Chainsaw Lumbermaking [Hardcover]

Will Malloff (Author), Beth Erickson (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Pr (August 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0918804124
• ISBN-13: 978-0918804129
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars chainsaw lumberjacking at its best!, April 2, 2002

By 

arie nobel (grand rapids, michigan United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chainsaw Lumbermaking (Hardcover)

I don't need a 1,000 words to describe this book. The author is a man who has worked with the problems in the field, which this author knew little about except for the troubles involved. We never had really top-class equipment. This book is worth the price charged now for just his insight on chain design and sharpening alone. With the notes in this book one can save his saw, his equipment and get the job done much more quickly than if you do not have his notes and observations. I find the points of the author well arranged and most useful for our purposes. Thank you,Mr. Will Malloff! If you are out there we would like to hear from you!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book from a great guy, June 21, 2008

By 

Allan Lindh (Santa Cruz, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chainsaw Lumbermaking (Hardcover)

I knew Will very briefly 40 odd years ago in Mendocino, his book is no BS. He was making good money at that time by cutting huge specialty timbers for custom homes, hauling them in balanced on a tiny trailer pulled by a Willy's scout. As good with a chain saw as anyone I ever saw. If you want to read more about Will and Beth Erickson and their interesting friends, get a copy of "Inside Passage: Living With Killer Whales, Bald Eagles, and Kwakiutl Indians": it's a good read.

The last 15 years my wife and I have been milling big Doug Firs on our place, when they fall or have to be taken down. We use a Husky 3120 with a two ended bar and a Granberg mill, and have invented our own winch setup. Have made everything from 1" planks to 24' 6x12, doing everything by hand, no heavy equipment, not even a tractor. It is possible, but very very hard. If we had known about this book sooner, it would not have been quite so hard. Would have cut better lumber, damaged less equiptment, saved a lot of money.

The only things I would add that have changed since 1982:

1. You can now buy online good ripping chain, made in the US, very close to the specs Will recommends. And they make it up in loops to your order for the same price as reels of chain. No longer necessary to grind your own. (Shop for price, they vary a lot.)

2. We use a cheap 12V truck winch, refitted with soft nylon 1/4" rope, in about the same way that Will uses his hand winch. Use a small car battery to drive it. Get the cheapest, lightest, slowest winch you can find, and then use a couple little blocks on the rope to slow it down further. Drive it with the remote control.

3. I can't afford $400 for a good Oregon chain grinder, don't trust the cheap Chinese knockoffs. So I handfile with a Granberg File&Joint, the new model, not the old one. The new ones are really better. I think I can file as fast as a fancey grinder, 3-4 cutters per minute.

4. Be realistic about how big the trees are you are going to cut. There would be something to be said for starting small, with a powerful mid-sized saw (a Husky 385/395 for instance), a two-foot roller tipped bar, and a three foot mill. Get your feet wet so to speak, learn a lot on small trees, and save a lot of money. And it's always better to run the shortest bar you can; big bars and long chains are a load on the saw, and boy do they cost a lot, especially the two-enders. Then make an informed decision about whether you really want/need/can lift a really big saw.

This is something you only want to get into if you love wood, how it smells and looks fresh cut, are very patient and careful, and have some valuable trees that can't be milled any other way.

Why doesn't somebody reprint this book, it's now over $60 on used market? Most useful book on chainsaws and milling that I've ever seen.

And as for the Chunky Monkey guy, he's right, he should never touch a chain saw, a mill, or probably even go near a tree.

Since this book is out of print and too expensive used, try gigle.ws, or your favorite book download site -- there is a good pdf floating around on the web. And if you get it, and use it, contact Will at his site on LinkedIn, and ask him for an address where you can send him a $20 bill. He paid $22K to have book printed in 1982, got a total of $16K total back, cost him thousands just to publish the book, and now he doesn't own the rights.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sawyers Are Raving:, March 22, 2002

By 

Paul William (Los Altos, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chainsaw Lumbermaking (Hardcover)

With the publication of this book, Malloff has done a great service for anyone in need of an accessible, comprehensive single volume summary of the mechanical and technical means for converting trees and logs into beautiful, figured, seasoned, edged, strong and stable, furnature grade, dimensional lumber. Beginning with a fresh re-examination of the tools and techniques employed in felling, limbing, bucking, slabbing, edging, end-grain treating, stickering, drying and milling, the author presents all the tricks and techniques currently employed by forestry professionals in the persuit of beautiful lumber. The Bible of micro-milling. Quite rare and worth its weight in gold. A delicious read!!!