Buddy has a tree business so he drops me firewood when he’s cutting in my area for my boiler. He dropped some good sized logs the other day he says the guy put bolts through a couple spots years ago and they were grown over so much you cannot tell where they are by looking at the log. The log is about 24 inches round , I tried my metal detector on the top and sides I could reach but need to roll it over to check the bottom.

Any ideas should the detector find the metal buried in a log or not? If I can locate the bolts I will cut wide of the bolt as I have 30 of length to work with. I split a stump once that had a rock grown into it at a Y that about broke my shin bone years back.

I know that 25 year ago in the Tacoma Log sorting yards the scalers used metal detector to locate spikes, etc. in high value logs. They would them cut out the iron. Lower value logs were merely culled (no pay).

If you are using the log for firewood why not split the entire log with wedges first before you cut it? Get it started and keep following the split with wedges. Might take a while but will sve the chain.

good idea lumberjack

A good metal detector will pick up metal in trees. When I was surveying we used them to pick up old fencing in trees.

Barbed. wire growned in trees around here is a common problem. Gotta be careful!

Not sure how deep it’s in the log I plan to split the log like lumberjack said it that gets to be to much I’ll just burn it in the burn pile. I still need to roll it over when I get a chance to scan the other side of it. Thanks all

The bolts should cause a stain in the wood. Question for all: Which direction does the stain spread, upward or toward the stump, or both ways?

Seen both ways but mostly up

Not to be a smart alec, but it sounds to me as you might use a long handle cant hook to roll that log over. Unless it has limbs or a big crotch, it should roll easily.

If you can not find the bolts, I would just put on a old chain and got to town on it. If you run out of old chains I would then push it into the burn pile.

Went to take pics of the log and my neighbor was cutting a tree so I went over to help him, he uses trim saws my 390 makes short work of the trees. We spent more time cutting the stump off. LOL

These are the 2 places he thought the bolts were located at.



The log is in a pile and about 15 feet long so flipping will take some effort.

Would it work to cut about 12 inches on either side of the suspected area and simply split with your log splitter?

That’s the plan so far, I have 30 inch’s to work with so I will do this unless the detector pin points it better then I’ll have the exact location to do the same thing.

Big waste of time. Just put a new chain on your saw and start cutting, most likely find the bolts before you complete one cut. Wah Laa, there are the bolts. Easy peasy.

I was going to be cutting a bunch of fence lines , I bought a shorter bar on clearance for 3 dollars and the chain was 10 bucks for the 18 inch bar , I ended up finding I really like a 18 inch bar , I get more RPM all the time and that means more chain speed , which means more chip , and fewer cutters to sharpen

I figured if I was going to find metal better it be a 10 dollar chain than a 25 dollar chain

last time I found a nail it took 7 cutters off the chain, it was over a foot deep in a 3 foot oak that was one old nail

sharpen up your oldest chain and letter rip