Hickory stock blanks on way

[Metalshaper]

TOF,

 when We were looking for a mill.. we just googled " Kansas saw mills".  The state
Forest service,< Yes, we have one! >, had a county by county listing. We just picked a handful that were close enough and called until we found one willing to do specialized work.

  That might be a place to start??

Respect Always
Metalshaper

[tim crowe]

If you are looking for portable sawmills call or e-mail Woodmizer who make sawmills.
They will send you a list of people who have bought mills in YOUR area who would be open to sawing.

TC

[Seven]

I have an attachment for my chain saw that helps me to make lumber out of trees.  It's called a Haddon lumbermill.  I think it cost me about $80 from woodcraft.  Basically what it does is attaches to the bar and then helps to guide the saw in a straight line.  I can make lumber in any thickness I want.  I have a cherry and a sugar maple on my land that both sustained some damage this past spring that I will be sawing up for stock wood.  Something like this attachment might be worth checking out.
-Chad

[JBlk]

TOF, go to Illinois Sawmill Directory and it will give you every sawmill in  the state by county.It will also tell you if they do custom sawing, the owners name and telephone number.These computers save so much footwork, I don't know how I could survive without one.Those portable mills will come right to the site if you have a method of loading the logs.

[T*O*F]

TOF, go to Illinois Sawmill Directory and it will give you every sawmill in  the state by county

Already did that.  Latest update was in 2005, so I don't know how current it is.  There are probably other portable mills around that don't advertise.  Need to find out about them by word of mouth and since I live in another state, that don't work well.  I did find 2 listings in Charleston which I might pursue.  It's a bit far though.

Been the chainsaw route already.  It sucks.

[rich pierce]

Tom Curran was successful using the chainsaw route.  It takes a good big saw and extra hands, I think.

[T*O*F]

Tom Curran was successful using the chainsaw route.

Success is a relative term.  I've been successful on a small apple tree log, but unsuccessful on a red oak 36" in diameter.  Trying to do 10-12 logs that are 36" to 48" in diameter is a fool's folly.

[Indiana]

There is a sawmill around here that has done some custom work for me before.  You might want to try giving them an email and seeing if they can help you with your stock blank.  They can cut stuff to nearly any size.

http://tinytimbers.com/

My brother has some HUGE riverbottom trees in walnut, hard maple and sycamore. 

If the maple goes, you better hope it goes in winter.  If the tree falls in summer, the sugar in the sap will cause the wood to be stained a blue color.  I had a maple tree that blew over this spring and I cut it up over the summer and took it to the saw mill with some other stuff to get cut up.  The mill doesn't even cut maple in the summer for anything else because of the staining.  You can't kiln dry it in the summer either because of the amount of sugar in the tree.  So I had the log cut, but just into boards, not stocks.

So if your tree falls, just let 'er sit until winter or later in the fall before you start cutting.

[woodsrunner]

Rich, please tell me what it is about Hickory that interests you for a stock blank? Is it the grain pattern you're after? Seems to me it would be too hard to work effectively, and wouldn't it be too heavy? Just courious

[rich pierce]

Rich, please tell me what it is about Hickory that interests you for a stock blank? Is it the grain pattern you're after? Seems to me it would be too hard to work effectively, and wouldn't it be too heavy? Just courious

Drum roll...... because I am a nut, of course!

There is an original hickory stocked smoothbore that caught my eye.  It's called Lehigh but it looks pure Bucks County to me.  Its prettier sister is pictured in RCA among the Lehigh guns.  Here are some pictures of the hickory gun.  See if you like it.





I figure to make a squirrel rifle out of it.  I have a nice .36 swamped barrel that is heavy. I figure the hickory stock, which is slender, really, won't be a problem.  Plus the squirrels should really like it and I want to try something different.  I do have a plain piece of maple that would work.  It is rock hard, but almost 3" thick and it seems a waste to use on a gun with a buttplate 1 and 5/8" wide.  Would be better for a wall gun.

[Scott Bumpus]

If you were to get in  a brawl with some unruley sorts, that hickor nut stock would make a mighty fine woopin club as well!!

[Stophel]

Or take out the barrel and tie a string on the upper rod pipe and the toe of the buttplate and you got a bow!  Ya done got an arrow already...the ramrod!