A real privilege to see someone who knows what he’s doing mill an old growth log with an Alaskan mill. His Husqvarna 3120XP saw, the biggest one they make, was kitted out with a 42-inch bar. The thing probably would come up to his shoulder if it was stood on end but he hefted the thing casually, as if it were just a big butter knife.
Chris and the sawyer had cut back the brush that had grown over the three-foot-wide logs. The salal bushes themselves were practically old growth. The thick woody stems would have shown at least 35 years if we could make out the finely packed rings. The sawyer told us of a salal stem that he cut once that bore more than 50 rings. A bush that was older than we were.
With all the moss and alder trees growing out of these nurse logs, it seemed difficult to believe that the wood could be clear inside. They cut a cookie out of one log and satisfied that it would yield clear boards, they maneuvered a twenty-foot section out with a peavey and a jack. Then the sawyer fine-tuned the mill atop the log, so that it would run level with a guide board. As the sawyer pushed the running saw, Chris poured something (canola oil? the blood of a virgin?) onto the chainsaw bar to keep it lubricated. The other cedar log had some rot but still good for making shakes.