Making Lumber Without a Sawmill - FHC Farm Bulletin #14
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- When it comes to acquiring lumber for all types of uses on the farm, people usually dream of operating a sawmill of some kind-whether a bandsaw mill or a chainsaw mill. But one of the easiest ways to make lumber is by utilizing wood’s natural tendency to split along its grain. In this edition of The Farm Hand’s Companion Farm Bulletin (#14), Pa Mac demonstrates the making of lumber for the small farm or homestead through the simple splitting or “riving” of logs or small trees, using a splitting maul, wedges, gluts, and a froe.
For more information on Pa Mac’s book “Common Trees and Their Uses for the Small Farm or Homestead”, go here: farmhandscompa...
Be sure and subscribe to the Farm Hand's Companion channel to see a variety of shows for the small farm or homestead: The Farm Hand's Companion Show, My Favorite Farm Tool, The FHC Q & A Show with Pa Mac, FHC Farm Bulletins, and FHC Extras.
Also visit www.farmhandsco... to find articles, posts, photographs, and encouragement for today's self-sufficient farm or homestead. (And be sure to check out the General Store for books (like Pa Mac's "Building an Old-fashioned Pole Barn") or DVD's by Pa Mac at www.farmhandsco...)
This guy is like an encyclopedia of forgotten skills and knowledge.
@stevexracer4309 i disagree. I grew up in the country in a family of people like him. Not many people ive encountered could tell you any of this.
Agreed
This and the foxfire books
@@jerbear7952
That's surprising, I would've assumed most people who've had any need for lumber would know this. I mean the core principles are evident in the way that wood breaks when you split it with an axe. Reckoned people'd at least infer the rest, even if they hadn't been taught. Guess it's one of those things where it seems real obvious if you already know it.
In the 1980s I built a replica log house for a colonial farm in Virginia, based on an original one room house that had been encapsulated over the generations by many later additions. Unique features were split log wall construction that yielded a relatively flat face for the exterior, and the rounded surface facing in, where it was covered with split lathing and plaster. This, to me, indicated it was built in a time of less abundant forest, so two pieces could be had from each log. The other relatively unique feature was a clapboard roof, with the riven boards oriented as they would be on a wall. The boards were 4' 11" and spanned two (riven rafters) and overlapped about two inches on their ends and about an inch along their length. I rove them out of 2 foot diameter clear white oak by splitting pie-shaped blanks with wedges as far as I could (16ths or 32nds), then splitting off the bark and cambium layers and the knotty center (the sapling wood that had branches along its length) to form a blank for the froe. From there I split boards as thin as I could. They naturally tapered toward the center, so when you lay them the thick edge goes down and laps the thin edge. To finish them I would chuck them in my shaving horse to flatten in surface irregularities with a draw knife, then take them to a stump to straighten the edge and bevel the ends with a broad hatchet. You could get pretty nice boards sometimes that would easily plane up for use in furniture, and riven lumber is super strong as well, since none of the fibers are cut across, as happens with a saw.
something verry satisfying about taking a log and with only hand tools building something very therapeutic and peaceful good for the soul
And when push comes to shove, and it hits the fan, this is very needed instruction!
My Dad bought a late 1800s Cypress log cabin. Had it moved onto my grandparent's property. He had the goal of doing a full renovation and building his gunsmith shop out of it. Unfortunately he became ill with ALS and it never came to be.
We used to search all the flea markets and antique shops looking for primitive tools to undertake the job.
I'll never forget when we were buying a foot adze from this old man, he looked down at me and said "Yeah Sonny, when you learn to use it just right, you'll be able to cut your foot off AND shove the handle up your ass. All with one swing".
I don't think l ever heard Dad laugh so hard.
Good memories!
I knew there were other ways than machines to make lumber but i never found easy, clear explanations about it. Thank you for this clear, simple yet very informative video !
wish i had known or thought of this little tidbit when we had a really nice long section of wild cherry fall, it had a slight crook about halfway that i could have cut out easily but it was pretty straight for the most part and was around 40' total length... pops ended up just cutting it up and using it for firewood despite how much i told him the tree was worth!
There used to be a TON of these fence posts in my area, and I've been curious as how they were constructed. Now I know, and may make some here at the house for decoration. Thank you!!!
Brilliant! You just opened my mind to so many different applications. Thank you!
Some of that I’d seen, but some of it I hadn’t. I’d never even thought about how the long thin boards were made for fences. That 2 pole crossing 2 trees thing is a stroke of genius!❤️🐝🤗
Outstanding episode, this type of episode is my favorite.
The music fits this so well.
You are so resourceful! And thanks for sharing your knowledge with all of us!
Hard work is the Mother of inventions to make work easier. Thanks for reminding everyone where we all came from , hard working people who was just surviving at the end of each day so we could continue living for tomorrow. Stay safe around there Pa Mac , we sure enjoy your channel and your skills learned from surviving ancestors gone before you. Fred.
Wonderful little video. Love the drawings. You make it look easy. The biggest "problem" with riven/split wood as opposed to milled is that the logs needs to be close perfect as in no knots and straight grown. I mostly stick to fence pots, where you can get away with some knots
I haven't seen a video like this in a while. Many of of my favorite "homesteader" UA-camrs have advanced to the point where they don't need to do things in a primitive fashion, which is great. They were doing things that way out of necessity, and now they don't have to. No complaints there.
But, I kind of live vicariously through people who do things like this. Thank you for the 5 minutes of enjoyment.
BTW, I had the thought when you were showing how to smooth out the boards with a foot adze, that if I tried to make boards this way, everything would end up as firewood.
Very cool video. It was just like the ones that you used to do and I fell in love with those! Hope to see more of this style in the near future!
Do you treat your lumber with an oil to preserve? I wish I had the time to hand split a decent amount of wood! I’ll use the technique for small projects.. Thank you for the info!
Garlic basil olive oil works best.
Thank you so much, for sharing your knowledge with my generation.
Really interesting to be seen !! Thanks from France for that sharing sir !! ;)
It's nice to know we can still do it by are our self.
yehaw !
welcome back !
Excellent!
Awesome video, some really good knowledge there. Thanks for sharing
Thank you so much for this video. I am trying to find some wooded land to buy and build a cabin to live in, all by myself with hand tools and preferably wood I prepare myself. Actually forming usable wood without some sort of mill or just having to buy it has been the hardest thing to figure out. Not only that, but I want to learn how to basically live my life entirely self-sufficient (again, mostly without relying on modern technology), and it can be hard finding the proper way of doing things. Thank you for renewing my hope that a natural life is still possible.
I have always wanted to try and split logs into lumber boards. Awesome video, thank you
Brilliant thank you. Just what I needed. Liked, subscribed and following.
Great video Pa.
Wow this was an incredible video
YES YES AND YES LOVE IT!! You just got a new subcriber!!
Great video, thank you
Hey, great video! Thanks🙏🏻
The drawings are very cute❤
That was fun and informative
Cheers from Alaska
Excellent clear demonstration. Next .
Cool stuff
Great episode! Thank you for making these!
Love it, very informative!
Just a few days ago I was talking about these very technique. I said that it possible to do bush crafts without a saw or axes if you have the right knife or tool with a basic crafted tool and spend less energy or calories. The guy asked how long I've been a wood worker "said long enough to know whats possible. "
In reality not too long my I know physical labor. I always believed in "bush craft" work smarter not harder. With this video I see I was right.
Incredible
Parabéns pelo vídeo. Boas vibrações
really cool
I like your doodles!
Nice.
Awesome
Thanks for the quick lesson
on your froe and Wooden Mallet . how much does you mallet weigh ???
as big as you make it. Seriously. There is no set weight, because smaller guys generally cant toss around the much bigger mallets that bigger guys can. Its not a competition, just a fact.
About as much as a mallet that size weighs.
I built my Scandinavian cabinet makers bench by felling a tree, quartering with wedges, drying for years, then cutting it size with a handsaw and planes. This really can be done, i did it. Ironically, i did it in Arkansas, just like this guy.
Boots look comfortable I wear a similar pair
Thank you
I’ve made fence posts like that but how do you control the thickness of your board? If it starts running out or in how do you compensate to keep your board a suitable thickness? Really enjoy your videos! Thanks 😊
Shake you very much!
Thank you for bringing this almost lost skill to me (us).
west texas some of our biggest stuff is mulberry. alas, the grain is sort of woven, and does not split flat. wish there was an easier way to make a band saw mill
Another slightly related story to the one below. That same old fellow from below had all kinds of primitive tools. I was looking at one and he said "Betcha don't know what THAT is Sonny".
I told him l did.
He said "What is it then? You get it right and I'll let you HAVE it".
Little did he know my Dad and I were avid beaver trappers.
I said " This here's a Fleshing Knife".
The old man exclaimed "Son of a bitch! Just take it l rekon".
I imagine he expected me to say it was a drawknife if anything. They do look very similar. But there are subtle differences if you're in the know.
I still have that fleshing knife.
Who has ever said “hanging out with your shingle?”
Even with straight-grained trees with wood that splits well it seems like with some species it's very difficult to get a split to run straight unless splitting radially into wedges. I can see that working for splitting out something like shakes that are quite thin when starting with a large diameter tree, but in one of these clips you show a modest size tree being split into 4 parallel ("plain sawn") "boards." What trees are suitable to splitting in that fashion? Or are there other tricks to getting that to work? Obviously shorter logs are easier to split straight than longer logs, but are there other tricks... rules of thumb... that help guide you when splitting a log that way?
neat
I had to rack my brain to think of "picket" as in picket fence.
낫과 비슷하기에 왜 날이 안쪽에 없고 바깥쪽에 있나 했는데... 판자를 만들때 사용하는 거였군요...
Do you use green or dry wood?
I rived an elm log once..once was enough.
crosslink grained, thats why they were used to make wooden wheel hubs. i tried to split a old american elm 12 inches in diameter and 18 inches long once with 4 wedges- burned it to get my wedges back. that was 59 years ago and not a good day.
I need a frow
👍
Is the wood aged or are you splitting it green?
The pine logs in the video had been down a while (maybe 6 months or less), but green is always best for splittin' wood
This is an unbelievably amazing video I can't wait for civilization to collapse now 😍
Yeah, I know! wouldn't that be...
...wait a minute...
I realy like these videos. But the music.. same theme over and over…
this is a *real Man*
*CERVEZA FOR YOU* 🍺 🍻
good stuff!!
this is what a 💯*real Man*
*CERVEZA FOR YOU* 🍺 🍻