I’ve waiting a couple days to see if anyone else would post this. I don’t think it’s “old news” but who knows…..
A company called Green Logs Limited is bringing in old trees which have been submerged in Belize waterways for up to 200 years. Lumber includes Honduran Mahogany, Spanish Cedar, Hard Pitch Pine and Nargusta.
According to the article I read, this discovery was made when the creators of Greener Logs examined a study comparing the original logging records with the shipper’s record, yielding how many logs were lost (up to 50%!!) on their way to the coast.
The first container came to an Alabama port this past August, the trees were milled in central Missouri. The stock was extremely wet when cut, and will be cured with great care. Should be coming out just about now.
Cool stuff!!
forestgirl — you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the girl 😉
Edited 10/16/2009 12:28 am by forestgirl
Replies
Wow, That looks like quite a resource. I am a bit puzzled by their lack of equipment for handling the logs. I wonder why they don't just buy a few Woodmizer or Baker sawmills and take them down there.
Stacking those wet billets to be shipped in a container seems like a recipe for ruining a lot of good wood to me. I would think, the quicker they could be turned into lumber, the quicker it could start drying without the mold and splitting that will occur like they are doing it.
Maybe they know something that I don't, but I doubt it. %],,,,,,,he he.
I did love seeing those huge rafts of logs from long ago. There was a lot more debris mixed in it than I would have expected. Those photos looked like they had the whole river blocked, which would trap any and everything floating down in the logs. I would have thought they would have some way to snag and pull them aside. Interesting.
I am all for going Green.
Keith,
At one point on the Macal River, in Belize, there was a station called "Logeboom" where a chain was stretched across the river to stack up the logs.
Attached are some photos from our Honeymoon showing the chain and anchor used. I also added a photo of a mahogany dugout canoe.I may be mistaken about the spelling of "logeboom", I think there may have been a "j" in there too - "logjeboom". Interesting to find dutch spellings in what was British Honduras.Mike
wow, I wonder how they kept that chain up off the bottom, then managed to drop it when they wanted to let some logs by?
Keith, I would imagine the humidity in the container would be very close to 100% when filled with those wet billets. The original article I read states that when they sawed the first one, steam arose from the wood. Transport didn't seem to cause any drying.
Cutting the wood into planks at the Belize site would, IMHO, be much riskier than keeping the best of the log intact and getting it to the mill where great care was taken in both sawing and drying.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
neat, thanks for posting the link and the resource.
Troy
Makes me wonder what's in the waterways of Puget Sound. Of course, we don't have much in the way of hardwoods up here, but it's forest country for sure, logging was big, big business historically.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled