# board ft.



## Rick C. (Dec 17, 2008)

I know I've seen it here before and I tried a search and got nothing.
I need to know how to figure board ft.in a log.
We had what the weathermen called an inland hurricane.We have trees down everywhere.Fortunately no one around here was hurt.We got power back after 5 days,some are still without.There was rain almost every day since before Easter,the ground was saturated,winds blew 70mph and down they came.The biggest trees in the area,mostly yard and pasture trees,seem to take the biggest hit.The good thing is the neighbors said I can have the logs I want.Sounds ok to me I take what I want,it's already down,and they take care of the brushThe bad thing is ,I'm hearing chainsaws in my sleep.
Oh Well,it's late,
Rick


----------



## drcollins804 (Jan 11, 2008)

Rick
This is one of the threads that you are thinking of http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f26/board-feet-5421/ 
You also might do a search on the word doyle as most logs are measured by the doyle scale. I know that Daren and TexasTimbers have posted different scales that you can use but didn't find them right off.
David


----------



## Julian the woodnut (Nov 5, 2008)

I use the doyle calculator from woodweb.


----------



## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Glad ya'll are okay Rick. Not to trivialize 70 MPH winds, but I heard in places it hit 100MPH! Man that's almost unheard of inland for non-tornado related, straight line winds. 

Re; your question, I sell most hardwoods on the Doyle, but I sell the boxelder logs International, and ERC on the cedar scale. But whatever you decide make sure if the customer asks, be ready to tell him what you used and more importantly why. 

I use the International 1/4" scale on boxelder because for the few customers I sell entire logs to, I load only solid, straight, little to no taper logs so the waste is nil. I don't sell hardwood logs any longer but when I did I would use Doyle for low grade logs and International 1/4" for premium logs. International 1/4" scales out to more BF per log because it was designed for a 1/4" circle saw kerf width. Even not considering the kerf loss it scales ohigher. 

Scribner and Doyle are pretty close but Scribner is not used much except in the northwest (so I hear don't know from experience obvisouly). 

Most all scales (and their are dozens actually) use inside the bark, small end. For oval or odd shapes use the average diameter. So if you have an oval end with the long part being 20" and the narrow being 15" add together and divide by two. What's that 17.5" i think. 

This topic can be very very in depth actually but it's best to keep it simple if possible. Everyone has their own reasons for using what they use. Some guys have steady buyers who will only buy on one specific scale. If you run into that then you have to sell on that scale or look for another buyer. In the end it's up to you to get your asking price one way or another.

I guess I better add that taht's all for logs. For lumber i use L x W x T (thickness) / 144


----------



## drcollins804 (Jan 11, 2008)

Rick
We just got some 1/2 inch hail at the house but about 6 miles from here they got 1 3/4 inch hail so it did get intense just didn't get the really strong wind. One of the girls I work with is from Carbondale where they got 100 mph wind. Her house is OK but they lost alot of trees too. Most of the trees around her are more shattered than uprooted or just broken. Have found some trees from the Ice storm that have alot of internal breaks at felling. Wind blown trees also sometimes will split on the internal stresses so be careful with the logs.
David


----------



## RHarkins (Mar 6, 2009)

Just a f.y.i Don't put too many $ into this project until you mill some of the logs. Trees that have been severely twisted & broken by the wind can been damaged internally. The wood fibers can be pulled & seperated to the point that the wood is completely useless as lumber. Although, if the whole tree was uprooted, the main trunk is generally still good for lumber. 
Daren, Texas Timbers, and some of the other sawers here could probably tell you more what to look for & what to avoid.
Good luck, still sounds like a good oppertunity.
Ron

Wow.... when I started this post, drcollins804's post wasn't there. I guess he beat me to the punch!


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

RHarkins said:


> Daren, Texas Timbers, and some of the other sawers here could probably tell you more what to look for & what to avoid.


"wind shake" It will be pretty obvious. The growth rings are seperated by the twisting/racking force of storms. So you can kinda guess what happens when you mill a board...it just falls apart.


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

That last post was not to discourage anyone, just inform. I take alot of storm damaged trees. I do see wind shake some, but not always...just saying learn to ID it before you wrestle one of those pigs onto a trailer. Go look for a sound one.


----------

