retrieving underwater logs

[bell47]

I watched a tv show about some guys who retrieved logs that had been underwater for a long time. They made verneers for high end furniture with the verneers. I also know of some guys who retrieved some "blue" cypress logs from the Mississippi river for making high end furniture. This stuff is really good looking wood. Does anyone here have any expierence finding logs like these?

 

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[fldiver]

Hey bell,

I've seen a bunch of them in N. Florida on the wacissa river but I think you gotta have a permit to pull them up. They call them dead heads down here. It,s something about the spring water that preserves them real well. Take care, fldiver

 

[stefen]

Interesting subject.

Eric of Blue Ox Millwork (www.blueoxmill.com) which is located in the Northern California coastal City of Eureka, has salvaged and milled first cut redwoods, from the gold rush era, that are anywhere from 100 to 150 years as submerged snags. Many of these trees were hundreds, if not thousands of year old prior to cutting.

I have had the opportunity to have received enough burl wood from one of these finds to create some very exotic furnishings.

If you have an opportunity, you might visit this site either vicariously thru the web or in person. Its an experience that you won't forget. They have numerous mid-1850's to 1900's tools and machinery that is not shown on the web page but is either exhibited in the museum or is up and running for all to see. Several of the treadle-powered saws are of 1 of 2 or 3 in existence, and the others are in the Smithsonian (and are not complete or operational).

 

[stefen]

My apologies...I should have said the burl of a redwood.

Now, can I come out of my room?

 

[stefen]

Yes daddy.

 

[VOC]

Logs were succsesfully recovered and used for all sorts of uses from this wreck in the 70's and 80's by a team of divers based in the Isles of Scilly UK

Fantee ? a cargo ship of 6500 tons and over 450 ft long ? sank below the waves. She was bound from Africa and laden with mahogany logs, palm oil, coffee and rubber. The mahogany was stowed on her decks.

The Fantee is not often dived. The wreck lies in nearly 40m of water within the tangle of reefs, submerged rocks and pinnacles that make up the ship trap known as the Seven Stones partway between the Scillies and Land?s End. Nearby is where the Torrey Canyon met it?s famous end in 1967. The Fantee died rather more quietly in October 1949.

 

[99*]

A google of Canada should get you an idea of how a young guy does it there, in fact hes a millionaire just from his robotic chainsaw wielding hydraulic bush pig thingy which scavengers and cuts down acres every month from the lakes and dams. The guy is 35 or so, I think fortune 500, big money in lumber.99*

 

[thompy]

here in upper Michigan there is a crew pulling logs out of lake superior, Munising and Baraga, mi. I believe they are the only co. allowed to do this and only so many logs a year, been down there from the 1940,s or so. the money in this is pretty hugh. used for furnature and instruments like violins," Stradivarius". because of the dense ring growths in the lumbar.

 

[Narked1]

bell47,
thompy is correct about the quality of the trees being pulled out of Lake Superior. There is a Discovery Channel documentary a few years ago on excavating old grow trees from rivers and lakes. Expensive endeavor to extract the dead heads/snags from the bottom, but by all accounts it is worth the investment if you are going to use the resulting lumber for the manufacture of high-end furniture and/or musical instruments. According to the Discovery documentary, a company was attempting to duplicate a Stradivaius violin or cello and was having amazing success using the old growth timber due to the resonance that old growth lumber produces when used for musical instruments. This, due to the tight/dense rings of the timber...which is becoming harder and harder to come by.

I grew up in northern Lousiana, and, if memory serves me right, the Red and Sabine rivers were once blocked by trees sometime in the late 1800's (My Louisiana history is a bit hazy...been years since I've been back) and I think Capt. John Smith, of Pocahantas fame, was the one that came through and cleared the river(s) in order to allow trade in that region to continue. But the important point here is that if you are interested in recovering old grow timber, that may be a place to start. Probably still quite a few old growth trees down there. A different kind of treasure, so-to-speak. I'm sure that there are some other researchers or historians here that can offer some more information.

Mike

 

[Stroover]

While I was living in Louisiana, some collegues and myself were in the process of starting a company to retreive "sinky cypress", as they are called. After much researching both in field as well as about the process involved, however, we decided against it. Reasons: Very expensive to get yourself set-up, especially if you are planning on finding logs in murky water such as in bayous since you will need to invest in a sidescan sonar which is quite expensive. Once you have retrieved logs, you must treat them in a special kiln and with special chemicals to prevent rapid decay (again quite expensive), not to mention the equipment needed to actually retrieve the logs. If one had money to spend on the overhead, however, the rewards can be fantastic since such lumber sells for around $6 per foot-board and upward.

 

[daydreamer]

FASCINATING opportunity! This is one of the few treasures that can really be worked. This year is going to be interesting for old wood as the heavy rains in Northern California have turned up the bottom nicely. Any one know a spot to look? I can pull up with anything from a scuba tank, to a 3 man hard hat dive team and a jet powered platform that can run shallow with a 1,500 pound lift, and air bags for the big boys. Just point the way and share in the $$$$

Also have large dredge capability, (and if need be access to R.O.V.), Deep is O.K. if the payoff is there.

Also would like to hear from some one on experiences diving in Mexico, Baja area.

 

[Stroover]

FASCINATING opportunity! This is one of the few treasures that can really be worked. This year is going to be interesting for old wood as the heavy rains in Northern California have turned up the bottom nicely. Any one know a spot to look?

First, you must do a bit of research to find out whether or not logging took place in your area of interest. If so, then you're in business. You then need to locate potential log-jam sites: They would typically occur on a river's bend, where they would pile up and stay there for prolonged periods of time, get water logged, and then sink. Another good place to look is where they would "corall" the logs and keep them all together prior to milling. In old pictures, this would look like rows and rows of logs all lined up floating in the water with people standing on them with push poles. Again, these logs could stay put there for prolonged periods of time until some would eventually sink. If the water in your area is relatively clear, then you can do without a sidescan sonar and simply use the equipment you mentioned. But before you DO start pulling up logs, you MUST find out how to properly dry the logs, otherwise they will basically rot and vanish before your very eyes. There is a secret chemical formula used in the drying process, of which I never did find out what it was.

 

[stefen]

Daydreamer...contact Eric at the Blue Ox Millworks...Eric was a land surveyor in a past life and has found and retrieved many old first-cut redwoods in the Humboldt County area.

I would think that any number of rivers in the vicinity would be a good source...for instance, the Eel River was one used for transport to the local mills.

 

[mojjax]

Check out '' A Reverance For wood '' by Eric Sloan .
back in the late 1800's , when most of the cedar trees in southern new england were cut down in the great swamps , for shipbuilding and shingles . A group of men decided to start ''mining'' the huge cedar logs that were submerged in layers in the mud under the swamps .They developed a whole line of speciality tools to aid them . Some of the logs were 500 to a thousand years old and were of superior quality . These men became very rich ! The book is full of nice illustrations .
It also tells about how apple trees actually ''walk'' (over the course of hundreds of years) from their original position! I'ts a great book .
amazon.com has 20 of these books for sale right now , 2 are priced at 76 cents and 79 cents .