Oxfordshire Woodland Group

We were short 2 straight braces for the sidewall of a timber-frame and so headed out into the woodland to find some decent stock.

A European larch tree with blown out top was chosen to yield 8" x 3" halved brace stock. The curved butt log will be hewn to make a cranked tie beam.

On a cool calm quiet day in the woodland the opportunity was taken to buck the top of the tree and then clean up the lop and top branches that were then stacked to make habitat piles and -

short 8 ft logs and chord wood to keep the home fires burning.

The 8ft larch logs were extracted to the log storage area to see if they could be used to produce useable timber.

The bark was peeled away to reveal the pattern of spiral grain in the timber.

These logs will be no use for timber framing however the straighter lengths could be used for gate posts otherwise firewood.

The question now arises as to the suitability of the butt crook log to make a decent cranked to beam if this is also affected by spiral grain. Being from lower down the tree this might not be so pronounced however all trees exhibiting curved butt logs will contain reaction wood and this has a higher propensity to contain spiral grain especially in the outer fibres.

Later on a dry December day the crook larch log was winched out by hand on cedar rollers to help limit damage to the woodland floor and help keep the log clean. Once on the track the log was towed to the log store near the cruck barn using the Land Rover. These are magic vehicles which have a low box that enables it to pull logs as easily as a tractor.

The log was debarked to remove any mud / grit and then raised onto cedar bearers to prevent rot.

The heart of the log is fairly central at both ends and the log exhibits some but not a significant amount of spiral grain.

This could be used to make either a cruck blade or a cranked tie beam.