Begining log work

Finding trees
Log Peeling
Cutting logs in half
Quartering logs

Log projects

Rustic mirror frame

Finding trees to build log furniture 

           When making log furniture the first thing you need is your logs. I usually work with Aspen and Pine logs. If you just have a few projects, you can probably harvest your own trees.  If you have many projects or don’t want to harvest trees, you can look online or locally for tree harvesters.

The best places to harvest your trees is your land, or use someone’s land that you know.  Do not harvest if you don’t know the land you are on!  If you don’t know anywhere to go, you can try looking into BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and, National Forest land, or any other government/state land you might know of.  You might even try craigslist.org and find free trees to haul away.  I know BLM in my area offers permits in the summertime for 2-4 truckloads of dead trees for around $10. This helps them maintain the land.

When harvesting yourself, you want to collect the dead standing trees.  This way they will be free of moisture and bugs.  But even so, check to see if the tree is rotten or not.  The tree may have gotten this way from simply being dead to long.  You can tell this if the tree is much softer and lighter than the others.  The rotten tree will also be very brittle compared to the rest of the trees you encounter.

It does not matter what the outside of the log looks like.  You will be peeling the outer log off with a draw knife.  Usually the dead standing Aspen has a weathered grey color, but when peeled it has an array of beautiful colors on the inside.