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Cutting Beech Tree
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Pavel314
Jul 29, 2012, 10:03:27 PM7/29/12
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I cut down two trees in the sheep pasture back in January, an oak and a beech, and finally got around to sawing them into firewood logs this weekend. It seemed to me that the beech wood was much harder to cut than the oak. Has anyone had experience in sawing beech wood?
Tony Hwang
Jul 29, 2012, 10:10:01 PM7/29/12
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Pavel314 wrote:
> I cut down two trees in the sheep pasture back in January, an oak and a beech, and finally got around to sawing them into firewood logs this weekend. It seemed to me that the beech wood was much harder to cut than the oak. Has anyone had experience in sawing beech wood?
>
When wood dries it's much harder to cut. When it's green is the time to
do it.
Retired
Jul 29, 2012, 11:22:21 PM7/29/12
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On 7/29/12 10:03 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
> I cut down two trees in the sheep pasture back in January, an oak and a beech, and finally got around to sawing them into firewood logs this weekend. It seemed to me that the beech wood was much harder to cut than the oak. Has anyone had experience in sawing beech wood?
Perhaps your saw needs re-sharpened ??
> I cut down two trees in the sheep pasture back in January, an oak and a beech, and finally got around to sawing them into firewood logs this weekend. It seemed to me that the beech wood was much harder to cut than the oak. Has anyone had experience in sawing beech wood?
GoogaICQ
Jul 30, 2012, 1:07:05 AM7/30/12
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He wasn't talking about the difficulty of cutting a log per se.
Rather, he was saying it was more difficult to cut one log (Beech)
than another log (Oak).
DerbyDad03
Jul 30, 2012, 5:47:47 AM7/30/12
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address the question, it is possible the OP dulled his saw on the oak
before moving on to the beech.
In any case, this table lists the relative hardness of woods, based on the
Janka standard.
http://workshoppages.com/WS/Misc/Wood-Hardness-Chart.pdf
Bottom line: Tasmanian Oak is harder than both types of Beech (European and
American), White Oak is about the same, Red Oak is a little bit harder.
Ed Pawlowski
Jul 30, 2012, 5:54:44 AM7/30/12
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On Sun, 29 Jul 2012 19:03:27 -0700 (PDT), Pavel314 <pin...@jhmi.edu>
wrote:
>I cut down two trees in the sheep pasture back in January, an oak and a beech, and finally got around to sawing them into firewood logs this weekend. It seemed to me that the beech wood was much harder to cut than the oak. Has anyone had experience in sawing beech wood?
Beech has a finer grain, denser than oak and is harder to cut. I've
never cut down a Beech tree so I don't have first hand experience for
comparison.. It is good for steam bending too, when cut to thinner
strips.
wrote:
>I cut down two trees in the sheep pasture back in January, an oak and a beech, and finally got around to sawing them into firewood logs this weekend. It seemed to me that the beech wood was much harder to cut than the oak. Has anyone had experience in sawing beech wood?
never cut down a Beech tree so I don't have first hand experience for
comparison.. It is good for steam bending too, when cut to thinner
strips.
Pavel314
Jul 30, 2012, 6:11:31 AM7/30/12
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Jim Elbrecht
Jul 30, 2012, 7:17:23 AM7/30/12
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Pavel314 <pin...@jhmi.edu> wrote:
>I cut down two trees in the sheep pasture back in January, an oak and a beech, and finally got around to sawing them into firewood logs this weekend. It seemed to me that the beech wood was much harder to cut than the oak. Has anyone had experience in sawing beech wood?
You want to cut them up as soon as you cut them down-- especially
>I cut down two trees in the sheep pasture back in January, an oak and a beech, and finally got around to sawing them into firewood logs this weekend. It seemed to me that the beech wood was much harder to cut than the oak. Has anyone had experience in sawing beech wood?
beech or locust. Beech seems softer than oak when green, but when
it dries. . . . Makes great handles for knives and hammers.
We lost all of our beech trees to some fungus in the 70s. I cut
acres of the stuff on state land. Great firewood.
Jim
Don Phillipson
Jul 30, 2012, 7:49:23 AM7/30/12
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"Pavel314" <pin...@jhmi.edu> wrote in message
news:c07c5100-b591-453c...@googlegroups.com...
There are a dozen varieties of beech tree and 500+ varieties of oak,
so difficulty of cutting may vary as much between varieties as it
does between one species and another. Carpenters used to know
these differences, cf. the notable resistance of tamarack (notionally a
"softwood") and elm. Nowadays power saws obscure this difference.
When firewood cutting seems slow, I simply resharpen the chainsaw.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
news:c07c5100-b591-453c...@googlegroups.com...
so difficulty of cutting may vary as much between varieties as it
does between one species and another. Carpenters used to know
these differences, cf. the notable resistance of tamarack (notionally a
"softwood") and elm. Nowadays power saws obscure this difference.
When firewood cutting seems slow, I simply resharpen the chainsaw.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
Doug Miller
Jul 30, 2012, 2:23:40 PM7/30/12
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Pavel314 <pin...@jhmi.edu> wrote in
news:c07c5100-b591-453c...@googlegroups.com:
Yes, I have. It's much harder to cut than oak. But you already knew that. <g>
I guess you really meant to ask, is that *normal*? Is that something you *should* be
experiencing, something you should expect?
Yes, it is.
Most North American oaks, and American beech, are of roughly similar hardness. But in my
experience, beech is much *tougher*: the grain of the wood is much finer, and it often
interlocks, making it difficult to saw. Oak has a coarse, open grain, and although hard, it
saws easily. That is not true of beech.
news:c07c5100-b591-453c...@googlegroups.com:
I guess you really meant to ask, is that *normal*? Is that something you *should* be
experiencing, something you should expect?
Yes, it is.
Most North American oaks, and American beech, are of roughly similar hardness. But in my
experience, beech is much *tougher*: the grain of the wood is much finer, and it often
interlocks, making it difficult to saw. Oak has a coarse, open grain, and although hard, it
saws easily. That is not true of beech.
Larry W
Jul 30, 2012, 6:01:23 PM7/30/12
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In article <c07c5100-b591-453c...@googlegroups.com>,
Wood hardness will vary from tree to tree, but on average beech and oak
are very close. Look up "Janka hardness test" on wikipedia or other info
source.
--
Better to be stuck up in a tree than tied to one.
Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar.org
are very close. Look up "Janka hardness test" on wikipedia or other info
source.
--
Better to be stuck up in a tree than tied to one.
Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar.org
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