more rigid than you would think from the pictures. I have the trailer kit for mine so it is mobile. Never had any problems with it at all. I built a 20 x 26 home addition and a 24 x 32 two story shop (see photos) and sawed all the framing lumber on my mill. Worked great. I highly recommend the Norwood. Remember to check your local building codes before constructing a building with home-sawed lumber. Some locations require grade-stamped lumber (i.e. store bought). Fortunately mine does not.

Home addition



Shop

It's good to know, seeing the amount of wood you've put through it with no problems.

[Clint Carter]

Don
This is the nuts that the tree put out. The only other thing is that i gave a piece of the wood to Brad Homested I can have him take a pic of it and send it to me to let you look at it. Maybe you could help me pin point what kind of chest nut it was. I would like to know so i dont make that mistake again. I had no idea that the chestnut tree was in that bad of shape. tells you how much i attention i pay.

[Clint Carter]

How do the Norwood saws tracks hold up ? My concern when looking at them was they didn't seem like they'd be very rigid and would flex under heavy logs or use ?
Comments ?

Same question for the Hud-Son Oscar ? How sturdy are the tracks ?

So far as the track holding up on the Hud-Son I have not had any problems out of it. you can set it on blocks (that is how i started out is on blocks, just could not wait to saw) or concrete. They offer a trailer for this mill also but I could not fork that much money out at the time and thought i might build one down the road some time.

[Don McCombs]

Clint,

Judging from the size of the burrs and nuts, I'm 95% certain that it is a Chinese Chestnut. American Chestnut burrs and nuts would be much larger. There are some very isolated American Chestnuts still living and producing nuts. There has been a big effort underway to cross-breed the American and Chinese Chestnuts to create a chestnut that will have the characteristics of the American, but the blight resistance of the Chinese. I am going to a seminar next week where the progress will be discussed.

More information...
http://www.acf.org/

[Clint Carter]

Don
I find this very interesting, think you for the info. One more thing, when cut into lumber how dose the Chinese and American Chestnut grain compare?

[Don McCombs]

Clint,

American Chestnut is a tight-grained hardwood, similar to Red Oak, but a different color. Not quite so reddish. I've never seen or heard of anyone milling Chinese Chestnut, but I would think it would be similar. Chinese Chestnut is used as an ornamental and for nut production. It isn't very common.

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/A ... stnut.html

[summerfi]

American chestnut grew to a very large size and was one of the most common trees in the eastern hardwood forests. It was a tremendous resource for lumber and mast for wildlife. It's loss due to the chestnut blight, an Asiatic fungus, is one of the greatest ecological tragedies of North America. American chestnut wood is light weight but strong and highly rot resistant. Most of the split rail fences of bygone days were made from chestnut. Nearly all of the standing dead chestnuts were gone by the time I was a kid, but my dad told me stories about them. I still have some wormy chestnut boards that were pulled off my grandma's house in West Virginia when I was perhaps 8 or 10 years old. I'm 63 now and still waiting for just the right project to use those boards.

American chestnut


The Chinese chestnut is a lower growing smaller, bushier tree. I don't recall ever seeing lumber cut from one, but my dad had a couple growing in his back yard. While the American chestnuts were known to be quite tasty, I'm not sure how the Chinese variety compares.

Chinese chestnut


My understanding is that the American Chestnut Foundation has been interbreeding American and Chinese chestnuts for many years attempting to develop a hybrid that has most of the physical characteristics of the American variety while having the blight resistance of the Chinese variety. Apparently that has gone pretty well and they are now in a phase of test outplantings into forests.

[beaconlight]

Jim John is on the side of a mountain. I have some pictures but they don't do the view justice. I tried to post 1 on the earlier post but had no success.

[Barnyard]

I still have some wormy chestnut boards that were pulled off my grandma's house in West Virginia when I was perhaps 8 or 10 years old.

What parts of the house would chestnut wood be used for? Trim? Floors? Or just about anywhere? The house (circa 189) I will be dismantling has what looks like full dimension red oak 2x4's. I was wondering what other wood to watch for.

[summerfi]

What parts of the house would chestnut wood be used for? Trim? Floors? Or just about anywhere? The house (circa 189) I will be dismantling has what looks like full dimension red oak 2x4's. I was wondering what other wood to watch for.

Grandma's house was on piers, and in her case chestnut was used as a skirting similar to how trailer houses are skirted today. I imagine chestnut could be used as wall or roof sheathing. Oak was a common framing lumber in those days due to it's strength and availability. My great grandparents had a (for the period) fairly fancy farmhouse, and my dad told me that when my grandfather (his dad) was just a youth, he was assigned to hand plane all the chestnut lap siding that was used on the house when it was under construction. That would have been a huge job, even for those days.

[Barnyard]

Thanks for the info. This house is one of the bigger ones in the small town. I plan to save all the wood I can.

[summerfi]

Be sure to take pictures. I'd be interested in seeing how you progress and what you find.

[Barnyard]

I will do that. I will start a new thread when I get going with it. I don't want to high jack this thread anymore than I have.

[Roy47]

Bill, there was a log cabin located on my property when I bought it 40+ years ago. It had Chestnut sills that were probably 12 to 14 inches square. So they used Chestnut for everything back then. The people I bought my land from had taken the roof off the cabin so it was deteriorating pretty quickly. So I gave the cabin to a guy to move it. I kept one of the sills and my daddy had it cut into 4 inch thick board and used it to make a table. Needless to say here forty years later I would love to have that cabin back. Oh well so it goes, at the time it was probably the best way to save it because the last I heard it was still standing.
Roy