Concrete Mesquite Stump

Dan Mosley

Member
Messages
1,169
Location
Palm Springs, Ca
The other day a gardner friend of mine dropped off some Mesquite logs and the stump for me. Yesterday I cut them up and sealed them as usual. The last pc to do was the large stump. See Pictures below

I set up up on a old dried out tree stump I use for cutting up blanks on and started to cut it with my electric chain saw. In a matter of seconds the blade got hot and started smoking and not cutting. I thought that the blade was just dull becaue it had been on the saw for a long time. I sharpened it up with my Granberg hand file and tried again. Still smoked and would not cut so, I put a new blade on the saw thinking the other was just to damaged to be sharpened. Again, in seconds it I ruined the new blade. So, I thought well there must be a stone or metal buried deep in this log were im cutting. Took the new blade in and sharpened it up and went back to start in a new spot. Same thing happened in seconds. So, I gave up after ruining my blades. The blades were ruined and even sharpening did no good so I threw out the and bought another set of new ones.

This Morning the gardner came by and said he could cut it for me with his big gas powered chain saw. He started it up and tried to cut it in another new area on the log and in seconds his blade was ruined also.

The only other time this happened to me is when I was trying to cut up some dried out Ironwood and dulled the blade
 

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I would sure try some splitting wedges. I wonder if someone put some ... concrete ... in that crotch to stop some varmin or rot or water accumulation or something.
 
yeah i may try the spilitting wedges............The longest cut I was able to shine a light down and look but didn't see anything.........There are two areas where the cuts ran fairly deep but didnt see anything............
 
My money's on a rock.

Aside from shining a light in the kerf, have you tried probing it with something made of metal? Even something like the cut end of a piece of coat hanger wire would sound and feel differently when tapping wood than when it's tapping rock or metal.
 
it could have sucked up sand in it threw the growing process up here some of our oaks do that to a lesser degree nd it will act like you mention here dan..

Yeah I was surprised when what appeared to be a 100% clean piece of oak actually starter SPARKING when I was cutting it (no bark, no visible rocks).

I'm with everyone else and would bet on a rock or concrete in the stump. Especially as it appears to have been cuttable above the problem area... and its down in the gnarly area where rocks are easy pickups.
 
Yep the worst part with stumps you need to spend some time removing all the dirt and soil etc from them to avoid problems with cutting. Its not easy unless you have a high powered water pump and or steam cleaner that will allow to turn the heat off and pump water only. Some times metal/stone etc can be embedded in the root ball when the tree is young and later drawn into the tree as it grows

Failing you may have to bite the built and buy a chainsaw chain that tungsten tips, I think from memory its a metal spray application during manufacture.

I am not a real fan of splitting as you lose some control of the cutting process.
 
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