On Apr 17, 2014, at 8:32 AM, John Holladay  wrote:

>  What I did
> not mention, is how they mill the timber. They mill it with a chain saw.
> Not a chain saw mill, but a chainsaw free hand. 

You can get pretty good with a chainsaw.  In the mid-90’s, the Kalmar Nyckel
(17th c. ship reproduction in case I haven’t mentioned it enough, Jeff) was the
first modern ship built all with South American Hardwoods.  There is over 40
tons of purpleheart in it and almost the same weight in Jatoba.  The shipbuilder
is still an importer of this wood for other ship projects.

He has an amazing slide show showing the the local residents in Belize hiking
into the mountains barefoot, and then felling 3 trees that he selected.  They
then cut timbers out of the 5+ feet across logs with chainsaws, some at 30 feet
long.  The timbers were mostly 5” thick and 30” wide because the bars on the
chainsaws were 30”.  When the wood arrived after a boat ride to Baltimore, the
timbers were absolutely amazing - straight and consistent thickness, and you
could see the chain marks from the round end of the chain all along one edge of
the timber.

The coolest shot was of a fellow standing on a log making the first cut the
length of the log with his chain bar buried in the log and sawdust flying.  He
was barefoot, straddling a line marked down the log.

I might call these guys galoots.

Ed Minch
Murphy was a sailor before he was a lawyer -  David Hiott