Stephan Schwab

Last time we saw slabs and put them aside. This time the slabs get clamped together so that we can use the chainsaw mill to saw the marker poles we are after. As always the first step is to put on the guide rails for the first cut.

The first cut is done with the help of those rails.

And as you can see there are a few cants coming out of that log. The clamps get lowered to make room for the chainsaw to pass.

And we can take our poles off the stack.

Here Hairo, one of Luis’s brothers, takes away one of those poles. There is so much sawdust flying around that he decided to wrap his face with another T-Shirt. Looks a bit funny but sawdust doesn’t taste that good ;-)

In the previous post I described how we found the guayacan tree and how it got prepared. This time you can see how it gets cut into slabs. From those slabs we make poles in another step.

But first a thick branch on the main trunk has to go. I like this picture because it shows very well how the sawdust flies around the operator. This is really hard work and Moises does a good job.

Now it is time to attach the Alaskan Mark III sawmill extension to our Stihl MS 650 chainsaw. This contraption is actually a very smart invention. There are many cases where you need sawn wood but the wood and the use for it is in a location that’s too remote to first drag logs out and then bring the sawn wood back in. There are portable sawmills but none of those you can put on horseback. Those devices are trailers to be towed behind a light truck.

With the Alaskan Mark III the chainsaw slides through the log creating a slab. For the first cut you use some rails to give it an even surface to slide on. All further cuts depend on the quality of the first one. We did learn our lessons and have since moved from a very weak set of rails to a better version. But for marker poles it was fine.

Luis is driving a small stick into the opening to help the blade not getting stuck.

The guys took turns driving the chainsaw. The guayacan is so hard that it takes about half an hour to cut just one slab.

In the end we got the slabs we wanted. They get put aside after each run through the log.

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At the beginning of October we were looking for marker poles to help a friend mark his property limits. Those poles are usually 4×4 which means 4 inches wide and thick. It is basically the same as a fence post. Around here people look for some tropical hardwood that doesn’t rot in direct contact with the soil and is resistent to insect attacks. There are a lot of termites around here.

If you ask around for a good wood species for fence posts, the answer usually is “nispero”. Nispero is called bulletwood in English. But you have to find a tree first, because you cannot go into a store and buy a few ready to use fence posts or marker poles made of nispero.

We found an already fallen guayacan tree. Here you can see Luis and Carlos standing on the tree. Carlos is a friend and owner of the farm where the tree was standing. Guayacan is very hard wood. So hard that you cannot drive a nail into it. You have to drill holes and use screws. The wood is very dense and heavy.

It is said that guayacan is equally resistent than nispero and a few other species used for in direct contact with soil applications. So a few days later we came back with our equipment.

Rails, a tank of gasoline and our big Stihl MS650 chainsaw. The saw weights about 8 kg and Moises who is carrying it is a heavy guy – great chainsaw operator. He can swing that thing a whole day – 8 hours straight.

Luis brings the final piece of equipment to the worksite. This is an Alaskan Mark III chainsaw mill.

There is the other end of the guayacan tree’s trunk. It is thick!

Moises is filling up gasoline and oil and checking the chainsaw. Notice how he already sweats. It was only around 9:30 AM.

As a warm-up Moises is cutting off a smaller branch off the big trunk …

… and then moves on to the actual trunk. It is thicker than the chainsaw’s blade is long so he has to cut it from different sides.

After the trunk has been cut into pieces they get moved in a position where the rest of the work can be done easier. The logs have the length of the marker poles we want to make. As I said in the beginning guayacan wood is heavy – it shows.

Here Moises is cutting slices to find where the trunk doesn’t have this beehole anymore. You see that hole in the trunk. That’s called a beehole. Of course there are no bees in the trunk but as soon as it is exposed they do come and want to settle in there.

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